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Hispanic Chamber of Commer ce - New Orleans 9/8/89 [2]
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Hispanic Chamber of Commer ce - New Orleans 9/8/89 [2]
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Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
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Speechwriting, White House Office of
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Speech File Draft Files
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Chron File, 1989-1993
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13501-003
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Hispanic Chamber of Commerce - New Orleans 9/8/89 [2]
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7
STEPH - Staffed for 2pm WED. 9/6
(Smith/Blessey)
September 5, 1989
Draft Three
HISPANIC
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HISPANIC CHAMBER
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1989
President Quintela -- how about that, two Odessa boys on the
same platform. Secretaries Lujan and Cavazos -- and I'm proud to
X
say that ours is the first Administration to have two Hispanic
Cabinet officials. Ladies and gentlemen. Friends.
I want to thank you for that gracious introduction. And for
the warmth of your reception. And let me salute you for choosing
as your convention site this beautiful City by the River.
Pearl Buck once described falling "in love with Louisiana
generally and New Orleans in particular." Well, that feeling
helps make New Orleans special. And I take special pleasure in
being with you today.
For we meet not as strangers, but "vecinos" [Ve-CEE-noze:
Spanish for "neighbors"]. And as businessmen and women. But
mostly, perhaps, as citizens who understand how Hispanics have
helped America create a greater land for us
all. what mony call $
Nine years ago, America officially began The Decade of The
Hispanic. And now, at decade's end, Hispanics are America's
fastest-growing -- and, often -- fastest-rising minority.
Enriching America socially and academically, economically and
spiritually. Living, more than ever, the American Dream.
2
In one sense, the past decade has reaffirmed that dream --
the dream which brought your parents, your grandparents, and some
of you to America. For you came to build a better life -- and
you are building it. Building it in our schools, our police
forces, and in small and large business. Building it for your
kids -- and my grandkids [PAUSE]
all eleven of them.
But in another sense, the past decade is but a preview of
coming attractions. For it can be a gateway to tomorrow -- much
as America has been a gateway for you. The theme of this
convention is "gateway to the Americas. " Well, today it is
gateways I'd like to talk about: Gateways to the prosperity and
stability that make progress possible.
First, the gateway to the prosperity which fosters equal
opportunity. Or as Winston Churchill said: "Some people regard
private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look
on it as a COW they can milk. Not enough people see it as a
healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon. "
Churchill spoke those words in 19 And in 1989 they're
more true than ever. For Hispanic business is a healthy horse.
America is that healthy wagon. And on the buckboard, with the
reins up-high, are entrepreneurs like you.
No government planner, for instance, decided that Marconi
would invent the wireless. Or that something called an auto
would rise from the dust of Dearborn. And what might have
happened -- or worse, what might not have happened -- had the
Wright brothers been forced to wait for Washington's approval
3
before testing their flying machine? [PAUSE]
If they had,
I might have come here today by steamboat, not by air.
They knew, as you do, that the gateway to prosperity isn't
bigger government. It's bigger dreams.
Look at Pedro Garza, a former migrant worker who overcame
disability to own a construction company with $4.5 million in
sales. Or Patricia Rivera, the Hispanic Businesswoman of the
Year. Or the father-and-son team of Louis and Fred Ruiz, who in
1964 started a food business in an old warehouse with a battered
stove, small freezer, and single mixer. And who now employ 534
workers. They prove -- as you do -- that while government can
create opportunity, it is Americans who seize opportunity.
Over the past decade, heroes like these -- and millions of
unsung Hispanic-American heroes -- have sought a ladder, not a
crutch. Here's a partial score card of your success: Since
1980, Hispanic-American-owned businesses have doubled. And
today, they total nearly 250,000. They boast more than
full-time employees. And earn $15 billion in receipts each year.
Impressive? You bet. Good enough? Never. For as long as one
Hispanic-American is bereft of hope, that is one American too
many.
You know, my home state's to the west of here. Place called
Texas. And equidistant from Houston and New Orleans is the home
state of America's favorite humorist. Will Rogers. Once, Will
said of the bureaucracy, "We are always reading statistics and
figures. Half of America does nothing but prepare propaganda for
4
the other half to read. " Propaganda won't build a gateway to
prosperity. But partnerships can, and are.
Partnerships are cooperative efforts involving government,
private enterprise, and voluntary organizations. As Vice-
President, I supported the President's Task Force on Private
Sector Initiatives. And knowing how partnerships can spur
development, we have tried to build on what the Reagan
Administration fostered.
I think, for example, of the Minority Small Business and
Capital Ownership Development Program -- the "8-A" program --
which helps Hispanics and other minority-owned companies obtain
Federal contracts. Or our nationwide education and counseling
services for small business owners; today -- count 'em -- 13,000
retired executives voluntarily serve. And we've tried to spur
projects like loan program 7-A, which this year will grant $2.6
billion to help more than 265,000 firms. Projects which are
helping Hispanics travel America's gateway to the future.
These partnerships will aid the shop owner in Los Angeles,
the small developer in Des Moines. And so will one final project
I'd like to mention: A partnership with the 1990 census. Today,
there are 19.5 million Hispanic-Americans. I urge you to make
them count. Tell your friends and neighbors to cooperate with
Census officials. Don't let the Decade of The Hispanic go
unreflected in this survey. So remember that the more accurate
the Census is, the greater Hispanics' influence. And how this
5
partnership -- like our other partnerships -- can help people
help themselves.
So far, I have talked of the prosperity which can better the
lives of every American. And in that context, let me speak of
our relationship with Mexico.
Two months ago, I met with President Salinas at the Economic
Summit. Since then, by restructuring her economy -- reducing
trade barriers -- and honoring her creditors through the pact
with the Bankers Advisory Committee -- Mexico has opened the
calluse
gateway of increased trade with America. We welcome this
commerce. For Mexico is our third-most important trading
partner. And we look forward to next month's State visit by
President Salinas. Together, we can build a gateway to the 1990s
that will provide both Mexico and America with economic
opportunity and stability.
Now, let me speak of another kind of trade. A more
destructive kind of trade. The drug trade.
Consider these statistics. Last year, the government
estimated that 23 million Americans used illegal drugs on a
"current" basis -- that is, at least once in the preceding 30
days. Last year, more than 8 million people used cocaine. And
almost 1 million used it once a week or more. Last year,
hundreds of thousands of babies were born to mothers who use
drugs -- babies born desperately sick, weeks or months premature.
A Nation with those numbers cannot long preserve its soul.
6
That is why three nights ago, I announced America's first
national, comprehensive, and coordinated strategy to wage
unconditional war against the scourge of drugs.
Our drug plan has four major elements.
First, enforcement, using our laws and criminal justice
system. For America must take back the streets. We need more
jails, more prisons, more courts, more prosecutors. And tougher
sentences. Drug dealers deserve a gateway, all right -- a
gateway to the slammer. And for the ultimate drug violators --
the kingpins themselves -- they should receive the ultimate
penalty.
Second, interdiction, as a tool of foreign policy. Working
with other governments, we're going to break the international
drugs rings who grow and process cocaine and crack. I agree with
President Barco of Columbia: If you use cocaine, you are paying
for murder.
The third part of our strategy is treatment, to help addicts
who want to get clean. With special emphasis on expectant
mothers. And finally, our drug program aims to stop use before
it starts. Through education and prevention. From grade school
to graduate school.
This plan can help stop the trade I spoke of earlier. Some
trade builds lives. Drug trade takes lives. Lives like the New
York woman, Maria Hernandez, I talked about Tuesday night -- shot
to death in her bedroom one morning because she and her husband
7
had confronted local dealers. We must save lives. And end this
trade. But it won't come cheaply.
Maybe you tuned in Tuesday night. If so, you heard me
propose a 1990 drug budget totaling almost $8 billion -- the
largest single increase in history. An increase of $1.4 billion
for drug-related spending on law enforcement. Over $233 million
more for prevention programs. An additional $260 million in aid
next year for Columbia, Bolivia, and Peru, a five-year, $2-
billion program to counter the producers, the traffickers, and
the smugglers.
Yes, government will do its part. But as with any
partnership, government can't do it alone. We're all in this
together -- from cops to teachers, from parents to clergymen.
And we'll have to fight together to crush the drug menace at
every turn. Fighting in the barrios, and the boardrooms. In the
cities, and the towns. Winning kid-by-kid, house-by-house, and
neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Putting the emphasis where the
problem is -- locally, in the community.
Fellow parents and businessmen -- fellow Americans -- that's
where you come in. For drug use isn't merely numbers. It's the
young boy tormented by cocaine addiction. Or the pregnant mother
whose crack use impairs her child. At stake is the very future
of the Hispanic community. I'm referring to our kids.
So I challenge you: Get involved. There are so many who
need your help. Join grass-roots groups like the Miami Coalition
of leaders from business, education, government, and law
8
enforcement to stop drug use. Take the time to really know your
neighborhood at home and work. Help your church, and anti-drug
parents groups. Support drug programs in your children's school.
Finally, let me ask you -- as fellow businessmen and women
-- to start something no one else can do: Use your place of
business as a storefront against drugs. Display brochures and
banners. Employ volunteer counselors. Be a symbol for your
community, and especially its youth. Join the ranks of the
caring and committed. Help win this great crusade.
Will you enlist? I believe you will. For Barbara and I
have spent much of our lives among Hispanic Americans. Building
a business. Raising children. Trying to live, like you, the
values of faith, family, work, community, and above all, freedom.
Our son Jeb's wife, Columba, is Hispanic. And they ve got three
kids. So, you see, the Bush family feels doubly blessed. The
Hispanic culture is our culture, too.
In Hispanic America, roots run deep -- and aspirations high.
Its people ask not the promise of success -- only the opportunity
to succeed.
In Hispanic America, citizens reject tyranny and oppression.
And the dependency which starves the spirit and cheats the soul.
Hispanic America is at her best when the challenge is
greatest. So together, let us open the gateways of prosperity
and stability. And build for our children a better tomorrow.
They are the trustees of America's future. Let their horizons
touch the sky.
A.
9
I appreciate your kindness, and the chance to share this
occasion. God bless you, thank you all, and God bless America.
# # #
Document No. 06977865
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
9/5/89
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
9/6/89 2:00 PM
SUBJECT:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: U.S. HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT
BATES
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
ROGERS
CARD
WINSTON
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
BENNETT
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm.
122, x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, September 6,
with a copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
All comments
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Blessey)
September 5, 1989
Draft Three
89 SEP 5 P2: 43
HISPANIC
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HISPANIC CHAMBER
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1989
President Quintela -- how about that, two Odessa boys on the
same platform. Secretaries Lujan and Cavazos -- and I'm proud to
say that ours is the first Administration to have two Hispanic
Cabinet officials. Ladies and gentlemen. Friends.
I want to thank you for that gracious introduction. And for
the warmth of your reception. And let me salute you for choosing
as your convention site this beautiful City by the River.
Pearl Buck once described falling "in love with Louisiana
generally and New Orleans in particular." Well, that feeling
helps make New Orleans special. And I take special pleasure in
being with you today.
For we meet not as strangers, but "vecinos" [Ve-CEE-noze:
Spanish for "neighbors"]. And as businessmen and women. But
mostly, perhaps, as citizens who understand how Hispanics have
helped America create a greater land for us all.
Nine years ago, America officially began The Decade of The
Hispanic. And now, at decade's end, Hispanics are America's
fastest-growing -- and, often -- fastest-rising minority.
Enriching America socially and academically, economically and
spiritually. Living, more than ever, the American Dream.
2
In one sense, the past decade has reaffirmed that dream --
the dream which brought your parents, your grandparents, and some
of you to America. For you came to build a better life -- and
you are building it. Building it in our schools, our police
forces, and in small and large business. Building it for your
kids -- and my grandkids [PAUSE]
all eleven of them.
But in another sense, the past decade is but a preview of
coming attractions. For it can be a gateway to tomorrow -- much
as America has been a gateway for you. The theme of this
convention is "gateway to the Americas. " Well, today it is
gateways I'd like to talk about: Gateways to the prosperity and
stability that make progress possible.
First, the gateway to the prosperity which fosters equal
opportunity. Or as Winston Churchill said: "Some people regard
private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look
on it as a COW they can milk. Not enough people see it as a
healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon. "
Churchill spoke those words in 19 . And in 1989 they re
more true than ever. For Hispanic business is a healthy horse.
America is that healthy wagon. And on the buckboard, with the
reins up high, are entrepreneurs like you
No government planner, for instance, decided that Marconi
would invent the wireless. Or that something called an auto
would rise from the dust of Dearborn. And what might have
happened -- or worse, what might not have happened -- had the
Wright brothers been forced to wait for Washington's approval
3
before testing their flying machine? [PAUSE]
If they had,
I might have come here today by steamboat, not by air.
They knew, as you do, that the gateway to prosperity isn't
bigger government. It's bigger dreams.
Look at Pedro Garza, a former migrant worker who overcame
disability to own a construction company with $4.5 million in
sales. Or Patricia Rivera, the Hispanic Businesswoman of the
Year. Or the father-and-son team of Louis and Fred Ruiz, who in
1964 started a food business in an old warehouse with a battered
stove, small freezer, and single mixer. And who now employ 534
workers. They prove -- as you do -- that while government can
create opportunity, it is Americans who seize opportunity.
Over the past decade, heroes like these -- and millions of
unsung Hispanic-American heroes -- have sought a ladder, not a
crutch. Here's a partial score card of your success: Since
1980, Hispanic-American-owned businesses have doubled. And
today, they total nearly 250,000. They boast more than
full-time employees. And earn $15 billion in receipts each year.
Impressive? You bet. Good enough? Never. For as long as one
Hispanic-American is bereft of hope, that is one American too
many.
You know, my home state's to the west of here. Place called
Texas. And equidistant from Houston and New Orleans is the home
state of America's favorite humorist. Will Rogers. Once, Will
said of the bureaucracy, "We are always reading statistics and
figures. Half of America does nothing but prepare propaganda for
4
the other half to read. " Propaganda won't build a gateway to
prosperity. But partnerships can, and are.
Partnerships are cooperative efforts involving government,
private enterprise, and voluntary organizations. As Vice-
President, I supported the President's Task Force on Private
Sector Initiatives. And knowing how partnerships can spur
development, we have tried to build on what the Reagan
Administration fostered.
I think, for example, of the Minority Small Business and
Capital Ownership Development Program -- the "8-A" program --
which helps Hispanics and other minority-owned companies obtain
Federal contracts. Or our nationwide education and counseling
services for small business owners; today -- count 'em -- 13,000
retired executives voluntarily serve. And we've tried to spur
projects like loan program 7-A, which this year will grant $2.6
billion to help more than 265,000 firms. Projects which are
helping Hispanics travel America's gateway to the future.
These partnerships will aid the shop owner in Los Angeles,
the small developer in Des Moines. And SO will one final project
I'd like to mention: A partnership with the 1990 census. Today,
there are 19.5 million Hispanic-Americans. I urge you to make
them count. Tell your friends and neighbors to cooperate with
Census officials. Don't let the Decade of The Hispanic go
unreflected in this survey. So remember that the more accurate
the Census is, the greater Hispanics' influence. And how this
5
partnership -- like our other partnerships -- can help people
help themselves.
So far, I have talked of the prosperity which can better the
lives of every American. And in that context, let me speak of
our relationship with Mexico.
Two months ago, I met with President Salinas at the Economic
Summit. Since then, by restructuring her economy -- reducing
trade barriers -- and honoring her creditors through the pact
with the Bankers Advisory Committee -- Mexico has opened the
gateway of increased trade with America. We welcome this
commerce. For Mexico is our third-most important trading
partner. And we look forward to next month's State visit by
President Salinas. Together, we can build a gateway to the 1990s
that will provide both Mexico and America with economic
opportunity and stability.
Now, let me speak of another kind of trade. A more
destructive kind of trade. The drug trade.
Consider these statistics. Last year, the government
estimated that 23 million Americans used illegal drugs on a
"current" basis -- that is, at least once in the preceding 30
days. Last year, more than 8 million people used cocaine. And
almost 1 million used it once a week or more. Last year,
hundreds of thousands of babies were born to mothers who use
drugs -- babies born desperately sick, weeks or months premature.
A Nation with those numbers cannot long preserve its soul.
6
That is why three nights ago, I announced America's first
national, comprehensive, and coordinated strategy to wage
unconditional war against the scourge of drugs.
Our drug plan has four major elements.
First, enforcement, using our laws and criminal justice
system. For America must take back the streets. We need more
jails, more prisons, more courts, more prosecutors. And tougher
sentences. Drug dealers deserve a gateway, all right -- a
gateway to the slammer. And for the ultimate drug violators --
the kingpins themselves -- they should receive the ultimate
penalty.
Second, interdiction, as a tool of foreign policy. Working
with other governments, we're going to break the international
drugs rings who grow and process cocaine and crack. I agree with
President Barco of Columbia: If you use cocaine, you are paying
for murder.
The third part of our strategy is treatment, to help addicts
who want to get clean. With special emphasis on expectant
mothers. And finally, our drug program aims to stop use before
it starts. Through education and prevention. From grade school
to graduate school.
This plan can help stop the trade I spoke of earlier. Some
trade builds lives. Drug trade takes lives. Lives like the New
York woman, Maria Hernandez, I talked about Tuesday night -- shot
to death in her bedroom one morning because she and her husband
7
had confronted local dealers. We must save lives. And end this
trade. But it won't come cheaply.
Maybe you tuned in Tuesday night. If so, you heard me
propose a 1990 drug budget totaling almost $8 billion -- the
largest single increase in history. An increase of $1.4 billion
for drug-related spending on law enforcement. Over $233 million
more for prevention programs. An additional $260 million in aid
next year for Columbia, Bolivia, and Peru, a five-year, $2-
billion program to counter the producers, the traffickers, and
the smugglers.
Yes, government will do its part. But as with any
partnership, government can't do it alone. We're all in this
together -- from cops to teachers, from parents to clergymen.
And we'll have to fight together to crush the drug menace at
every turn. Fighting in the barrios, and the boardrooms. In the
cities, and the towns. Winning kid-by-kid, house-by-house, and
neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Putting the emphasis where the
problem is -- locally, in the community.
Fellow parents and businessmen -- fellow Americans -- that's
where you come in. For drug use isn't merely numbers. It's the
young boy tormented by cocaine addiction. Or the pregnant mother
whose crack use impairs her child. At stake is the very future
of the Hispanic community. I'm referring to our kids.
So I challenge you: Get involved. There are SO many who
need your help. Join grass-roots groups like the Miami Coalition
of leaders from business, education, government, and law
8
enforcement to stop drug use. Take the time to really know your
neighborhood at home and work. Help your church, and anti-drug
parents groups. Support drug programs in your children's school.
Finally, let me ask you -- as fellow businessmen and women
-- to start something no one else can do: Use your place of
business as a storefront against drugs. Display brochures and
banners. Employ volunteer counselors. Be a symbol for your
community, and especially its youth. Join the ranks of the
caring and committed. Help win this great crusade.
Will you enlist? I believe you will. For Barbara and I
have spent much of our lives among Hispanic Americans. Building
a business. Raising children. Trying to live, like you, the
values of faith, family, work, community, and above all, freedom.
Our son Jeb's wife, Columba, is Hispanic. And they' ve got three
kids. So, you see, the Bush family feels doubly blessed. The
Hispanic culture is our culture, too.
In Hispanic America, roots run deep -- and aspirations high.
Its people ask not the promise of success -- only the opportunity
to succeed.
In Hispanic America, citizens reject tyranny and oppression.
And the dependency which starves the spirit and cheats the soul.
Hispanic America is at her best when the challenge is
greatest. So together, let us open the gateways of prosperity
and stability. And build for our children a better tomorrow.
They are the trustees of America's future. Let their horizons
touch the sky.
(
1
9
I appreciate your kindness, and the chance to share this
occasion. God bless you, thank you all, and God bless America.
# # #
not enof $
where find #
Document No. 06977855
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
9/5/89
9/6/89 2:00 PM
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: U.S. HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT
N/C
BATES
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
ROGERS
CARD
WINSTON
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
BENNETT
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm.
122, x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, September 6,
with a copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
SEP 5 P3:
89 SEP 5
23
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Blessey)
September 5, 1989
Draft Three
89 SEP 5 P2: 43
HISPANIC
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HISPANIC CHAMBER
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1989
President_Quintela -- how about that, two Odessa boys on the
same platform. Secretaries Lujan and Cavazos -- and I'm proud to
say that ours is the first Administration to have two Hispanic
Cabinet officials. Ladies and gentlemen. Friends.
I want to thank you for that gracious introduction. And for
the warmth of your reception. And let me salute you for choosing
as your convention site this beautiful City by the River.
Pearl Buck once described falling "in love with Louisiana
generally and New Orleans in particular." Well, that feeling
helps make New Orleans special. And I take special pleasure in
being with you today.
For we meet not as strangers, but "vecinos" [Ve-CEE-noze:
Spanish for "neighbors"]. And as businessmen and women. But
mostly, perhaps, as citizens who understand how Hispanics have
helped America create a greater land for us all.
Nine years ago, America officially began The Decade of The
Hispanic. And now, at decade's end, Hispanics are America's
fastest-growing -- and, often -- fastest-rising minority.
Enriching America socially and academically, economically and
spiritually. Living, more than ever, the American Dream.
2
In one sense, the past decade has reaffirmed that dream --
the dream which brought your parents, your grandparents, and some
of you to America. For you came to build a better life -- and
you are building it. Building it in our schools, our police
forces, and in small and large business. Building it for your
kids -- and my grandkids [PAUSE]
all eleven of them.
But in another sense, the past decade is but a preview of
coming attractions. For it can be a gateway to tomorrow -- much
as America has been a gateway for you. The theme of this
convention is "gateway to the Americas." Well, today it is
gateways I'd like to talk about: Gateways to the prosperity and
stability that make progress possible.
First, the gateway to the prosperity which fosters equal
opportunity. Or as Winston Churchill said: "Some people regard
private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look
on it as a COW they can milk. Not enough people see it as a
healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon. "
Churchill spoke those words in 19 And in 1989 they're
more true than ever. For Hispanic business is a healthy horse.
America is that healthy wagon. And on the buckboard, with the
reins up-high, are entrepreneurs like you.
No government planner, for instance, decided that Marconi
would invent the wireless. Or that something called an auto
would rise from the dust of Dearborn. And what might have
happened -- or worse, what might not have happened -- had the
Wright brothers been forced to wait for Washington's approval
3
before testing their flying machine? [PAUSE]
If they had,
I might have come here today by steamboat, not by air.
They knew, as you do, that the gateway to prosperity isn't
bigger government. It's bigger dreams.
Look at Pedro Garza, a former migrant worker who overcame
disability to own a construction company with $4.5 million in
sales. Or Patricia Rivera, the Hispanic Businesswoman of the
Year. Or the father-and-son team of Louis and Fred Ruiz, who in
1964 started a food business in an old warehouse with a battered
stove, small freezer, and single mixer. And who now employ 534
workers. They prove -- as you do -- that while government can
create opportunity, it is Americans who seize opportunity.
Over the past decade, heroes like these -- and millions of
unsung Hispanic-American heroes -- have sought a ladder, not a
crutch. Here's a partial score card of your success: Since
1980, Hispanic-American-owned businesses have doubled. And
today, they total nearly 250,000. They boast more than
full-time employees. And earn $15 billion in receipts each year.
Impressive? You bet. Good enough? Never. For as long as one
Hispanic-American is bereft of hope, that is one American too
many.
You know, my home state's to the west of here. Place called
Texas. And equidistant from Houston and New Orleans is the home
state of America's favorite humorist. Will Rogers. Once, Will
said of the bureaucracy, "We are always reading statistics and
figures. Half of America does nothing but prepare propaganda for
4
the other half to read. " Propaganda won't build a gateway to
prosperity. But partnerships can, and are.
Partnerships are cooperative efforts involving government,
private enterprise, and voluntary organizations. As Vice-
President, I supported the President's Task Force on Private
Sector Initiatives. And knowing how partnerships can spur
development, we have tried to build on what the Reagan
Administration fostered.
I think, for example, of the Minority Small Business and
Capital Ownership Development Program -- the "8-A" program --
which helps Hispanics and other minority-owned companies obtain
Federal contracts. Or our nationwide education and counseling
services for small business owners; today -- count 'em -- 13,000
retired executives voluntarily serve. And we've tried to spur
projects like loan program 7-A, which this year will grant $2.6
billion to help more than 265,000 firms. Projects which are
helping Hispanics travel America's gateway to the future.
These partnerships will aid the shop owner in Los Angeles,
the small developer in Des Moines. And SO will one final project
I'd like to mention: A partnership with the 1990 census. Today,
there are 19.5 million Hispanic-Americans. I urge you to make
them count. Tell your friends and neighbors to cooperate with
Census officials. Don't let the Decade of The Hispanic go
unreflected in this survey. So remember that the more accurate
the Census is, the greater Hispanics' influence. And how this
5
partnership -- like our other partnerships -- can help people
help themselves.
So far, I have talked of the prosperity which can better the
lives of every American. And in that context, let me speak of
our relationship with Mexico.
Two months ago, I met with President Salinas at the Economic
Summit. Since then, by restructuring her economy -- reducing
trade barriers -- and honoring her creditors through the pact
with the Bankers Advisory Committee -- Mexico has opened the
gateway of increased trade with America. We welcome this
commerce. For Mexico is our third-most important trading
partner. And we look forward to next month's State visit by
President Salinas. Together, we can build a gateway to the 1990s
that will provide both Mexico and America with economic
opportunity and stability.
Now, let me speak of another kind of trade. A more
destructive kind of trade. The drug trade.
Consider these statistics. Last year, the government
estimated that 23 million Americans used illegal drugs on a
"current" basis -- that is, at least once in the preceding 30
days. Last year, more than 8 million people used cocaine. And
almost 1 million used it once a week or more. Last year,
hundreds of thousands of babies were born to mothers who use
drugs -- babies born desperately sick, weeks or months premature.
A Nation with those numbers cannot long preserve its soul.
6
That is why three nights ago, I announced America's first
national, comprehensive, and coordinated strategy to wage
unconditional war against the scourge of drugs.
Our drug plan has four major elements.
First, enforcement, using our laws and criminal justice
system. For America must take back the streets. We need more
jails, more prisons, more courts, more prosecutors. And tougher
sentences. Drug dealers- deserve a gateway, all right -- a
gateway to the slammer. And for the ultimate drug violators --
the kingpins themselves -- they should receive the ultimate
penalty.
Second, interdiction, as a tool of foreign policy. Working
with other governments, we're going to break the international
drugs rings who grow and process cocaine and crack. I agree with
President Barco of Columbia: If you use cocaine, you are paying
for murder.
The third part of our strategy is treatment, to help addicts
who want to get clean. With special emphasis on expectant
mothers. And finally, our drug program aims to stop use before
it starts. Through education and prevention. From grade school
to graduate school.
This plan can help stop the trade I spoke of earlier. Some
trade builds lives. Drug trade takes lives. Lives like the New
York woman, Maria Hernandez, I talked about Tuesday night -- shot
to death in her bedroom one morning because she and her husband
7
had confronted local dealers. We must save lives. And end this
trade. But it won't come cheaply.
Maybe you tuned in Tuesday night. If so, you heard me
propose a 1990 drug budget totaling almost $8 billion -- the
largest single increase in history. An increase of $1.4 billion
for drug-related spending on law enforcement. Over $233 million
more for prevention programs. An additional $260 million in aid
next year for Columbia, Bolivia, and Peru, a five-year, $2-
billion program to counter the producers, the traffickers, and
the smugglers.
Yes, government will do its part. But as with any
partnership, government can't do it alone. We're all in this
together -- from cops to teachers, from parents to clergymen.
And we'll have to fight together to crush the drug menace at
every turn. Fighting in the barrios, and the boardrooms. In the
cities, and the towns. Winning kid-by-kid, house-by-house, and
neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Putting the emphasis where the
problem is -- locally, in the community.
Fellow parents and businessmen -- fellow Americans -- that's
where you come in. For drug use isn't merely numbers. It's the
young boy tormented by cocaine addiction. Or the pregnant mother
whose crack use impairs her child. At stake is the very future
of the Hispanic community. I'm referring to our kids.
So I challenge you: Get involved. There are so many who
need your help. Join grass-roots groups like the Miami Coalition
of leaders from business, education, government, and law
8
enforcement to stop drug use. Take the time to really know your
neighborhood at home and work. Help your church, and anti-drug
parents'groups. Support drug programs in your children's school.
Finally, let me ask you -- as fellow businessmen and women
-- to start something no one else can do: Use your place of
business as a storefront against drugs. Display brochures and
banners. Employ volunteer counselors. Be a symbol for your
community, and especially its youth. Join the ranks of the
caring and committed. Help win this great crusade.
Will you enlist? I believe you will. For Barbara and I
have spent much of our lives among Hispanic Americans. Building
a business. Raising children. Trying to live, like you, the
values of faith, family, work, community, and above all, freedom.
Our son Jeb's wife, Columba, is Hispanic. And they got three
kids. So, you see, the Bush family feels doubly blessed. The
Hispanic culture is our culture, too.
In Hispanic America, roots run deep -- and aspirations high.
Its people ask not the promise of success -- only the opportunity
to succeed.
In Hispanic America, citizens reject tyranny and oppression.
And the dependency which starves the spirit and cheats the soul.
Hispanic America is at her best when the challenge is
greatest. So together, let us open the gateways of prosperity
and stability. And build for our children a better tomorrow.
They are the trustees of America's future. Let their horizons
touch the sky.
9
I appreciate your kindness, and the chance to share this
occasion. God bless you, thank you all, and God bless America.
# # #
STAFFED FOR 2pm WED.
FILE
(Smith/Blessey)
September 5., 1989
DAVID
TELL
Draft Three
HISPANIC
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HISPANIC CHAMBER
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1989
President Quintela -- how about that, two Odessa boys on the
same platform. Secretaries Lujan and Cavazos -- and I'm proud to
say that ours is the first Administration to have two Hispanic
Cabinet officials. Ladies and gentlemen. Friends.
I want to thank you for that gracious introduction. And for
the warmth of your reception. And let me salute you for choosing
as your convention site this beautiful City by the River.
Pearl Buck once described falling "in love with Louisiana
generally and New Orleans in particular." Well, that feeling
helps make New Orleans special. And I take special pleasure in
being with you today.
For we meet not as strangers, but "vecinos" [Ve-CEE-noze:
Spanish for "neighbors"]. And as businessmen and women. But
mostly, perhaps, as citizens who understand how Hispanics have
helped America create a greater land for us all.
Nine years ago, America officially began The Decade of The
Hispanic. And now, at decade's end, Hispanics are America's
fastest-growing -- and, often -- fastest-rising minority.
Enriching America socially and academically, economically and
spiritually. Living, more than ever, the American Dream.
Et : td 9 PEP 68
2
In one sense, the past decade has reaffirmed that dream --
the dream which brought your parents, your grandparents, and some
of you to America. For you came to build a better life -- and
you are building it. Building it in our schools, our police
forces, and in small and large business. Building it for your
kids -- and my grandkids [PAUSE]
all eleven of them.
But in another sense, the past decade is but a preview of
coming attractions. For it can be a gateway to tomorrow -- much
as America has been a gateway for you. The theme of this
convention is "gateway to the Americas." Well, today it is
gateways I'd like to talk about: Gateways to the prosperity and
stability that make progress possible.
First, the gateway to the prosperity which fosters equal
opportunity. Or as Winston Churchill said: "Some people regard
private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look
on it as a COW they can milk. Not enough people see it as a
healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon."
Churchill spoke those words in 19 And in 1989 they're
more true than ever. For Hispanic business is a healthy horse.
America is that healthy wagon. And on the buckboard, with the
reins up-high, are entrepreneurs like you.
No government planner, for instance, decided that Marconi
would invent the wireless. Or that something called an auto
would rise from the dust of Dearborn. And what might have
happened -- or worse, what might not have happened -- had the
Wright brothers been forced to wait for Washington's approval
3
before testing their flying machine? [PAUSE]
If they had,
I might have come here today by steamboat, not by air.
They knew, as you do, that the gateway to prosperity isn't
bigger government. It's bigger dreams.
Look at Pedro Garza, a former migrant worker who overcame
disability to own a construction company with $4.5 million in
sales. Or Patricia Rivera, the Hispanic Businesswoman of the
Year. Or the father-and-son team of Louis and Fred Ruiz, who in
1964 started a food business in an old warehouse with a battered
stove, small freezer, and single mixer. And who now employ 534
workers. They prove -- as you do -- that while government can
create opportunity, it is Americans who seize opportunity.
Over the past decade, heroes like these -- and millions of
unsung Hispanic-American heroes -- have sought a ladder, not a
crutch. Here's a partial score card of your success: Since
1980, Hispanic-American-owned businesses have doubled. And
today, they total nearly 250,000. They boast more than
full-time employees. And earn $15 billion in receipts each year.
Impressive? You bet. Good enough? Never. For as long as one
Hispanic-American is bereft of hope, that is one American too
many.
You know, my home state's to the west of here. Place called
Texas. And equidistant from Houston and New Orleans is the home
state of America's favorite humorist. Will Rogers. Once, Will
said of the bureaucracy, "We are always reading statistics and
figures. Half of America does nothing but prepare propaganda for
4
the other half to read. " Propaganda won't build a gateway to
prosperity. But partnerships can, and are.
Partnerships are cooperative efforts involving government,
private enterprise, and voluntary organizations. As Vice-
President, I supported the President's Task Force on Private
Sector Initiatives. And knowing how partnerships can spur
development, we have tried to build on what the Reagan
Administration fostered.
I think, for example, of the Minority Small Business and
Capital Ownership Development Program -- the "8-A" program --
which helps Hispanics and other minority-owned companies obtain
Federal contracts. Or our nationwide education and counseling
services for small business owners; today -- count 'em -- 13,000
retired executives voluntarily serve. And we've tried to spur
projects like loan program 7-A, which this year will grant $2.6
billion to help more than 265,000 firms. Projects which are
helping Hispanics travel America's gateway to the future.
These partnerships will aid the shop owner in Los Angeles,
the small developer in Des Moines. And so will one final project
I'd like to mention: A partnership with the 1990 census. Today,
there are 19.5 million Hispanic-Americans. I urge you to make
them count. Tell your friends and neighbors to cooperate with
Census officials. Don't let the Decade of The Hispanic go
unreflected in this survey. So remember that the more accurate
the Census is, the greater Hispanics' influence. And how this
5
partnership -- like our other partnerships -- can help people
help themselves.
So far, I have talked of the prosperity which can better the
lives of every American. And in that context, let me speak of
our relationship with Mexico.
Two months ago, I met with President Salinas at the Economic
Summit. Since then, by restructuring her economy -- reducing
trade barriers -- and honoring her creditors through the pact
with the Bankers Advisory Committee -- Mexico has opened the
gateway of increased trade with America. We welcome this
commerce. For Mexico is our third-most important trading
partner. And we look forward to next month's State visit by
President Salinas. Together, we can build a gateway to the 1990s
that will provide both Mexico and America with economic
opportunity and stability.
Now, let me speak of another kind of trade. A more
destructive kind of trade. The drug trade.
Consider these statistics. Last year, the government
estimated that 23 million Americans used illegal drugs on a
"current" basis -- that is, at least once in the preceding 30
days. Last year, more than 8 million people used cocaine. And
almost 1 million used it once a week or more. Last year,
hundreds of thousands of babies were born to mothers who use
drugs -- babies born desperately sick, weeks or months premature.
A Nation with those numbers cannot long preserve its soul.
6
That is why three nights ago, I announced America's first
national, comprehensive, and coordinated strategy to wage
unconditional war against the scourge of drugs.
Our drug plan has four major elements.
First, enforcement, using our laws and criminal justice
system. For America must take back the streets. We need more
jails, more prisons, more courts, more prosecutors. And tougher
sentences. Drug dealers deserve a gateway, all right -- a
gateway to the slammer. And for the ultimate drug violators --
the kingpins themselves -- they should receive the ultimate
penalty.
Second, foreign policy. Working
with other governments, we're going to break the international
drugs rings who grow and process cocaine and crack. I agree with
President Barco of Columbia: If you use cocaine, you are paying
for murder.
(Not
for
only)
look
addicts
The third part of our strategy is treatment to help addicts
back
Speech
addicts donot
who want to get/clean. With special emphasis on expectant
clean
mothers. And finally, our drug program aims to stop use before
it starts. Through education and prevention. From grade school
to graduate school.
This plan can help stop the trade I spoke of earlier. Some
trade builds lives. Drug trade takes lives. Lives like the New
York woman, Maria Hernandez, I talked about Tuesday night -- shot
to death in her bedroom one morning because she and her husband
7
had confronted local dealers. We must save lives. And end this
trade. But it won't come cheaply.
Maybe you tuned in Tuesday night. If so, you heard me
Mention
propose a 1990 drug budget totaling almost $8 billion -- the
Insurance 68KX
largest single increase in history. An increase of $1.4 billion
for drug-related spending on law enforcement. Over $233 million
more for prevention programs. An additional $260 million in aid
next year for Columbia, Bolivia, and Peru, a five-year, $2-
billion program to counter the producers, the traffickers, and
the smugglers.
Yes, government will do its part. But as with any
partnership, government can't do it alone. We're all in this
together -- from cops to teachers, from parents to clergymen.
And we'll have to fight together to crush the drug menace at
every turn. Fighting in the barrios, and the boardrooms. In the
cities, and the towns. Winning kid-by-kid, house-by-house, and
neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Putting the emphasis where the
problem is -- locally, in the community.
Fellow parents and businessmen -- fellow Americans -- that's
where you come in. For drug use isn't merely numbers. It's the
young boy tormented by cocaine addiction. Or the pregnant mother
whose crack use impairs her child. At stake is the very future
of the Hispanic community. I'm referring to our kids.
So I challenge you: Get involved. There are so many who
need your help. Join grass-roots groups like the Miami Coalition
of leaders from business, education, government, and law
8
enforcement to stop drug use. Take the time to really know your
neighborhood at home and work. Help your church, and anti-drug
parents groups. Support drug programs in your children's school.
Finally, let me ask you -- as fellow businessmen and women
-- to start something no one else can do: Use your place of
business as a storefront against drugs. Display brochures and
banners. Employ volunteer counselors. Be a symbol for your
community, and especially its youth. Join the ranks of the
caring and committed. Help win this great crusade.
Will you enlist? I believe you will. For Barbara and I
have spent much of our lives among Hispanic Americans. Building
a business. Raising children. Trying to live, like you, the
values of faith, family, work, community, and above all, freedom.
Our son Jeb's wife, Columba, is Hispanic. And they've got three
kids. So, you see, the Bush family feels doubly blessed. The
Hispanic culture is our culture, too.
In Hispanic America, roots run deep -- and aspirations high.
Its people ask not the promise of success -- only the opportunity
to succeed.
In Hispanic America, citizens reject tyranny and oppression.
And the dependency which starves the spirit and cheats the soul.
Hispanic America is at her best when the challenge is
greatest. So together, let us open the gateways of prosperity
and stability. And build for our children a better tomorrow.
They are the trustees of America's future. Let their horizons
touch the sky.
9
I appreciate your kindness, and the chance to share this
occasion. God bless you, thank you all, and God bless America.
# # #
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
,9 SEP 54
September 6, 1989
MEMORANDUM FOR CHRISS WINSTON
FROM:
ROGER B. PORTER
RBP
SUBJECT:
Presidential Remarks: U.S. Hispanic Chamber Of
Commerce
In general, this is a solid draft. We do, however, have
a couple minor suggestions which we believe will improve the
remarks.
The Churchill quote in the third paragraph of page three
does not really support the point being made. Churchill was
commenting that socialists (who want to shoot the tiger) and
liberals (who want to milk it) are too numerous while there
are "not enough" people who view it as a horse. We suggest the
following modification: "First, the gateway to the prosperity
which fosters equal opportunity is the free enterprise system.
Winston Churchill noted that some people view free enterprise
as a predatory tiger to be shot and others look on it as a COW
they can milk. But not enough people see free enterprise for
what it really is: a healthy horse pulling a sturdy wagon.
The last sentence of the second full paragraph on page
three states, "that while government can create opportunity, it
is Americans who seize opportunity." Government does not
create opportunity. We suggest replacing that sentence with
"They prove -- as you do -- that while government, as guarantor
of liberty is necessary for opportunity, it is Americans who
seize opportunity.
If you have any questions or I can help in any other way,
please let me know.
CC: James W. Cicconi
Document No.
06977855
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
9/5/89
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
9/6/89
2:00 PM
SUBJECT:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: U.S. HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT
BATES
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
ROGERS
CARD
WINSTON
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
BENNETT
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm.
122, x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, September 6,
with a copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Blessey)
September 5, 1989
Draft Three
89 SEP 5 P2:43
HISPANIC
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HISPANIC CHAMBER
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1989
President Quintela -- how about that, two Odessa boys on the
same platform. Secretaries Lujan and Cavazos -- and I'm proud to
say that ours is the first Administration to have two Hispanic
Cabinet officials. Ladies and gentlemen. Friends.
I want to thank you for that gracious introduction. And for
the warmth of your reception. And let me salute you for choosing
as your convention site this beautiful City by the River.
Pearl Buck once described falling "in love with Louisiana
generally and New Orleans in particular." Well, that feeling
helps make New Orleans special. And I take special pleasure in
being with you today.
For we meet not as strangers, but "vecinos" [Ve-CEE-noze:
Spanish for "neighbors"]. And as businessmen and women. But
mostly, perhaps, as citizens who understand how Hispanics have
helped America create a greater land for us all.
Nine years ago, America officially began The Decade of The
Hispanic. And now, at decade's end, Hispanics are America's
fastest-growing -- and, often -- fastest-rising minority.
Enriching America socially and academically, economically and
spiritually. Living, more than ever, the American Dream.
2
In one sense, the past decade has reaffirmed that dream --
the dream which brought your parents, your grandparents, and some
of you to America. For you came to build a better life -- and
you are building it. Building it in our schools, our police
forces, and in small and large business. Building it for your
kids -- and my grandkids [PAUSE]
all eleven of them.
But in another sense, the past decade is but a preview of
coming attractions. For it can be a gateway to tomorrow -- much
as America has been a gateway for you. The theme of this
convention is "gateway to the Americas." Well, today it is
gateways I'd like to talk about: Gateways to the prosperity and
stability that make progress possible.
First, the gateway to the prosperity which fosters equal
opportunity. Or as Winston Churchill said: "Some people regard
private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look
on it as a COW they can milk. Not enough people see it as a
healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon. "
Churchill spoke those words in 19 And in 1989 they're
more true than ever. For Hispanic business is a healthy horse.
America is that healthy wagon. And on the buckboard, with the
reins up-high, are entrepreneurs like you.
No government planner, for instance, decided that Marconi
would invent the wireless. Or that something called an auto
would rise from the dust of Dearborn. And what might have
happened -- or worse, what might not have happened -- had the
Wright brothers been forced to wait for Washington's approval
3
before testing their flying machine? [PAUSE]
If they had,
I might have come here today by steamboat, not by air.
They knew, as you do, that the gateway to prosperity isn't
bigger government. It's bigger dreams.
Look at Pedro Garza, a former migrant worker who overcame
disability to own a construction company with $4.5 million in
sales. Or Patricia Rivera, the Hispanic Businesswoman of the
Year. Or the father-and-son team of Louis and Fred Ruiz, who in
1964 started a food business in an old warehouse with a battered
stove, small freezer, and single mixer. And who now employ 534
workers. They prove -- as you do -- that while government can
create opportunity, it is Americans who seize opportunity.
Over the past decade, heroes like these -- and millions of
unsung Hispanic-American heroes -- have sought a ladder, not a
crutch. Here's a partial score card of your success: Since
1980, Hispanic-American-owned businesses have doubled. And
today, they total nearly 250,000. They boast more than
full-time employees. And earn $15 billion in receipts each year.
Impressive? You bet. Good enough? Never. For as long as one
Hispanic-American is bereft of hope, that is one American too
many.
You know, my home state's to the west of here. Place called
Texas. And equidistant from Houston and New Orleans is the home
state of America's favorite humorist. Will Rogers. Once, Will
said of the bureaucracy, "We are always reading statistics and
figures. Half of America does nothing but prepare propaganda for
4
the other half to read. " Propaganda won't build a gateway to
prosperity. But partnerships can, and are.
Partnerships are cooperative efforts involving government,
private enterprise, and voluntary organizations. As Vice-
President, I supported the President's Task Force on Private
Sector Initiatives. And knowing how partnerships can spur
development, we have tried to build on what the Reagan
Administration fostered.
I think, for example, of the Minority Small Business and
Capital Ownership Development Program -- the "8-A" program --
which helps Hispanics and other minority-owned companies obtain
Federal contracts. Or our nationwide education and counseling
services for small business owners; today -- count 'em -- 13,000
retired executives voluntarily serve. And we've tried to spur
projects like loan program 7-A, which this year will grant $2.6
billion to help more than 265,000 firms. Projects which are
helping Hispanics travel America's gateway to the future.
These partnerships will aid the shop owner in Los Angeles,
the small developer in Des Moines. And so will one final project
I'd like to mention: A partnership with the 1990 census. Today,
there are 19.5 million Hispanic-Americans. I urge you to make
them count. Tell your friends and neighbors to cooperate with
Census officials. Don't let the Decade of The Hispanic go
unreflected in this survey. So remember that the more accurate
the Census is, the greater Hispanics' influence. And how this
5
partnership -- like our other partnerships -- can help people
help themselves.
So far, I have talked of the prosperity which can better the
lives of every American. And in that context, let me speak of
our relationship with Mexico.
Two months ago, I met with President Salinas at the Economic
Summit. Since then, by restructuring her economy -- reducing
trade barriers -- and honoring her creditors through the pact
with the Bankers Advisory Committee -- Mexico has opened the
gateway of increased trade with America. We welcome this
commerce. For Mexico is our third-most important trading
partner. And we look forward to next month's State visit by
President Salinas. Together, we can build a gateway to the 1990s
that will provide both Mexico and America with economic
opportunity and stability.
Now, let me speak of another kind of trade. A more
destructive kind of trade. The drug trade.
Consider these statistics. Last year, the government
estimated that 23 million Americans used illegal drugs on a
"current" basis -- that is, at least once in the preceding 30
days. Last year, more than 8 million people used cocaine. And
almost 1 million used it once a week or more. Last year,
hundreds of thousands of babies were born to mothers who use
drugs -- babies born desperately sick, weeks or months premature.
A Nation with those numbers cannot long preserve its soul.
6
That is why three nights ago, I announced America's first
national, comprehensive, and coordinated strategy to wage
unconditional war against the scourge of drugs.
Our drug plan has four major elements.
First, enforcement, using our laws and criminal justice
system. For America must take back the streets. We need more
jails, more prisons, more courts, more prosecutors. And tougher
sentences. Drug dealers deserve a gateway, all right -- a
gateway to the slammer. And for the ultimate drug violators --
the kingpins themselves -- they should receive the ultimate
penalty.
Second, interdiction, as a tool of foreign policy. Working
with other governments, we're going to break the international
drugs rings who grow and process cocaine and crack. I agree with
President Barco of Columbia: If you use cocaine, you are paying
for murder.
The third part of our strategy is treatment, to help addicts
who want to get clean. With special emphasis on expectant
mothers. And finally, our drug program aims to stop use before
it starts. Through education and prevention. From grade school
to graduate school.
This plan can help stop the trade I spoke of earlier. Some
trade builds lives. Drug trade takes lives. Lives like the New
York woman, Maria Hernandez, I talked about Tuesday night -- shot
to death in her bedroom one morning because she and her husband
7
had confronted local dealers. We must save lives. And end this
trade. But it won't come cheaply.
Maybe you tuned in Tuesday night. If so, you heard me
propose a 1990 drug budget totaling almost $8 billion -- the
largest single increase in history. An increase of $1.4 billion
for drug-related spending on law enforcement. Over $233 million
more for prevention programs. An additional $260 million in aid
next year for Columbia, Bolivia, and Peru, a five-year, $2-
billion program to counter the producers, the traffickers, and
the smugglers.
Yes, government will do its part. But as with any
partnership, government can't do it alone. We're all in this
together -- from cops to teachers, from parents to clergymen.
And we'll have to fight together to crush the drug menace at
every turn. Fighting in the barrios, and the boardrooms. In the
cities, and the towns. Winning kid-by-kid, house-by-house, and
neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Putting the emphasis where the
problem is -- locally, in the community.
Fellow parents and businessmen -- fellow Americans -- that's
where you come in. For drug use isn't merely numbers. It's the
young boy tormented by cocaine addiction. Or the pregnant mother
whose crack use impairs her child. At stake is the very future
of the Hispanic community. I'm referring to our kids.
So I challenge you: Get involved. There are so many who
need your help. Join grass-roots groups like the Miami Coalition
of leaders from business, education; government, and law
8
enforcement to stop drug use. Take the time to really know your
neighborhood at home and work. Help your church, and anti-drug
parents'groups. Support drug programs in your children's school.
Finally, let me ask you -- as fellow businessmen and women
-- to start something no one else can do: Use your place of
business as a storefront against drugs. Display brochures and
banners. Employ volunteer counselors. Be a symbol for your
community, and especially its youth. Join the ranks of the
caring and committed. Help win this great crusade.
Will you enlist? I believe you will. For Barbara and I
have spent much of our lives among Hispanic Americans. Building
a business. Raising children. Trying to live, like you, the
values of faith, family, work, community, and above all, freedom.
Our son Jeb's wife, Columba, is Hispanic. And they've got three
kids. So, you see, the Bush family feels doubly blessed. The
Hispanic culture is our culture, too.
In Hispanic America, roots run deep -- and aspirations high.
Its people ask not the promise of success -- only the opportunity
to succeed.
In Hispanic America, citizens reject tyranny and oppression.
And the dependency which starves the spirit and cheats the soul.
Hispanic America is at her best when the challenge is
greatest. So together, let us open the gateways of prosperity
and stability. And build for our children a better tomorrow.
They are the trustees of America's future. Let their horizons
touch the sky.
9
I appreciate your kindness, and the chance to share this
occasion. God bless you, thank you all, and God bless America.
# # #
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 6, 1989
89 SEP P3:23
Memorandum to Chriss Winston
From:
Jim Pinkertor Q
Subject:
Hispanic Chamber Draft Speech
2,5 This paragraph begs for using some examples of Hispanic
inventors rather than Marconi and the Wright brothers. Failing
that, we suggest using more up-to-date examples. James Fallow's
excellent book, More Like Us, has a number of examples of latter-
day success stories like Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Bill
Gates (college-dropout software entrepreneur, now a billionaire)
which exemplify the American promise of social and economic
opportunity even for those without the usual credentials, e.g.,
a college degree or an occupational license.
4,2,2 When we speak of the President's Task Force on Private
Sector Initiatives, it seems particularly useful to invoke the
image of the government as a catalyst for the private sector
rather than a partner, since the Task Force is really in the
business of replacing heavy-handed government initiative with
more flexible and nimble private sector involvement.
5,3,1
While mentioning President Salinas, perhaps we could
point out that Salinas was the first head of state that the
President met with after his election (while he was President-
Elect) -- further evidence of his special interest in Latin
America.
6,3,7
=
the ultimate penalty."
We suggest rephrasing to clearly convey what that penalty
is.
Thus: " the ultimate sentence: the death penalty."
8,5,1
"In Hispanic America, citizens reject tyranny and
oppression."
Of course, Hispanics are not tyrannized and oppressed, Vin
the usual meaning of those words, in America. We suggest
omitting the sentence. Further, "Hispanic America" is slightly
ambiguous because it could be taken to mean Latin America.
###
Document No.
06977855
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
9/5/89
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
9/6/89
2:00 PM
SUBJECT:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: U.S. HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT
BATES
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
ROGERS
CARD
WINSTON
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
BENNETT
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm.
122, x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, September 6,
with a copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
see comment on page /
Et Id 9 sear 68
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
it
89 SEP 5 P2:43
donofreber to wis can September (Smith Draft HISPANIC 5 Three 1989
in
Damus
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HISPANIC CHAMBER
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1989
President Quintela -- how about that, two Odessa boys on the
same platform. Secretaries Lujan and Cavazos -- and I'm proud to
say that ours is the first Administration to have two Hispanic
Cabinet officials. Ladies and gentlemen. Friends.
I want to thank you for that gracious introduction. And for
the warmth of your reception. And let me salute you for choosing
as your convention site this beautiful City by the River.
Pearl Buck once described falling "in love with Louisiana
generally and New Orleans in particular." Well, that feeling
helps make New Orleans special. And I take special pleasure in
being with you today.
For we meet not as strangers, but "vecinos" [Ve-CEE-noze:
Spanish for "neighbors"]. And as businessmen and women. But
mostly, perhaps, as citizens who understand how Hispanics have
helped America create a greater land for us all.
Nine years ago, America officially began The Decade of The
Hispanic. And now, at decade's end, Hispanics are America's
fastest-growing -- and, often -- fastest-rising minority.
Enriching America socially and academically, economically and
spiritually. Living, more than ever, the American Dream.
(Smith/Blessey)
September 5, 1989
Draft Three
89 SEP 5 P2: 43
HISPANIC
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HISPANIC CHAMBER
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1989
President Quintela -- how about that, two Odessa boys on the
same platform. Secretaries Lujan and Cavazos -- and I'm proud to
say that ours is the first Administration to have two Hispanic
Cabinet officials. Ladies and gentlemen. Friends.
I want to thank you for that gracious introduction. And for
the warmth of your reception. And let me salute you for choosing
as your convention site this beautiful City by the River.
Pearl Buck once described falling "in love with Louisiana
generally and New Orleans in particular." Well, that feeling
helps make New Orleans special. And I take special pleasure in
being with you today.
For we meet not as strangers, but "vecinos" [Ve-CEE-noze:
Spanish for "neighbors"]. And as businessmen and women. But
mostly, perhaps, as citizens who understand how Hispanics have
helped America create a greater land for us all.
Nine years ago, America officially began The Decade of The
Hispanic. And now, at decade's end, Hispanics are America's
fastest-growing -- and, often -- fastest-rising minority.
Enriching America socially and academically, economically and
spiritually. Living, more than ever, the American Dream.
2
In one sense, the past decade has reaffirmed that dream --
the dream which brought your parents, your grandparents, and some
of you to America. For you came to build a better life -- and
you are building it. Building it in our schools, our police
forces, and in small and large business. Building it for your
kids -- and my grandkids [PAUSE]
all eleven of them.
But in another sense, the past decade is but a preview of
coming attractions. For it can be a gateway to tomorrow -- much
as America has been a gateway for you. The theme of this
convention is "gateway to the Americas." " Well, today it is
gateways I'd like to talk about: Gateways to the prosperity and
stability that make progress possible.
First, the gateway to the prosperity which fosters equal
opportunity. Or as Winston Churchill said: "Some people regard
private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look
on it as a COW they can milk. Not enough people see it as a
healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon."
Churchill spoke those words in 19 And in 1989 they're
more true than ever. For Hispanic business is a healthy horse.
America is that healthy wagon. And on the buckboard, with the
reins up-high, are entrepreneurs like you.
No government planner, for instance, decided that Marconi
would invent the wireless. Or that something called an auto
would rise from the dust of Dearborn. And what might have
happened -- or worse, what might not have happened -- had the
Wright brothers been forced to wait for Washington's approval
3
before testing their flying machine? [PAUSE]
If they had,
I might have come here today by steamboat, not by air.
They knew, as you do, that the gateway to prosperity isn't
bigger government. It's bigger dreams.
Look at Pedro Garza, a former migrant worker who overcame
disability to own a construction company with $4.5 million in
sales. Or Patricia Rivera, the Hispanic Businesswoman of the
Year. Or the father-and-son team of Louis and Fred Ruiz, who in
1964 started a food business in an old warehouse with a battered
stove, small freezer, and single mixer. And who now employ 534
workers. They prove -- as you do -- that while government can
create opportunity, it is Americans who seize opportunity.
Over the past decade, heroes like these -- and millions of
unsung Hispanic-American heroes -- have sought a ladder, not a
crutch. Here's a partial score card of your success: Since
1980, Hispanic-American-owned businesses have doubled. And
today, they total nearly 250,000. They boast more than
full-time employees. And earn $15 billion in receipts each year.
Impressive? You bet. Good enough? Never. For as long as one
Hispanic-American is bereft of hope, that is one American too
many.
You know, my home state's to the west of here. Place called
Texas. And equidistant from Houston and New Orleans is the home
state of America's favorite humorist. Will Rogers. Once, Will
said of the bureaucracy, "We are always reading statistics and
figures. Half of America does nothing but prepare propaganda for
4
the other half to read.' " Propaganda won't build a gateway to
prosperity. But partnerships can, and are.
Partnerships are cooperative efforts involving government,
private enterprise, and voluntary organizations. As Vice-
President, I supported the President's Task Force on Private
Sector Initiatives. And knowing how partnerships can spur
development, we have tried to build on what the Reagan
Administration fostered.
I think, for example, of the Minority Small Business and
Capital Ownership Development Program -- the "8-A" program --
which helps Hispanics and other minority-owned companies obtain
Federal contracts. Or our nationwide education and counseling
services for small business owners; today -- count 'em -- 13,000
retired executives voluntarily serve. And we've tried to spur
projects like loan program 7-A, which this year will grant $2.6
billion to help more than 265,000 firms. Projects which are
helping Hispanics travel America's gateway to the future.
These partnerships will aid the shop owner in Los Angeles,
the small developer in Des Moines. And so will one final project
I'd like to mention: A partnership with the 1990 census. Today,
there are 19.5 million Hispanic-Americans. I urge you to make
them count. Tell your friends and neighbors to cooperate with
Census officials. Don't let the Decade of The Hispanic go
unreflected in this survey. So remember that the more accurate
the Census is, the greater Hispanics' influence. And how this
5
partnership -- like our other partnerships -- can help people
help themselves.
So far, I have talked of the prosperity which can better the
lives of every American. And in that context, let me speak of
our relationship with Mexico.
Two months ago, I met with President Salinas at the Economic
Summit. Since then, by restructuring her economy -- reducing
trade barriers -- and honoring her creditors through the pact
with the Bankers Advisory Committee -- Mexico has opened the
gateway of increased trade with America. We welcome this
commerce. For Mexico is our third-most important trading
partner. And we look forward to next month's State visit by
President Salinas. Together, we can build a gateway to the 1990s
that will provide both Mexico and America with economic
opportunity and stability.
Now, let me speak of another kind of trade. A more
destructive kind of trade. The drug trade.
Consider these statistics. Last year, the government
estimated that 23 million Americans used illegal drugs on a
"current" basis -- that is, at least once in the preceding 30
days. Last year, more than 8 million people used cocaine. And
almost 1 million used it once a week or more. Last year,
hundreds of thousands of babies were born to mothers who use
drugs -- babies born desperately sick, weeks or months premature.
A Nation with those numbers cannot long preserve its soul.
6
That is why three nights ago, I announced America's first
national, comprehensive, and coordinated strategy to wage
unconditional war against the scourge of drugs.
Our drug plan has four major elements.
First, enforcement, using our laws and criminal justice
system. For America must take back the streets. We need more
jails, more prisons, more courts, more prosecutors. And tougher
sentences. Drug dealers deserve a gateway, all right -- a
gateway to the slammer. And for the ultimate drug violators --
the kingpins themselves -- they should receive the ultimate
penalty.
Second, interdiction, as a tool of foreign policy. Working
with other governments, we're going to break the international
drugs rings who grow and process cocaine and crack. I agree with
President Barco of Columbia: If you use cocaine, you are paying
for murder.
The third part of our strategy is treatment, to help addicts
who want to get clean. With special emphasis on expectant
mothers. And finally, our drug program aims to stop use before
it starts. Through education and prevention. From grade school
to graduate school.
This plan can help stop the trade I spoke of earlier. Some
trade builds lives. Drug trade takes lives. Lives like the New
York woman, Maria Hernandez, I talked about Tuesday night -- shot
to death in her bedroom one morning because she and her husband
7
had confronted local dealers. We must save lives. And end this
trade. But it won't come cheaply.
Maybe you tuned in Tuesday night. If so, you heard me
propose a 1990 drug budget totaling almost $8 billion -- the
largest single increase in history. An increase of $1.4 billion
for drug-related spending on law enforcement. Over $233 million
more for prevention programs. An additional $260 million in aid
next year for Columbia, Bolivia, and Peru, a five-year, $2-
billion program to counter the producers, the traffickers, and
the smugglers.
Yes, government will do its part. But as with any
partnership, government can't do it alone. We're all in this
together -- from cops to teachers, from parents to clergymen.
And we'll have to fight together to crush the drug menace at
every turn. Fighting in the barrios, and the boardrooms. In the
cities, and the towns. Winning kid-by-kid, house-by-house, and
neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Putting the emphasis where the
problem is -- locally, in the community.
Fellow parents and businessmen -- fellow Americans -- that's
where you come in. For drug use isn't merely numbers. It's the
young boy tormented by cocaine addiction. Or the pregnant mother
whose crack use impairs her child. At stake is the very future
of the Hispanic community. I'm referring to our kids.
So I challenge you: Get involved. There are so many who
need your help. Join grass-roots groups like the Miami Coalition
of leaders from business, education, government, and law
8
enforcement to stop drug use. Take the time to really know your
neighborhood at home and work. Help your church, and anti-drug
parents groups. Support drug programs in your children's school.
Finally, let me ask you -- as fellow businessmen and women
-- to start something no one else can do: Use your place of
business as a storefront against drugs. Display brochures and
banners. Employ volunteer counselors. Be a symbol for your
community, and especially its youth. Join the ranks of the
caring and committed. Help win this great crusade.
Will you enlist? I believe you will. For Barbara and I
have spent much of our lives among Hispanic Americans. Building
a business. Raising children. Trying to live, like you, the
values of faith, family, work, community, and above all, freedom.
Our son Jeb's wife, Columba, is Hispanic. And they've got three
kids. So, you see, the Bush family feels doubly blessed. The
Hispanic culture is our culture, too.
In Hispanic America, roots run deep -- and aspirations high.
Its people ask not the promise of success -- only the opportunity
to succeed.
In Hispanic America, citizens reject tyranny and oppression.
And the dependency which starves the spirit and cheats the soul.
Hispanic America is at her best when the challenge is
greatest. So together, let us open the gateways of prosperity
and stability. And build for our children a better tomorrow.
They are the trustees of America's future. Let their horizons
touch the sky.
9
I appreciate your kindness, and the chance to share this
occasion. God bless you, thank you all, and God bless America.
# # #