[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 38 (Monday, September 25, 2006)]
[Pages 1629-1632]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the White House Conference on Global Literacy in New York 
City

September 18, 2006

    Thank you all. Thank you for attending this important conference. I 
look around the room and see some familiar faces--my mother. [Laughter] 
How are you doing? It's good to see you; my mother-in-law. [Laughter] 
Both of these ladies have instilled a great passion for literacy not 
only in Laura and me but for others around our country. Thank you all 
for coming. Laura, thank you for your leadership.
    Laura believes strongly in the power of literacy to change 
societies, and that's really what we're here to talk about. The capacity 
of--the simple act of teaching a child to read or an adult to read has 
the capacity to transform nations and yield the peace we all want.
    So I want to thank you for being here. I particularly want to thank 
the First Ladies who are here and the ministers from different 
Governments around the world. We're really proud you've taken time to 
join us here today.
    As you probably can tell, our Government takes this initiative 
seriously. After all, we've got the Secretary of State, Condoleezza 
Rice, and the Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, both here. It 
should say to people loud and clear that when you combine the resources 
of the Department of Education and the State Department, that we're 
serious about helping global literacy. And then we've added Randy 
Tobias, who's the head of USAID. He's the fellow who's got the 
responsibility of handing out some money--[laughter]--which is what 
we're doing, because we believe strongly in this initiative. So I want 
to thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to send a 
clear message to folks.
    I want to thank Mr. Matsuura of UNESCO. Thank you very much for 
serving. Thanks for leading this vital organization. We

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want to work with you. And I see you're sitting next to one of my great 
friends--the Ambassador, Karen Hughes, is here as well.
    I want to thank Paul LeClerc of the--of this fantastic library. 
Isn't this a wonderful place to meet? Obviously, it makes sense to meet 
in a library if you're going to talk about literacy. It's really one of 
the most special spots here in New York. And I also want to thank Catie 
Marron for allowing us to use this facility. She's the chairman of the 
board, and Paul, of course, is the president and CEO of the New York 
Public Library.
    I want to thank those who have participated in panels. I had the 
honor of meeting some of the panelists and the panel leaders. I met 
Gerri Elliott, who is a corporate vice president of Microsoft. The 
reason I bring up Gerri Elliott is because, in America we believe that 
there is a combined responsibility to help. We believe government has 
got a vital role, but we also believe corporate America and our citizens 
have got a vital role to play in helping others benefit from learning 
how to read. And so I want to thank Gerri for setting such a good 
example.
    I call upon others in our country to understand the importance of 
this initiative and to step forth. After all, a literacy initiative will 
help spread prosperity and peace. And that's really why we're here at 
the UNGA. I've been looking forward to coming here. As you know, it's an 
annual event. Every year, I get to come. It gives me a chance to meet 
with fellow leaders, and it gives me a chance to clearly explain, the 
goals of this country are to help those who feel hopeless; the goals of 
this country are to spread liberty; the goals of this country is to 
enhance prosperity and peace.
    You can't have prosperity unless people can read. It's just as 
simple as that. You know, one of things that we have committed ourselves 
to in America is to help eradicate persistent poverty. But there is a 
direct link between illiteracy and persistent poverty. Oftentimes when 
we're talking about prosperity and helping this world become a more 
prosperous place, we tend to focus only on trade. And no question, good 
trade agreements and tearing down the barriers that prevent the free 
flow of goods will help enhance prosperity. But you can't be a 
prosperous nation if you don't have people who can read.
    I mean, think about it; it's pretty clear--in order to be an 
informed consumer, you have to read. In order to be able to take 
advantages of jobs that may come to your country as a result of 
expanding economic opportunity, you've got to read. In order to be a 
productive worker, you have to be able to read the manual. And so part 
of this initiative, part of the practical application of this initiative 
is to encourage prosperity by enhancing people's capacity to read. And I 
want to thank you for your focus on that important issue.
    I also strongly believe that those of us who have the benefits of 
living in free society must help others realize the benefits of liberty. 
I believe that. I believe that's part of America's responsibility in the 
world. I realize we can't impose our vision of government, nor should we 
try. But we believe here in America in the universality of freedom. We 
don't believe freedom belongs only to the United States of America; we 
believe that liberty is universal in its applications. We also believe 
strongly that as the world becomes more free, we'll see peace. That's 
what we believe. And we're going to act on those beliefs.
    But one thing that's for certain: It is very hard to have free 
societies if the citizens cannot read. Think about that. It's much 
harder for a society to realize the universal blessings of liberty if 
your citizens can't read the newspaper in order to be able to make 
informed choices and decisions about what may be taking place in a 
country. You can't realize the blessings of liberty if you can't read a 
ballot or if you can't read what others are saying about the future of 
your country.
    I am deeply concerned about the spread of radicalism, and I know you 
are as well. We long for the days when people don't feel comfortable or 
empowered to take innocent life to achieve an objective. One reason 
radicals are able to recruit young men, for example, to become suicide 
bombers is because of hopelessness. One way to defeat hopelessness is 
through literacy, is to giving people the fantastic hope that comes by 
being able to read and realize dreams.
    So this literacy initiative is vital as far as the United States of 
America is concerned,

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and we want to help. That's what I'm here to say. I want to thank you 
for being here, and let you know that we want to lend our help.
    I know Laura talked about our initiative on the continent of Africa. 
It is a firm, real, dedicated commitment to helping folks become 
literate. We share--we have that same sense of commitment in more places 
than Africa. I mean, for example, in our own neighborhood, we are deeply 
concerned about illiteracy, and we believe it's in our national interest 
to help folks become literate in Central and South America.
    One of the most, I guess, heartwarming literacy initiatives that I 
have witnessed as President was the Women's Teacher Training Institute 
in Kabul. I know there's some people from Afghanistan here, and I want 
to thank you for your courage and your bravery. I don't know if you know 
what the institute has been doing, but think back to the days prior to 
liberation when women really weren't let out of the house; young girls 
couldn't go to school. There was an underground teacher movement because 
of the great passion teachers feel for their students. And so after the 
liberation of the country, we have worked with that institute to teach 
trainers--teach teachers how to teach, in the knowledge that when they 
leave the institute, they'll then go to their village.
    It's kind of this cascading movement of skill so that people can 
fulfill their compassion, fulfill their dreams about a more literate 
Afghanistan. This young democracy will survive. And one of the reasons 
it will survive is because of the committed effort by a lot of folks, 
not just the United States but by people around the world, to help the 
brave educational entrepreneurs that recognize hope and peace come about 
as a result of education.
    We--a lot of times you hear a lot of words--people are pretty good 
talkers in this society of ours. People step up and make promises and, 
kind of, flowery statements. I want it to be said that our Government is 
doing more than just talking, that our Government is willing to act. 
We've doubled the development assistance since I've been the President. 
We have set forth what's called the Millennium Challenge Account. We 
said we were going to help people, particularly those who fight 
corruption, those who believe in markets, but equally important, those 
who invest in the education and health of their citizens.

    We believe strongly that this world must confront the pandemic of 
HIV/AIDS and believe that to whom much is given, much is required in 
order to solve disease and poverty--a lot of it brought about because--a 
lot of that poverty brought about because of illiteracy.

    And so one thing I'd like for you to take away from today is, one, 
we're committed. We believe that the United States of America must not 
isolate ourselves from the problems of the world. We believe we have an 
opportunity to help you solve problems of the world.

    There is nothing more hopeful, there's no greater gift than to teach 
a person to read. When I was the Governor of Texas, I remember an 
African American woman walking up to me, and we were talking about the 
importance of teaching every child to read--not just a few, but every 
child to read. We believe in America that reading shouldn't be the right 
of just a few people; it ought to be--it's universal as well. And the 
woman walked up to me, and she said, ``Mr. Governor,'' she said, ``I 
want you to understand how people in my community feel.'' She said, 
``Reading is the new civil right.'' I feel the same way about global 
literacy. Reading will yield the peace we want.

    So thanks for coming. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 12:10 p.m. at the New York Public Library. 
In his remarks, he referred to Koichiro Matsuura, director-general, 
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The 
transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also included 
the remarks of the First Lady, who introduced the President. The Office 
of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of 
these remarks.

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