[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 21 (Monday, May 31, 1999)]
[Pages 971-977]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Commencement Address at Grambling State University
in Grambling, Louisiana

May 23, 1999

    The President. Thank you. Good morning.
    Audience members. Good morning.
    The President. I thank you for the wonderful, wonderful welcome. 
President Favors, thank you for the degree. I'm beginning to feel 
smarter already. [Laughter] My good friend Reverend Jones, thank you for 
your wonderful invocation and reminding us why we are here on this 
Lord's day. Mayor Williams, thank you for making me feel welcome, and I 
thank the other mayors and councilmembers who met me. Dr. Jindal, thank 
you for your remarks.
    I must say, I was especially impressed by the remarks of your 
student government president, Tony Eason, and Miss Grambling, Martha 
Fondel. After they spoke, I wasn't quite sure I wanted to give my 
speech. [Laughter]
    Let me also say that I am delighted to be joined today by your 
distinguished Senator,

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Mary Landrieu, and Congressman William Jefferson, from New Orleans, by 
our Secretary of Transportation and, like me, a neighbor of yours to the 
north, from Arkansas, Secretary Rodney Slater; I thank him.
    You know, when I heard that I might be able to come to Grambling, 
there was very little discussion about this in the White House. Now, 
usually when the President has a chance to go someplace, there's always 
an argument about it because they think you should be somewhere else. 
Somebody who works for you thinks you should be somewhere else.
    But I told my staff that I wanted to take a day away from 
Washington, DC. Now, Washington is a town where everybody thinks they're 
somebody--[laughter]--and I wanted to come to the place ``where 
everybody is somebody.'' I also was not about to miss a chance to hear 
the best band in the land. And I thank you for the musical tribute. And 
I'm glad at least the tuba players were standing up and dancing. I would 
have missed that, too.
    I also----
    Audience member. I need a job!
    The President. [Laughter]--Hey, I'm just getting warmed up, you 
know? Come on. [Laughter]
    To the last Grambling class of the 20th century, this is an 
important day in your lives. In so many ways----
    Audience member. I need a job!
    The President. Well, you'll be able to get one, now. [Laughter]
    In so many ways, the story of this institution embodies the whole 
20th century experience of African-Americans. In 1901 not a single 
public school in this part of Louisiana would welcome an African-
American into its classes. But the visionary farmers of this community, 
the children and grandchildren of slaves, were determined to give their 
children the education and pride and power to rise above bigotry and 
injustice. And so, even though they didn't have much, they scourged 
around and raised some money and wrote a letter to Booker T. Washington, 
asking him to send a teacher to help build a school in the piney woods.
    Out of that determination, Grambling has truly grown into a 
university for the 21st century. You have nurtured some of our Nation's 
best educators and lawyers, pastors and public servants, nurses and 
business leaders. Of course, the NFL recruits here, thanks to Eddie 
Robinson and his successor, Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams. Of course, 
you're known for your band and your other athletic teams.
    But America's top technology firms recruit here, too, because 
Grambling confers more computer and information science degrees to 
African-Americans than any other university in the Nation.
    So you join a proud tradition today, and I congratulate you all. You 
have gained knowledge that will enrich you for the rest of your lives, 
and I can just see by looking at you, you've made friends who will stay 
with you for the rest of your lives. Through long hours in the class and 
late nights in the library, through moments of both self-doubt and 
triumph, you have today gained the prize: an education that will help 
you succeed in one of the most exciting eras in all of human history.
    I'd also like to congratulate and honor today your parents, your 
grandparents, your aunts and uncles, all those who had a hand in raising 
you. They should be proud of you, but they should also be proud of 
themselves. To raise a child from infancy to college graduate is no 
small feat--you hear the ``amens'' from the audience on that one. 
[Laughter]
    One of the most beloved presidents of Grambling, Ralph Waldo Emerson 
Jones, I understand often said to his students, ``When you go home, be 
sure to kiss everybody--including the mule''--[laughter]--``because the 
mule is the one who pulls the plow and keeps the family going.'' Well, 
I'm not going to ask the graduates to kiss any mules today, but I do ask 
each of you before this day is over to say a special thank you to the 
people who kept your families going.
    I asked for some research on some of the families. I'd just like to 
mention two. People like Joyce Gaines of Vallejo, California--listen to 
this: Even through the pain of five ruptured disks in her back, she 
worked three jobs and commuted 200 miles a day to put her daughter, 
Tieaesha, through Grambling. Where are you? Stand up there. [Applause]

[[Page 973]]

Today she's graduating with a degree in sociology, and she plans to open 
a home for abused children. She is a tribute to her mother's love and 
sacrifice. And we thank you.
    People like James and Lilly Bedford of Shreveport: James is a 
plumber; Lilly is a cook. Both took on extra work at night and on 
weekends to help their youngest son, 
Terrence, pay for college. She was a student at Grambling back in the 
'50s, but Lilly had to leave before graduating. Now Terrence is the 
second of the seven Bedford children to earn a Grambling degree, and 
he's the senior class president. Congratulations to the Bedfords. Where 
are you? Thank you. [Applause]
    Stories like this remind of us what people can achieve when they set 
their minds to it, but they also remind us of how hard it can be to 
raise a child right, especially today in our very busy society with its 
very demanding economy. Now, this is the serious part of the talk. I 
want you to have a good time today, but I want you to listen to this.
    This spring I'm going to speak to seniors about how this new economy 
is transforming every aspect of our lives. Next month, at the University 
of Chicago, I'll talk about how we must put a human face on the dynamic 
but often disruptive international marketplace. But today I want to talk 
to you about what we as a Nation must do to help families like those I 
just mentioned--and those will be your families--master the challenges 
of the new economy.
    I've been thinking a lot about family lately, and I expect a lot of 
you have. In the aftermath of the terrible tragedy at Littleton and the 
other school shootings we've had in our country, they've forced us to 
confront the need not only to make guns less available to criminals and 
children, not only to make our culture less violent and our schools 
safer but also to make the bonds that tie parents to children stronger.
    The spate of hate crimes that we have seen, taking the lives of 
James Byrd, Jr., in Texas, Matthew Shepard in Wyoming, and others, force 
us to confront the need to raise our children to respect others who are 
different from themselves and to recognize that all hard-working, law-
abiding people are part of our national family. The horrible ethnic 
cleansing of this decade in Bosnia, then Rwanda, now Kosovo, demonstrate 
in stark terms what can happen when a people raise their children 
without the fundamental premise embodied in our Declaration of 
Independence, that we are all created equal, equally endowed by God with 
the right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
    It all begins with family, with parents who love their children more 
than life and raise them to live their dreams. Most of you today are 
probably thinking more about the adventures of the work that awaits you 
at this marvelous time in your lives. And well you should be. But most 
of you also will become parents. When that happens, it will be the most 
important work you'll ever do. You will have the awesome responsibility 
of your children's physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual 
development, while at the same time pursuing your own lives in a society 
that will reward your knowledge and skills, empower and entertain you 
with its explosions of technology and mobility, and keep you very, very 
busy.
    For those without your level of education in your time, just earning 
enough to pay the bills may be a chore, especially if there are children 
to be raised.
    Now, the class of 1999 is entering an era of unparalleled 
opportunity and possibility with, for example, the lowest African-
American unemployment and poverty rates ever recorded and the highest 
African-American homeownership in history. To give more people like you 
a chance to participate fully in this economy, we've opened the doors of 
college to more and more Americans, with the HOPE scholarship tax 
credit, larger Pell grants, lower-cost student loans, tools many of you 
have used to finance your education.
    Now, with your diplomas in hand, you will have the chance to reap 
the benefits and shape the future of this new era--your time; to lead 
lives of greater accomplishment and affluence than most of your parents 
even dreamed of. But as you form your own families, you will no doubt 
feel the pressure of trying to balance the demands of work and family 
and doing a good job at both in a world that moves faster and faster and 
often leaves parents less and less time and energy for their children.

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    Today's working parents too often feel enormous stress and bring the 
stress home with them. This is a problem not confined--I want to 
emphasize this to you--it is not confined just to people who work for 
low and modest incomes. Most of the parents I know have had problems 
balancing work and family. And as you move through your careers, unless 
we act now, this problem will get worse. Therefore, I believe it is 
imperative that your country give you the tools to succeed not only in 
the workplace, but also at home. If you or any American has to choose 
between being a good parent and successful in your careers, you have 
paid a terrible price. And so has your country.
    I asked the President's Council of Economic Advisers to study the 
sweeping changes the modern economy has brought to our families. Now, no 
offense to anybody on the faculty here, but you know, it's been said 
that if every economist on Earth were laid end to end, they still would 
not reach a conclusion. [Laughter]
    But on this question, these economists did reach a conclusion, one 
that conforms to commonsense and common experience. They found that 
because more and more parents were working outside the home, they have 
less and less time for their children. The percentage of married mothers 
in the work force has nearly doubled in a generation, from 38 percent in 
1969 to 68 percent in 1996. Because more mothers are working outside the 
home and because the number of single parent families has grown--listen 
to this, because this will be your life--parents in the average family 
now have 22 fewer hours each week to spend at home, that's nearly one 
full day less time per week for parents to devote to their children. 
That means by the time a child reaches the age of 18 in today's world, 
those 22 hours a week amount to over 2 years more the parents are away 
from home.
    We as a nation must find a way to give your generation of parents 
some of that time back even as you've gotten an education to succeed in 
the work force.
    Most of today's parents, the vast majority, are doing everything 
they can to do right by their kids but they still worry that no matter 
how hard they try it won't be enough. They worry that waking up early 
and staying up late to make time for their children may not be enough 
when a child still has to come home to an empty house after school.
    They worry that all those Sunday morning sermons about a world of 
love might not be enough when TV and movies their children watch, the 
music they listen to, the video games they play show too much hate and 
violence. They worry that all those nights working overtime to buy a 
computer so that a child can visit some of the world's finest libraries 
on the Internet might not be enough, when the same Internet can also 
lead them to recipes for pipe bombs and explosives, or to website 
discussions of dark visions of life and society so very different from 
the ones the parents have tried to impart.
    Last week Hillary and I took a sad journey to Colorado to visit with 
the students and the families of Columbine High School. I came away from 
that experience more certain than ever that as we work to strengthen our 
gun laws we also have to work to strengthen our families.
    Now, it seems to me that the modern economy you're going to be a 
part of poses four great challenges for you as parents. The greatest and 
most obvious, as I've said, is time. In our around-the-world, around-
the-clock economy, there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day 
for parents to do everything they need to do. I'm proud that the first 
bill I signed as President was the Family and Medical Leave Act, and 
since 1993, millions of Americans have used it to take up to 12 weeks of 
unpaid leave to care for a newborn or a sick relative without losing 
their jobs. It has been a great thing.
    But to be truthful, the current law just meets a fraction of the 
need. Too many people, too many family obligations aren't covered at 
all. Too many families can't take advantage of the law because they 
can't afford to take the time off because they can't live without their 
paychecks. For all of this Nation's pro-family rhetoric, the hard truth 
is that other countries with advanced economies do a lot more to support 
working parents than we do. We must think bigger and do better.
    On the eve of the 21st century, we ought to set a goal that all 
working Americans can

[[Page 975]]

take time when they need it to care for their families without losing 
the income they need to support their families. Achieving that goal 
cannot come overnight and will require a significant shift in how our 
Nation helps families to succeed at home and work. But it can make all 
the difference in your lives. It will demand thought and creativity, a 
willingness to experiment; it has to be done in a way that gives 
families flexibility and doesn't undermine our dynamic and growing 
economy.
    Today, using my executive authority as President, we're going to 
take an important stop toward that goal. I am directing the Office of 
Personnel Management, whose director, Janice Lachance, came down here 
with me today, to allow all Federal workers to use the sick leave 
they've earned to take time off to care for other sick family members.
    Now, what this means is, on sick leave you get paid. Currently, the 
most sick leave a worker can use in these kinds of cases is 13 days a 
year. With the new policy I propose today, Federal employees will be 
able to take up to 12 weeks paid sick leave to nurse an ailing child or 
parent back to health. If every company in America that offers sick 
leave to its workers adopted the same policy we're adopting today, half 
of all the American work force would have this important benefit for 
their families.
    We have to find other creative ways to help Americans use benefits 
they've worked for to finance the time off they need for their families. 
Let me give you another example. A few States have asked the Federal 
Government if it would be possible to try a bold idea: allow workers who 
have earned unemployment insurance coverage to collect unemployment 
payments while they're on leave caring for a newborn or a newly adopted 
child. This is a very promising idea.
    Today I'm directing the Secretary of Labor to issue a rule to allow 
States to offer paid leave to new mothers and fathers. We can do this in 
a way that preserves the soundness of the unemployment insurance system 
and continues to promote economic growth. As the First Lady said in her 
book, ``It Takes a Village,'' those first weeks of life are critical to 
the bonding of parents and children, and they can have long-term 
positive developments for the children. No parent should have to miss 
them.
    I also am challenging Congress to help. I have proposed expanding 
unpaid family leave to cover more workers and more parental 
responsibilities, and Congress ought to respond positively. Parents 
should not have to fear a boss' wrath because they left work to take a 
child to the doctor. They shouldn't have to call in sick to attend a 
parent/teacher conference at the school.
    The second challenge parents face is finding affordable high-quality 
child care, and a lot of you will face that. Low income families spend 
up to a quarter of their income on child care. Studies show that only 
one in seven child care centers meets all the standards of good quality. 
Now, I'm supporting subsidies for child care and tax credits, better 
training for caregivers, stronger enforcement of safety standards. And I 
want business to do more by helping their own workers find and afford 
quality child care.
    In addition to that, you know, today millions of working parents--
and a lot of them right here in north Louisiana--start looking at the 
clock every day about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, wondering if their 
kids have come home from school, wondering how they'll fare at home 
alone. The hours after the school bell rings and before parents come 
home are a perilous time for children, the time they're most tempted to 
try drugs and alcohol, most likely to become victims of a crime. That's 
why I have asked Congress to triple our investment in quality after-
school programs. I challenge school districts all across this country: 
Unlock those empty classrooms in the late afternoon; fill them with the 
sounds of children playing and learning.
    The third challenge parents face, since they're more and more at 
work, is that they're literally physically apart from their children 
more. Now, because of some modern developments in the work force, we can 
actually close that distance by bringing back a very old idea--letting 
children who can be, be with their parents more at work. When I was a 
young child, I often went to work with my grandfather, who worked as a 
night watchman in a sawmill outside Hope, Arkansas. And I often went to 
the little grocery store

[[Page 976]]

he ran. And I tried not to be in the way too much, or to eat too many 
cookies that I didn't pay for. [Laughter]
    But I learned lessons there that have stayed with me for the rest of 
my life. As I became President, I realized that as a father, with a 
daughter who was then still in junior high school, I had the privilege 
of, in effect, living above the store. The place where I worked was only 
a 2- or 3-minute walk to have dinner every night with my family. When I 
was Governor--I still remember when I was Governor--I had a little desk 
over in the corner of my office for my daughter. And I still have vivid 
memories--I would be at my desk; she would be at hers with her crayons 
drawing me little pictures.
    Now, because of changes in the work force we can't do this for 
everybody, but we can do it for more. More of America's employers can 
use technology to bring workers and children closer together by allowing 
more employees to telecommute at work; that is, work at home with a 
modem where it's feasible. More employers can open more onsite child 
care centers, and I have seen them working very well in this country. I 
support tax breaks to help them afford to do that.
    More employers can team up with school districts to build public 
schools at work sites if they're large enough. Dozens of companies have 
already built innovative public schools. That's what you've done here at 
Grambling; that's what the lab school is, isn't it? It's a school at a 
work site, especially friendly to education. These are good things to 
do. And I challenge the employers of this country to look at them 
closely.
    Finally, the last great challenge parents face in the modern economy 
is cultural. The new economy has enriched our lives with lower-priced 
electronic gear and a growing variety of media entertainment, and it 
sure is interesting. But too often, TV, radio, the Internet bombard our 
children with images and ideas that no parent would ever want them to 
see.
    We need tools to protect free speech and give parents more control 
over what their young children see, hear, and read. Under the leadership 
of Vice President Gore, those tools are now being crafted. Soon, half of 
all the TV sets sold in our country will come with V-chips, so parents 
can basically make the most of the new TV ratings system. These devices 
enable parents to screen out violence, sex, or any program they don't 
want their children to see. Soon, with just a click of a mouse, parents 
who have the courage to learn how to use a computer will be able to take 
offensive websites off their children's screens.
    The entertainment industry must also do its part. They should stop 
showing guns and violence in ads children can see, when they can't see 
the movies in the first place. They should enforce the movie rating 
system more strictly, and they ought to reexamine that rating system to 
see whether it's too loose when it comes to giving a PG-13 rating to 
films full of gratuitous violence. These are tools that can help working 
parents succeed at the most important job you'll ever have, raising 
children. But Government's responsibility is to make tools available; 
your responsibility is to use them.
    Dr. King once wrote, ``It is quite easy for me to think of a God of 
love, mainly because I grew up in a family where love was central and 
loving relationships were ever present.'' I hope and pray that the class 
of 1999 will have the chance to build those ever present loving 
relationships with your children. To raise your children well, you will 
have to make many sacrifices. But then, as we learned again today and as 
you showed by your applause for them, your parents made many for you.
    I ask you to think one more time about how you got here today, to be 
sitting in the hot Sun. [Laughter] I'm sort of sorry I'm in the shade; I 
ought to be in the Sun, and you ought to be in the shade, since I'm 
talking.
    But think about this. How many of you would be here today if it 
weren't for one or more people in your families who were reading to you, 
or telling you stories when you were little; who were helping with your 
homework; who were attending your school events, even if they were dog-
tired after work; imparting wisdom over dinner; working with you to give 
you chances they didn't have; giving you that unconditional love, 
support, and faith that says, you are the most important person in the 
world to me? Your parents have worked and sacrificed. If you

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ask them today, was it worth it, you know what they would say.
    But until you watch your own children grow up, you can't really know 
how proud your parents are of you today and how sure they are that all 
the sacrifices were more than worth it. No matter what else you 
accomplish in life, and many of you will accomplish a very great deal, 
your children will still matter most. We have to make sure that you and 
they get all the benefits of this fabulous modern world and still keep 
the enduring gift of your devotion and love.
    As you journey into the new millennium, I wish you success and 
fulfillment at work and with your children.
    Congratulations, good luck, and God bless you.

[At this point, Dr. Steve A. Favors, president, Grambling State 
University, jokingly offered the President a faculty position after he 
leaves office.]

    The President. Let me say--I must say when I was invited to come 
back and teach and I was told all about the food and all the perks of 
the job and then the president said he wasn't serious, I was getting 
into this. [Laughter] I've got a good pension; I can work pretty cheap. 
[Laughter]
    Let me say one thing seriously--I very much hate that I have to go 
back now but I have--as you know, we have got a lot going on overseas 
and it's 6 hours ahead there and I have to make a lot of phone calls 
today and do a lot of work, otherwise I wouldn't leave. I would like to 
stay here until midnight--not talk until midnight, just stay here until 
midnight. [Laughter]
    This has been a wonderful thing for me. I have had a lot more fun 
than you have so far at this. I cannot thank you. I'm so proud of you. 
And I like looking out there and seeing your faces and your eyes and 
your self-confidence. And I want you to go out and do a great job with 
your lives.
    Thank you. God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:47 a.m. in Eddie Robinson Stadium. In his 
remarks, he referred to Rev. E. Edward Jones of the National Baptist 
Convention of America, who gave the invocation; Mayor John Williams of 
Grambling; Bobby J. Jindal, president, University of Louisiana System; 
and Eddie Robinson, former head football coach, and former NFL 
Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams, current head football 
coach, Grambling State University. A portion of these remarks could not 
be verified because the tape was incomplete.