[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 49 (Monday, December 9, 2002)]
[Pages 2116-2121]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in Shreveport, Louisiana

December 3, 2002

    Thank you all. Thank you all very much. I'm glad I came. Thank you 
all. Please be seated--unless you don't have a chair. [Laughter] It's an 
honor to be here in Shreveport. I'm so thrilled that you all came out. 
It's kind of getting close to home if you know what I mean. I'm proud to 
be in the great State of Louisiana.
    The last time I was in Shreveport was on September the 11th, 2001. I 
went to Barksdale Air Force Base. Since that time, the world has seen 
the resolve of the United States of America. I thank the men and women 
who wore our uniform then at Barksdale, and I know you join me today in 
thanking them to make sure America is free.
    We're grateful for our freedom here in America. We love our 
freedoms. Nobody is going to take freedom away from this country. But 
part of living in a free society means we have responsibilities as 
citizens. We have the obligation as a citizen of America to do our duty, 
and one of the duties we have is when it comes to election time, one of 
the duties is to go vote. So I'm here in the great State of Louisiana 
urging all the citizens, Republicans and Democrats and folks who could 
care less about political party, to go to the polls this Saturday. But 
I've got a suggestion. [Laughter] For the good of Louisiana, for the 
good of everybody in Louisiana, Suzie Terrell needs to be the next 
United States Senator.
    I'm proud of the race she's running. She talks about what she 
believes in. She sets the right kind of tone. She's the kind of person 
with whom I can work to get something done for Louisiana and the people 
of Louisiana. No doubt in my mind, she's the right choice for everybody 
who lives in this State.
    And I want to thank you for coming to show your support for Suzie. I 
want to thank you for your activity at the grassroots level. You need 
over the next couple of days to go to your coffee shops, your community 
centers and tell the people that you've got a good one running for the 
United States Senate. You've got somebody who can do the job for all the 
people of this State. She's counting on you, and I'm counting on you to 
do everything you can to turn out a big vote and send this good woman to 
the United States Senate.
    And we need to have Lee Fletcher in the House of Representatives 
too. I look forward to working with Lee. I look forward to having Lee a 
part of a fine delegation from the great State of Louisiana. He'll fit 
in just right with people like Billy Tauzin, who's doing a fabulous job 
for our country, Jim McCrery and David Vitter--all of them fine Members 
of Congress. So when you get in that booth, make sure you not only vote 
for Suzie, but if you live in Lee Fletcher's district, pull the Fletcher 
lever, too.
    I appreciate so very much the Governor showing up. Yes, he's a good 
man. Foster is a good man. He's my kind of guy. He's down-to-earth. He 
speaks his mind. But most importantly, he's done in office what he said 
he would do. He's been a great Governor for the people of Louisiana. One 
of these days, he's going to invite me to come hunting again.
    I regret that the first team of our family isn't here today. She's 
helping decorate the White House. But I am proud of Laura. She is a 
fabulous First Lady for America. And she sends her best to Suzie and 
Suzie's family. And like me, she urges you all to get to those polls 
come Saturday. Show up. Do your duty. Send a good, strong message that 
Louisiana is wise when it comes to electing candidates. It makes sense 
to have one in one party and a Senator in the majority party if you want 
to get something done.
    And one thing about Suzie is, she's got a good record. She's proven 
herself to be a competent soul, somebody who can get the job done. You 
might remember the election commissioner's office. It needed a house-
cleansing. She cleaned house. There's now integrity in that office. 
People can be proud of that office thanks to Suzie Haik Terrell. She 
told the people of Louisiana she would do the job, and she has done that 
job. She understands who she's accountable to. She's accountable to the 
people. She understands she works for the people of Louisiana.
    She saved $20 million for the taxpayers of Louisiana. She's got an 
awesome responsibility, and she saved money, because she understands 
what I know. When you spend the Government's money, you don't spend--
it's

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not the Government's money you're spending; it's the people's money.
    No, she's got a can-do spirit. See, we need people to go to 
Washington to set aside all the political bickering that tends to 
dominate the discourse, to get things done on behalf of the American 
people. That's what we need. We need an attitude of cooperation. Oh, I 
expect there to be independent voices in Washington, DC, and no question 
about her, she's an independent voice. She kind of tells you what's on 
her mind. But it's an attitude that's important. We need an attitude in 
the Senate to bring people together so we can say that we're doing the 
people's business and we're making a difference in people's lives.
    And we're making some progress. I was proud to sign the Department 
of Homeland Security bill. It made sense. It now means we're going to 
reorganize our Government so we can do our job, and that is to protect 
the American people from further attack. We want people all focused in 
the same direction. We want cultures to change, if need be, to make sure 
that we can do everything we can to say to the American people, ``We're 
working overtime to protect you.'' We need to know who's coming in the 
country, what they're bringing into the country, if they're leaving the 
country when they're supposed to be leaving the country, so America is 
protected.
    We're making progress about bringing people together to get things 
done. I'm convinced Suzie's election will continue that progress. I went 
to the Pentagon yesterday and fulfilled a campaign pledge, signed the 
most significant increase in the authorization of defense spending since 
the President--Ronald Reagan was the President.
    I was able to sign a piece of legislation that will get our hardhats 
back to work. I signed a terrorism insurance bill that will enable 
construction projects that have been on hold to go forward. I'm worried 
about the fact that some people are looking for work and can't find work 
in America. I want our hardhats working. I want our welders welding. I 
want the construction people back to work. I want to reward the 
hardhats, not the trial lawyers of America.
    We're making progress up there. Suzie's election will help us make 
more progress. We've got work to do on education. Listen, anytime any 
child can't read means we've got to stay on education. I appreciate the 
Governor's hard work of joining and setting high standards. We need 
somebody in the Senate who will join me in making sure we've got local 
control of our schools in America.
    Last year, we spent $847 million of Federal money on Louisiana 
schools, and that's good. But now we're starting to ask the question 
that Mike's been asking and I know Suzie will ask: ``Are we getting our 
money's worth?'' See, you've got to ask that question if you don't want 
any child left behind. You know, are the dollars we're spending making a 
difference in the lives of our children? Can our children read and write 
and add and subtract? And when we find they can, we'll praise the 
teachers. And for those of you who are teachers, thanks for what you do. 
But what's important is that when we find children in schools which 
won't teach and won't change, that we challenge the status quo. No child 
should be left behind in America.
    And speaking about schools, I want to thank the Byrd High School 
Band and the Parkway High School Band for coming. I'm glad you all came. 
I'm sorry you had to miss school to come. [Laughter] Just put my name on 
the excuse slip. And if you're 18, make sure you vote.
    We've got more work to do. We've got to make sure this economy 
continues to grow. I'm for a growth agenda--want to do things in 
Washington, DC, that helps create jobs. The role of Government--and 
Suzie understands this--the role of Government is not to create wealth 
but an environment in which the small business can grow to be a big 
business, in which the entrepreneurial spirit flourishes. And the best 
way to help people who are looking for work, the best way to stimulate 
economic vitality is to make the tax cuts we passed permanent.
    See, when that economy started slowing down, I decided to fulfill 
what I said I was going to do and urge that the Government let people 
keep more of their own money. See, when you have more of your own money, 
it means you're likely to demand an additional good or a service. And 
when you

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demand additional good or a service, somebody is likely to produce the 
good or a service. And when somebody produces the good or a service, it 
means somebody in Louisiana or Texas or anywhere else is likely to be 
able to find a job. The tax relief plan came at the right time. And now, 
in order to make sure our economy is strong and vibrant, we better make 
sure the tax cuts are permanent.
    And there's one person in this Senate race who's willing to stand up 
and say she will join the President in listening to the people and 
making tax cuts permanent, and that is Suzie Terrell.
    No, we've got more work to do. We've got more work to do. I need 
somebody in the Senate with whom I can work and Billy can work to make 
sure we get us an energy bill. We got a problem when it comes to energy. 
We get too much of our energy from countries that may not like us. 
That's a problem. We can do a better job of conserving. We can do a 
better job of promoting technologies that will make us less dependent on 
foreign sources of crude oil. But we've got to do a better job here at 
home of finding more hydrocarbons in the United States of America. An 
energy bill is good for our job base. It's good for economic security, 
and it's good for national security.
    I want to thank Billy Tauzin for working hard to get an energy bill. 
That new Senate may make it easier for us to get a bill done on behalf 
of the American people.
    We've got more work to do, and I look forward to working with Suzie 
to make sure that we modernize Medicare. See, medicine has changed, and 
the Medicare system hasn't changed. Medicine is modern, but Medicare is 
stuck in the past. For the sake of our seniors, we need to fulfill our 
national promise and modernize Medicare, which means prescription drugs 
for our seniors.
    I look forward to working with Suzie on behalf of the citizens of 
Louisiana. I also look forward to working with Suzie to make sure that 
our judiciary represents the values of Louisiana. Amazing what an 
election did--kind of changed the attitude in Washington. Up until 
recently, I couldn't get a lot of my judges through the Senate. They 
were playing politics with the judges. I had named some very fine people 
from around the country, good, honest people, and we couldn't get them 
through because they wanted to play politics.
    You need somebody from Louisiana who will join with this President 
to make sure the judges I name reflect the values of Louisiana. We don't 
need any more people legislating. We don't want our judges legislating. 
We want our judges interpreting the Constitution. Those are the kind of 
judges I'll name, and I can count on Suzie's vote to make sure they get 
confirmed.
    But the biggest job we have for a while is to protect this country. 
That's the biggest job we've got. Our most awesome responsibility is to 
make this homeland secure. And the best way to do it is to chase the 
killers down one at a time and bring them to justice. That's the biggest 
job facing this administration and the next Congress and administrations 
and Congresses to come. This is a long haul to get them. [Laughter]
    I guess they didn't realize who they were hitting. They probably 
thought the national religion was materialism and that we were so 
selfish that we all might file a lawsuit or two. [Laughter] They didn't 
understand America. They don't understand that when it comes to 
defending our freedoms, it doesn't matter how long it takes. We will 
defend freedom no matter what the cost.
    And we're making progress. We're making progress. It's a different 
kind of war. You've just got to know it's a different kind of war. In 
the old days, we could destroy tanks and airplanes and ships, and people 
say, ``Well, they're making progress.'' It's a different kind of war 
because we're fighting people who are--they send youngsters to their 
suicidal deaths, and they try to find a dark cave. They're kind of 
lurching around in the dark corners of some cities around the world. 
They're in over 60 countries. And slowly but surely, we're dismantling 
the terrorist network which hates us because of what we love. See, they 
hate the fact that we love freedom. They can't stand the fact that in 
this country people can worship the Almighty God any way he or she sees 
fit.
    Thanks to our military, thanks to our fantastic military, we won the 
first battle of the first war of the 21st century. And we won it when we 
got rid of the Taliban regime in

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Afghanistan. But in so doing, it's important for you to remind your 
youngsters that this great country never went in to conquer anybody. We 
went in to liberate. Thanks to America and our friends, many young girls 
go to school for the first time in Afghanistan. Not only did we rout the 
Taliban and many of the killers they harbor, but we freed people to 
realize their dreams. And we're not leaving. We're going to stay there 
to make sure this good country is secure and the good country can 
flourish and that the hope we want for our own children is the hope that 
mothers and dads in Afghanistan can realize for their children.
    We're making progress on this war against terror. Sometimes you'll 
see the progress, and sometimes you won't. It's a different kind of war. 
The other day, we hauled a guy in named al-Nashiri. That's not a 
household name here in America. [Laughter] I can understand why some go 
blank when they hear his name. But he was the Al Qaida commander in the 
Gulf states. Let me just put it to you this way. He no longer has the 
capacity to do what he did in the past, which was to mastermind the 
U.S.S. Cole that killed--the plot on the Cole that killed American 
soldiers. He's out of action, for the good of the world.
    Sometimes you'll see it, and sometimes you won't. But you've got to 
know that in this war against terror, the doctrine stands that says, 
``Either you're with us, or you're with the terrorists.'' And a lot of 
nations have heard that message, and they're with us. We're cutting off 
their money. We're sharing intelligence. We're hunting down the killers 
one at a time. It doesn't matter how long it takes. This country will 
stay the course until Al Qaida is completely demolished.
    But September the 11th brought home a new reality, and it's 
important for all our citizens to understand that reality. See, a lot of 
us, when we were raised, never really worried about the homeland. We all 
believed that two oceans would forever separate us from harm's way and 
that if there was a threat gathering overseas, we could pick and choose 
whether or not we wanted to be involved in dealing with that threat. 
September the 11th delivered a chilling message to our country, and that 
is, oceans no longer protect us. And therefore, it is my obligation to 
make sure that we address gathering threats overseas before they could 
do harm to the American people.
    And that's why I elevated the issue of Iraq. That's why I took our 
message of peace and freedom to countries around the world. I want them 
to understand the nature of the man who runs Iraq is the nature of a man 
who doesn't tell the truth. He says he won't have weapons of mass 
destruction. He's got them. He's not only got them; he's used them. And 
he's not only used them in his neighborhood; he's used them on his own 
people. That's the nature of the man with whom we deal. For 11 long 
years, he has deceived and denied.
    So I went to the United Nations. I said, ``When is enough enough?'' 
They voted 15 to nothing to say, ``Now enough is enough.'' The members 
of the Security Council had a chance, and they accepted the challenge to 
make sure that this United Nations became an effective body when it 
comes to keeping the peace, not an empty debating society.
    Then I went to NATO--strong Allies in NATO--and overwhelmingly the 
message was, ``Enough is enough.'' And now there's inspectors inside 
this country. But I want to tell you, the issue is not the inspectors. 
The issue is whether or not Mr. Saddam Hussein will disarm like he said 
he would. We're not interested in hide-and-seek inside Iraq. The 
fundamental question is, in the name of peace, in the name of security, 
not only for America and the American people, in the name of security 
for our friends in the neighborhood, in the name of freedom, will this 
man disarm? The choice is his. And if he does not disarm, the United 
States of America will lead a coalition and disarm him in the name of 
peace.
    We have an obligation to our children and our children's children to 
do everything we can to make sure the homeland is secure. And we'll meet 
the obligation. We'll meet that obligation together.
    You know, the amazing thing about America is that I can predict--
boldly predict and certainly predict, that out of the evil done to our 
country will come incredible good. Because of the nature of our country, 
I can say

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that. By being tough and strong and united in the face of danger, we can 
bring peace to the world. I believe that. I believe that by doing what 
we need to do to secure the world from terrorist attack, to rid tyrants 
of weapons of mass destruction, to make sure that somebody like Saddam 
Hussein doesn't serve as a training base or a provider of weapons of 
mass destruction to terrorist networks--by doing our job, that the world 
will be more peaceful, by standing strong for what we believe, by 
remembering that freedom is not America's gift to the world, but God's 
gift to each and every human being, that we can achieve peace. I want 
you to tell your kids and your grandkids that amidst all the speculation 
about war and military, that our drive and our vision is for a peaceful 
world in which everybody can realize their potential and live in peace.
    And here at home we have a chance to achieve some incredible good 
out of the evil done to our country. September the 11th shook our soul. 
I think it has helped awaken a spirit in the country, a spirit that 
understands that serving something greater than ourself in life is part 
of the American creed, that the American spirit is bigger than just any 
selfish ambition.
    Today when I landed at the airport, I met Mary Anne Blanchard Selber 
and Jean Sayres. These ladies have started the Providence House here in 
Shreveport. This is a--it's a home to provide shelter to the homeless. 
They follow their hearts. The reason I bring up this example is because 
they represent the true strength of our country. The true strength of 
our country lay in the hearts and souls of our fellow citizens.
    You see, out of the evil done to America can come a more 
compassionate America. We've got to understand that amidst our plenty, 
there are people who hurt. There's addiction and hopelessness. There are 
people who wonder whether or not the American Dream is meant for them. 
So long as any of us hurt, we all hurt, yet we can solve the problems in 
our society by loving a neighbor just like we like to be loved 
ourselves. We can solve America's problems by putting our arm around the 
lonely and the hopeless and say, ``I care for you. I love you.'' America 
can change one heart, one soul, one conscience at a time.
    And the Providence House is one example of what I'm talking about. 
They represent the true strength of our country, people who love people, 
people who care for those who hurt, people who understand that 
Government's role is limited. We can hand out money, but we can't put 
hope in people's hearts or a sense of purpose in people's lives. That's 
why I'm so strong for the Faith-Based Initiative. I understand the power 
of faith in the lives of our citizens around this country.
    No, if you want to join the war on terror, if you want to show the 
world the true worth of America, love a neighbor just like you'd like to 
be loved yourself. See what you can do to help mentor a child. Go see a 
shut-in. It's the small acts of kindness and decency which define the 
true victory in the war against terror, which will show the world what 
this country is all about.
    Perhaps best defined for me and, I suspect, others, as they come up 
in America--the spirit was defined best on Flight 93. Remember that when 
people were flying across our country, they thought they were on an 
average business trip or they thought they might be just taking an 
average trip to go see a loved one, and they found out the plane they 
were on was being used as a weapon. And they told their loved ones over 
the telephone, ``I love you,'' and ``Goodbye.'' They said a prayer. A 
guy said, ``Let's roll.'' They took the plane into the ground to serve 
something greater than themselves.
    No, the spirit of America is strong today. I can boldly predict that 
out of the evil done to America will come great good, because this is 
the greatest nation, full of the finest people on the face of the Earth.
    May God bless you, and may God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 9:54 a.m. at the Hirsch Coliseum at the 
State Fairgrounds of Louisiana. In his remarks, he referred to Lee 
Fletcher, candidate for Louisiana's 5th Congressional District; Gov. 
M.J. ``Mike'' Foster of Louisiana; Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Al Qaida's 
chief of operations for the Persian Gulf; and President Saddam Hussein 
of Iraq.

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