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Fraternal Congress Address. 10/3/91 [OA 6037]
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17
3
5
FRATERNAL CONGRESS
GRAND HYATT HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
2:00 PM
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THAT WARM WELCOME. THANK
YOU, PAT DONLIN [CURRENT FRATERNAL CONGRESS PRESIDENT;
ALSO KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS GENERAL COUNSEL], FOR THE KIND
INTRODUCTION. BISHOP DAILY, IT'S AN HONOR TO BE WITH
YOU. MAYOR SHARON PRATT DIXON. MAY I ALSO RECOGNIZE
ED MOSKAL [PRESIDENT, POLISH NATIONAL ALLIANCE] AND
JAMES WEDDLE [WEDD - UHL] [PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL
ORDER OF FORESTERS], AND THE MANY OTHER FRATERNAL
SOCIETY LEADERS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WHEN AMERICA WON ITS
INDEPENDENCE TWO CENTURIES AGO, OUR FOUNDERS CHOSE A
NATIONAL MOTTO. THEY DECIDED UPON E PLURIBUS UNUM: OUT
OF MANY, ONE. IT SYMBOLIZED THE FEDERAL UNION OF THE
THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES, AND CAPTURED THE NEW NATION'S
SPIRIT OF OPENNESS AND TOLERANCE AND LIBERTY. //
- 2 -
EARLY AMERICA WAS NOT THE ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS
MELTING POT OF TODAY, BUT NEITHER WAS IT MONOLITHIC. A
GREAT RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY AROSE IN OUR LAND FROM
PURITAN NEW ENGLAND, THROUGH NEWPORT AND NEW
AMSTERDAM'S EARLY JEWISH SETTLEMENTS, THROUGH THE
MIDDLE ATLANTIC COMMUNITIES OF DUTCH CALVINISTS AND
GERMAN LUTHERANS, THROUGH MARYLAND'S CATHOLIC COLONY TO
THE SOUTHERN STATES' ANGLICANS AND PRESBYTERIANS.
CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION OF FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE
MADE THE MELTING POT POSSIBLE, EVEN INEVITABLE.
E
PLURIBUS UNUM BECAME A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY. TRUE
TO OUR MOTTO, AMERICA ATTRACTED SLOVAKS AND POLES,
ITALIANS AND GREEKS, CUBANS AND VIETNAMESE, CHINESE AND
LEBANESE AND IRISH BY THE MILLIONS.
- 3 -
AMERICA BECAME A BEEHIVE OF COMMUNITY SELF-HELP, OF
FRATERNALISM. FRATERNAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES HELPED
MILLIONS OF IMMIGRANTS MAKE THE ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL
TRANSITION FROM THE OLD WORLD TO THE NEW. FRATERNAL
SOCIETIES OFFERED LIFE INSURANCE AND HEALTH INSURANCE
TO AMERICANS WHO MIGHT NOT OTHERWISE HAVE FOUND THOSE
PROTECTIONS. LOCAL LODGES AND COUNCILS OF FRATERNAL
GROUPS GAVE, AND STILL GIVE, MILLIONS OF HOURS TO
VOLUNTARY SOCIAL SERVICE.
MOTIVATED BY FRATERNAL IDEALS, MILLIONS OF YOUR
MEMBERS BRING CHEER TO RESIDENTS OF NURSING HOMES,
SHARE FRIENDSHIP WITH RETARDED KIDS, GIVE ELDERLY
NEIGHBORS RIDES TO THE STORE, TO CHURCH, TO THE DOCTOR.
YOUR MEMBERS' VOLUNTARY GIFTS CONTRIBUTE HUNDREDS OF
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO EDUCATIONAL, MEDICAL AND SOCIAL
INSTITUTIONS. THE FRATERNALIST TRADITION ILLUSTRATES
AMERICA'S DISTINCTIVE COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY SERVICE
-- AND VOLUNTARY SERVICE FLOURISHES MORE IN AMERICA
THAN IN ANY OTHER WESTERN SOCIETY. FRATERNAL SOCIETIES
WERE THE PRIME EXAMPLES I LISTED IN 1988, WHEN I FIRST
SPOKE OF AMERICA'S "POINTS OF LIGHT. II //
- 4 -
TODAY, WE LOOK TO VOLUNTARY FRATERNALISM TO LEAD US
BACK TO OUR ROOTS AND AWAY FROM A DEBILITATING SOCIAL
EXPERIMENT -- GOVERNMENT PATERNALISM.
//
BEFORE THE ADVENT OF THE MODERN WELFARE STATE,
VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS - -- USUALLY RELIGIOUS OR
FRATERNAL IN CHARACTER - -- PROVIDED MOST SOCIAL
SERVICES. FORTUNATELY, WE STILL HAVE A STRONG
VOLUNTARY SECTOR IN SOCIAL SERVICES, AND WE NEED IT
MORE THAN EVER. //
VOLUNTARY SOCIAL SERVICE INSTITUTIONS PROVIDE
CREATIVE COMPETITION FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND OTHER
VOLUNTARY GROUPS. THEY OFFER NOT JUST AID, BUT ALSO
CHOICE, TO THOSE WHOM THEY SERVE. // THEY BELIE THE
DANGEROUS NOTION THAT ANYTHING PUBLIC MUST BE
GOVERNMENTAL. //
WE MUST NOT ALLOW THE GOVERNMENT TO CROWD VOLUNTARY
GROUPS OUT OF THE SOCIAL SERVICES FIELD. NOR SHOULD WE
LET THE GOVERNMENT MONOPOLIZE PUBLIC EDUCATION. //
- 5 -
AMERICA NEEDS TO REVISE - -- ACTUALLY, RENEW - -- ITS
THINKING ABOUT PUBLIC EDUCATION. ///
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES, AMERICANS HAVE SOUGHT TO
PROVIDE QUALITY EDUCATION AS UNIVERSALLY AS POSSIBLE.
HISTORICALLY OUR SCHOOLS HAVE SERVED THE SAME PUBLIC
PURPOSE, WHETHER THEIR ORGANIZERS WERE METHODIST
PASTORS OR CATHOLIC NUNS OR COUNTY COUNCILS. STRICTLY
SPEAKING, ANY SCHOOL THAT MEETS FUNDAMENTAL STATE
STANDARDS, AND DOES NOT VIOLATE ANTI-DISCRIMINATION
LAWS, PROVIDES PUBLIC EDUCATION.
BUT SCHOOLS THAT AREN'T OPERATED BY GOVERNMENT AND
FUNDED BY TAX DOLLARS ARE FINDING IT HARDER AND HARDER
TO SURVIVE ON SUCH AN UNEVEN FINANCIAL PLAYING FIELD.
NOT MANY PARENTS CAN AFFORD BOTH HIGH TAX LEVIES AND
PRIVATE- OR PAROCHIAL-SCHOOL TUITION.
- 6 -
SURELY MANY AMONG YOU HAVE WRESTLED WITH A "CHOICE"
THAT WASN'T A FAIR CHOICE. // MAYBE YOU WANTED YOUR
SON OR DAUGHTER TO ATTEND A CHRISTIAN DAY SCHOOL OR A
LUTHERAN HIGH SCHOOL, BUT COULDN'T AFFORD TO. //
OUR AMERICA 2000 EDUCATION STRATEGY AIMS TO RESTORE
REAL FREEDOM FOR PARENTS TO CHOOSE SCHOOLS FOR THEIR
CHILDREN. 11 WE'RE CONFIDENT THAT GREATER CHOICE WILL
ENCOURAGE CREATIVE COMPETITION AMONG PUBLIC, PRIVATE
AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS, IMPROVING EDUCATION FOR
EVERYONE. AT THE SAME TIME WE WANT TO FOSTER
IMAGINATIVE NEW APPROACHES TO SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND
MANAGEMENT. WE'RE ENLISTING PARENTS, INNOVATIVE
TEACHERS, BUSINESS LEADERS, CHURCHES AND VOLUNTARY
ASSOCIATIONS IN THE ENTERPRISE OF CREATING "NEW
AMERICAN SCHOOLS."
- 7 -
I HOPE YOU WILL JOIN US IN WORKING TO RENEW
AMERICAN EDUCATION. YOU CAN HELP BY GETTING THE
MESSAGE TO YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, YOUR STATE
LEGISLATORS, AND YOUR LOCAL SCHOOL OFFICIALS. AND YOU
CAN HELP BY GETTING INVOLVED IN YOUR SCHOOLS.
BUT AS AMBITIOUS AND PROMISING AS THESE FINANCIAL
AND ORGANIZATIONAL REFORMS ARE, THERE'S FAR MORE WE ALL
MUST DO TO IMPROVE AMERICAN EDUCATION.
SCHOOLING TAKES UP JUST A SMALL PART OF A
YOUNGSTER'S TIME. IT MAY SURPRISE YOU HOW LITTLE.
FROM KINDERGARTEN TO HIGH-SCHOOL GRADUATION, OUR
CHILDREN ON AVERAGE SPEND ONLY NINE PERCENT OF THEIR
TIME IN THEIR SCHOOL. THAT'S JUST ONE-ELEVENTH OF THE
TIME.
OUR CHILDREN SPEND THE REMAINING 91 PERCENT OF
THEIR TIME AT HOME, OR PLAYING WITH FRIENDS, OR MAYBE
OUT AT A VIDEO ARCADE.
- 8 -
HERE'S THE MOST SHOCKING STATISTIC: CHILDREN IN
ONE SURVEY SAID THAT THEY SPEND JUST 15 MINUTES A DAY
TALKING WITH THEIR PARENTS -- JUST 15 MINUTES! ///
MOREOVER, THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION REPORTS THAT
OUR EIGHTH-GRADERS SPEND AN AVERAGE OF MORE THAN 21
HOURS PER WEEK WATCHING TELEVISION BUT FEWER THAN SIX
HOURS A WEEK DOING HOMEWORK. IF THESE SURVEYS ACTUALLY
REFLECT WIDER PATTERNS, WE COULD MAKE OUR SCHOOLS THE
BEST IN THE WORLD -- AND STILL FIND OURSELVES IN DEEP
TROUBLE. // KIDS AND PARENTS HAVE TO TALK, AND PARENTS
HAVE TO TAKE AN ACTIVE ROLE IN ENCOURAGING THEIR
CHILDREN TO LEARN AND EXCEL IN SCHOOL. //
so AS OUR ADMINISTRATION WORKS FOR REFORMS TO GIVE
PARENTS MORE CHOICE IN SCHOOLS, NATURALLY WE WANT
PARENTS TO JOIN US -- TO SPEAK UP AND FIGHT FOR THEIR
RIGHTFUL FREEDOMS. WE WANT YOU TO JOIN US IN THIS
CAUSE. //
- 9 -
EVEN MORE FUNDAMENTALLY, OUR KIDS' FUTURE -- OUR
NATION'S FUTURE -- DEMANDS THAT PARENTS RESPONSIBLY USE
ALL THE FREEDOM AND POWER THEY ALREADY HAVE. PARENTS
OR GUARDIANS -- WITH SOME HELP FROM GRANDPARENTS AND
PASTORS AND GOOD NEIGHBORS -- MOLD OUR CHILDREN'S MORAL
CHARACTER. THEY SUPPLY THE MOTIVATION AND DISCIPLINE
YOUNG PEOPLE NEED.
LEARNING BEGINS AT HOME, WHETHER THE SUBJECT IS
MATH OR SCIENCE OR LITERATURE OR CIVIC VIRTUE. I HOPE
PEOPLE HAVEN'T BECOME so ACCUSTOMED TO A BIG GOVERNMENT
ROLE IN EDUCATION THAT THEY FORGET THAT THE REAL
RESPONSIBILITY FOR EDUCATION BEGINS AND ENDS AT HOME.
//
DE TOCQUEVILLE UNDERSTOOD. // "THERE IS NO COUNTRY
IN THE WORLD," HE WROTE, "IN WHICH EVERYTHING CAN BE
PROVIDED FOR BY THE LAWS, OR IN WHICH POLITICAL
INSTITUTIONS CAN PROVE A SUBSTITUTE FOR COMMON SENSE
AND PUBLIC MORALITY.' //
- 10 -
THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION UNDERSTOOD. // so
DID THE GREAT MEN AND WOMEN, A CENTURY LATER, WHO
FOUNDED AMERICA'S FLOURISHING ALLIANCE OF FRATERNAL
SOCIETIES. //
I AM CONFIDENT THAT YOU, Too, UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT
THE RESPONSIBILITIES THAT ACCOMPANY OUR MOST PRECIOUS
FREEDOMS. IT WASN'T COSTLY, ACTIVIST GOVERNMENT THAT
MADE AMERICA GREAT. // OUR STRENGTH AND GENEROSITY
FLOWED FROM INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVES AND VOLUNTARY
ASSOCIATIONS. // PERSONAL FAITH INSPIRES PUBLIC
PROGRESS. //
THE AMERICAN PROMISE THAT BECKONED YOUR FATHERS AND
FOREFATHERS TO THESE SHORES REACHES OUT TO NEW
GENERATIONS, TO NEW WAVES OF IMMIGRANTS. WITH YOUR
NUMBERS, WITH YOUR STRENGTH OF SPIRIT, I KNOW AMERICA'S
FRATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS WILL PERFORM A GREAT PART IN
KEEPING THIS PROMISE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME. ///
THANK YOU AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU.
#
#
#
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
10/1/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
SUBJECT:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS ADDRESS
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
SNOW
CARD
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
The attached has been forwarded to the President.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
01 SEP 30 P5: 53
September 30, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
DAVID DEMAREST
TONY SNOW TS
FROM:
JOSEPH P. DUGGAN & is
SUBJECT:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS ADDRESS
On Thursday, October 3rd at 2:00 p.m. you will deliver
remarks (eleven minutes) to 1,000 members of the National
Fraternal Congress of America at Washington D.C.'s Grand Hyatt.
Your speech focuses on the contributions of fraternal societies
throughout America's history, and the integral role these groups
continue to play today. Your remarks promote the America 2000
education reforms, especially parental choice.
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 30, 1991
Draft Three
FRAT.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS
GRAND HYATT HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
2:00 PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later. ]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, our Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A great religious
diversity arose in our land from Puritan New England, through
Newport and New Amsterdam's early Jewish settlements, through the
Middle Atlantic communities of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
2
Slovaks and Poles, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life insurance and
health insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found
those protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups
gave, and still give, millions of hours to voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to community service -- and
voluntary service flourishes more in America than in any other
Western society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I
listed in 1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of
light. " //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. //
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. 11
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. //
We must not allow the government to crowd voluntary groups
out of the social services field. Nor should we let the
government monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education.
From the earliest times, Americans have sought to provide
quality education as universally as possible. Historically our
schools have served the same public purpose, whether their
organizers were Methodist pastors or Catholic nuns or county
councils. Strictly speaking, any school that meets fundamental
state standards, and does not violate anti-discrimination laws,
provides public education.
But schools that aren't operated by government and funded by
tax dollars are finding it harder and harder to survive on such
an uneven financial playing field. Not many parents can afford
both high tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
Surely many among you have wrestled with a "choice" that
wasn't a fair choice. Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to
4
attend a Christian day school or a Lutheran high school, but
couldn't afford to.
Our America 2000 education strategy aims to restore real
freedom for parents to choose schools for their children. We're
confident that greater choice will encourage creative competition
among public, private and parochial schools, improving education
for everyone. At the same time we want to foster imaginative new
approaches to school organization and management. We're
enlisting parents, innovative teachers, business leaders,
churches and voluntary associations in the enterprise of creating
"New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From kindergarten to high-
school graduation, our children on average spend only nine
percent of their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh
of the time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
5
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
parents -- just 15 minutes! Moreover, the U.S. Department of
Education reports that our eighth-graders spend an average of
more than 21 hours per week watching television but fewer than
six hours a week doing homework. If these surveys actually
reflect wider patterns, we could make our schools the best in the
world and still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents
have to talk, and parents have to take an active role in
encouraging their children to learn and excel in school.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
6
De Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the
world," he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the
laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute
for common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. Our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 30, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
DAVID DEMAREST
TONY SNOW TS
FROM:
JOSEPH P. DUGGAN I PD
SUBJECT:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS ADDRESS
On Thursday, October 3rd at 2:00 p.m. you will deliver
remarks (eleven minutes) to 1,000 members of the National
Fraternal Congress of America at Washington D.C.'s Grand Hyatt.
Your speech focuses on the contributions of fraternal societies
throughout America's history, and the integral role these groups
continue to play today. Your remarks promote the America 2000
education reforms, especially parental choice.
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 30, 1991
Draft Three
FRAT.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
GRAND HYATT HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
2:00 PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later.]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, our Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A great religious
diversity arose in our land from Puritan New England, through
Newport and New Amsterdam's early Jewish settlements, through the
Middle Atlantic communities of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
2
Slovaks and Poles, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life insurance and
health insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found
those protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups
gave, and still give, millions of hours to voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to community service -- and
voluntary service flourishes more in America than in any other
Western society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I
listed in 1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of
light. " //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. / /
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. //
We must not allow the government to crowd voluntary groups
out of the social services field. Nor should we let the
government monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education.
From the earliest times, Americans have sought to provide
quality education as universally as possible. Historically our
schools have served the same public purpose, whether their
organizers were Methodist pastors or Catholic nuns or county
councils. Strictly speaking, any school that meets fundamental
state standards, and does not violate anti-discrimination laws,
provides public education.
But schools that aren't operated by government and funded by
tax dollars are finding it harder and harder to survive on such
an uneven financial playing field. Not many parents can afford
both high tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
Surely many among you have wrestled with a "choice" that
wasn't a fair choice. Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to
5
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
parents -- just 15 minutes! Moreover, the U.S. Department of
Education reports that our eighth-graders spend an average of
more than 21 hours per week watching television but fewer than
six hours a week doing homework. If these surveys actually
reflect wider patterns, we could make our schools the best in the
world and still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents
have to talk, and parents have to take an active role in
encouraging their children to learn and excel in school.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
6
De Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the
world," he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the
laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute
for common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. Our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
FRATERNAL CONGRESS
GRAND HYATT HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
2:00 PM
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THAT WARM WELCOME. THANK
YOU, PAT DONLIN [CURRENT FRATERNAL CONGRESS PRESIDENT;
ALSO KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS GENERAL COUNSEL], FOR THE KIND
INTRODUCTION. BISHOP DAILY, IT'S AN HONOR TO BE WITH
YOU. MAYOR SHARON PRATT DIXON. MAY I ALSO RECOGNIZE
ED MOSKAL [PRESIDENT, POLISH NATIONAL ALLIANCE] AND
JAMES WEDDLE [WEDD - UHL] [PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL
ORDER OF FORESTERS], AND THE MANY OTHER FRATERNAL
SOCIETY LEADERS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WHEN AMERICA WON ITS
INDEPENDENCE TWO CENTURIES AGO, OUR FOUNDERS CHOSE A
NATIONAL MOTTO. THEY DECIDED UPON E PLURIBUS UNUM: OUT
OF MANY, ONE. IT SYMBOLIZED THE FEDERAL UNION OF THE
THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES, AND CAPTURED THE NEW NATION'S
SPIRIT OF OPENNESS AND TOLERANCE AND LIBERTY. //
- 2 -
EARLY AMERICA WAS NOT THE ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS
MELTING POT OF TODAY, BUT NEITHER WAS IT MONOLITHIC. A
GREAT RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY AROSE IN OUR LAND FROM
PURITAN NEW ENGLAND, THROUGH NEWPORT AND NEW
AMSTERDAM'S EARLY JEWISH SETTLEMENTS, THROUGH THE
MIDDLE ATLANTIC COMMUNITIES OF DUTCH CALVINISTS AND
GERMAN LUTHERANS, THROUGH MARYLAND'S CATHOLIC COLONY TO
THE SOUTHERN STATES' ANGLICANS AND PRESBYTERIANS.
CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION OF FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE
MADE THE MELTING POT POSSIBLE, EVEN INEVITABLE.
E
PLURIBUS UNUM BECAME A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY. TRUE
TO OUR MOTTO, AMERICA ATTRACTED SLOVAKS AND POLES,
ITALIANS AND GREEKS, CUBANS AND VIETNAMESE, CHINESE AND
LEBANESE AND IRISH BY THE MILLIONS.
- 3 -
AMERICA BECAME A BEEHIVE OF COMMUNITY SELF-HELP, OF
FRATERNALISM. FRATERNAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES HELPED
MILLIONS OF IMMIGRANTS MAKE THE ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL
TRANSITION FROM THE OLD WORLD TO THE NEW. FRATERNAL
SOCIETIES OFFERED LIFE INSURANCE AND HEALTH INSURANCE
TO AMERICANS WHO MIGHT NOT OTHERWISE HAVE FOUND THOSE
PROTECTIONS. LOCAL LODGES AND COUNCILS OF FRATERNAL
GROUPS GAVE, AND STILL GIVE, MILLIONS OF HOURS TO
VOLUNTARY SOCIAL SERVICE.
MOTIVATED BY FRATERNAL IDEALS, MILLIONS OF YOUR
MEMBERS BRING CHEER TO RESIDENTS OF NURSING HOMES,
SHARE FRIENDSHIP WITH RETARDED KIDS, GIVE ELDERLY
NEIGHBORS RIDES TO THE STORE, TO CHURCH, TO THE DOCTOR.
YOUR MEMBERS' VOLUNTARY GIFTS CONTRIBUTE HUNDREDS OF
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO EDUCATIONAL, MEDICAL AND SOCIAL
INSTITUTIONS. THE FRATERNALIST TRADITION ILLUSTRATES
AMERICA'S DISTINCTIVE COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY SERVICE
-- AND VOLUNTARY SERVICE FLOURISHES MORE IN AMERICA
THAN IN ANY OTHER WESTERN SOCIETY. FRATERNAL SOCIETIES
WERE THE PRIME EXAMPLES I LISTED IN 1988, WHEN I FIRST
SPOKE OF AMERICA'S "POINTS OF LIGHT." //
- 4 -
TODAY, WE LOOK TO VOLUNTARY FRATERNALISM TO LEAD US
BACK TO OUR ROOTS AND AWAY FROM A DEBILITATING SOCIAL
EXPERIMENT -- GOVERNMENT PATERNALISM.
//
BEFORE THE ADVENT OF THE MODERN WELFARE STATE,
VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS - -- USUALLY RELIGIOUS OR
FRATERNAL IN CHARACTER - -- PROVIDED MOST SOCIAL
SERVICES. FORTUNATELY, WE STILL HAVE A STRONG
VOLUNTARY SECTOR IN SOCIAL SERVICES, AND WE NEED IT
MORE THAN EVER. //
VOLUNTARY SOCIAL SERVICE INSTITUTIONS PROVIDE
CREATIVE COMPETITION FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND OTHER
VOLUNTARY GROUPS. THEY OFFER NOT JUST AID, BUT ALSO
CHOICE, TO THOSE WHOM THEY SERVE. // THEY BELIE THE
DANGEROUS NOTION THAT ANYTHING PUBLIC MUST BE
GOVERNMENTAL. //
WE MUST NOT ALLOW THE GOVERNMENT TO CROWD VOLUNTARY
GROUPS OUT OF THE SOCIAL SERVICES FIELD. NOR SHOULD WE
LET THE GOVERNMENT MONOPOLIZE PUBLIC EDUCATION. //
- 5 -
AMERICA NEEDS TO REVISE -- ACTUALLY, RENEW -- ITS
THINKING ABOUT PUBLIC EDUCATION. ///
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES, AMERICANS HAVE SOUGHT TO
PROVIDE QUALITY EDUCATION AS UNIVERSALLY AS POSSIBLE.
HISTORICALLY OUR SCHOOLS HAVE SERVED THE SAME PUBLIC
PURPOSE, WHETHER THEIR ORGANIZERS WERE METHODIST
PASTORS OR CATHOLIC NUNS OR COUNTY COUNCILS. STRICTLY
SPEAKING, ANY SCHOOL THAT MEETS FUNDAMENTAL STATE
STANDARDS, AND DOES NOT VIOLATE ANTI-DISCRIMINATION
LAWS, PROVIDES PUBLIC EDUCATION.
BUT SCHOOLS THAT AREN'T OPERATED BY GOVERNMENT AND
FUNDED BY TAX DOLLARS ARE FINDING IT HARDER AND HARDER
TO SURVIVE ON SUCH AN UNEVEN FINANCIAL PLAYING FIELD.
NOT MANY PARENTS CAN AFFORD BOTH HIGH TAX LEVIES AND
PRIVATE- OR PAROCHIAL-SCHOOL TUITION.
- 6 -
SURELY MANY AMONG YOU HAVE WRESTLED WITH A "CHOICE"
THAT WASN'T A FAIR CHOICE. // MAYBE YOU WANTED YOUR
SON OR DAUGHTER TO ATTEND A CHRISTIAN DAY SCHOOL OR A
LUTHERAN HIGH SCHOOL, BUT COULDN'T AFFORD TO. //
OUR AMERICA 2000 EDUCATION STRATEGY AIMS TO RESTORE
REAL FREEDOM FOR PARENTS TO CHOOSE SCHOOLS FOR THEIR
CHILDREN. 11 WE'RE CONFIDENT THAT GREATER CHOICE WILL
ENCOURAGE CREATIVE COMPETITION AMONG PUBLIC, PRIVATE
AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS, IMPROVING EDUCATION FOR
EVERYONE. AT THE SAME TIME WE WANT TO FOSTER
IMAGINATIVE NEW APPROACHES TO SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND
MANAGEMENT. WE'RE ENLISTING PARENTS, INNOVATIVE
TEACHERS, BUSINESS LEADERS, CHURCHES AND VOLUNTARY
ASSOCIATIONS IN THE ENTERPRISE OF CREATING "NEW
AMERICAN SCHOOLS."
- 7 -
I HOPE YOU WILL JOIN US IN WORKING TO RENEW
AMERICAN EDUCATION. YOU CAN HELP BY GETTING THE
MESSAGE TO YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, YOUR STATE
LEGISLATORS, AND YOUR LOCAL SCHOOL OFFICIALS. AND YOU
CAN HELP BY GETTING INVOLVED IN YOUR SCHOOLS.
BUT AS AMBITIOUS AND PROMISING AS THESE FINANCIAL
AND ORGANIZATIONAL REFORMS ARE, THERE'S FAR MORE WE ALL
MUST DO TO IMPROVE AMERICAN EDUCATION.
SCHOOLING TAKES UP JUST A SMALL PART OF A
YOUNGSTER'S TIME. IT MAY SURPRISE YOU HOW LITTLE.
FROM KINDERGARTEN TO HIGH-SCHOOL GRADUATION, OUR
CHILDREN ON AVERAGE SPEND ONLY NINE PERCENT OF THEIR
TIME IN THEIR SCHOOL. THAT'S JUST ONE-ELEVENTH OF THE
TIME.
OUR CHILDREN SPEND THE REMAINING 91 PERCENT OF
THEIR TIME AT HOME, OR PLAYING WITH FRIENDS, OR MAYBE
OUT AT A VIDEO ARCADE.
- 8 -
HERE'S THE MOST SHOCKING STATISTIC: CHILDREN IN
ONE SURVEY SAID THAT THEY SPEND JUST 15 MINUTES A DAY
TALKING WITH THEIR PARENTS -- JUST 15 MINUTES! ///
MOREOVER, THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION REPORTS THAT
OUR EIGHTH-GRADERS SPEND AN AVERAGE OF MORE THAN 21
HOURS PER WEEK WATCHING TELEVISION BUT FEWER THAN SIX
HOURS A WEEK DOING HOMEWORK. IF THESE SURVEYS ACTUALLY
REFLECT WIDER PATTERNS, WE COULD MAKE OUR SCHOOLS THE
BEST IN THE WORLD -- AND STILL FIND OURSELVES IN DEEP
TROUBLE. // KIDS AND PARENTS HAVE TO TALK, AND PARENTS
HAVE TO TAKE AN ACTIVE ROLE IN ENCOURAGING THEIR
CHILDREN TO LEARN AND EXCEL IN SCHOOL. //
so AS OUR ADMINISTRATION WORKS FOR REFORMS TO GIVE
PARENTS MORE CHOICE IN SCHOOLS, NATURALLY WE WANT
PARENTS TO JOIN US -- TO SPEAK UP AND FIGHT FOR THEIR
RIGHTFUL FREEDOMS. WE WANT YOU TO JOIN US IN THIS
CAUSE. //
- 9 -
EVEN MORE FUNDAMENTALLY, OUR KIDS' FUTURE -- OUR
NATION'S FUTURE - -- DEMANDS THAT PARENTS RESPONSIBLY USE
ALL THE FREEDOM AND POWER THEY ALREADY HAVE. PARENTS
OR GUARDIANS - -- WITH SOME HELP FROM GRANDPARENTS AND
PASTORS AND GOOD NEIGHBORS - -- MOLD OUR CHILDREN'S MORAL
CHARACTER. THEY SUPPLY THE MOTIVATION AND DISCIPLINE
YOUNG PEOPLE NEED.
LEARNING BEGINS AT HOME, WHETHER THE SUBJECT IS
MATH OR SCIENCE OR LITERATURE OR CIVIC VIRTUE. I HOPE
PEOPLE HAVEN'T BECOME SO ACCUSTOMED TO A BIG GOVERNMENT
ROLE IN EDUCATION THAT THEY FORGET THAT THE REAL
RESPONSIBILITY FOR EDUCATION BEGINS AND ENDS AT HOME.
//
DE TOCQUEVILLE UNDERSTOOD. // "THERE IS NO COUNTRY
IN THE WORLD," HE WROTE, "IN WHICH EVERYTHING CAN BE
PROVIDED FOR BY THE LAWS, OR IN WHICH POLITICAL
INSTITUTIONS CAN PROVE A SUBSTITUTE FOR COMMON SENSE
AND PUBLIC MORALITY." //
- 10 -
THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION UNDERSTOOD. // so
DID THE GREAT MEN AND WOMEN, A CENTURY LATER, WHO
FOUNDED AMERICA'S FLOURISHING ALLIANCE OF FRATERNAL
SOCIETIES. //
I AM CONFIDENT THAT YOU, Too, UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT
THE RESPONSIBILITIES THAT ACCOMPANY OUR MOST PRECIOUS
FREEDOMS. IT WASN'T COSTLY, ACTIVIST GOVERNMENT THAT
MADE AMERICA GREAT. // OUR STRENGTH AND GENEROSITY
FLOWED FROM INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVES AND VOLUNTARY
ASSOCIATIONS. // PERSONAL FAITH INSPIRES PUBLIC
PROGRESS. //
THE AMERICAN PROMISE THAT BECKONED YOUR FATHERS AND
FOREFATHERS TO THESE SHORES REACHES OUT TO NEW
GENERATIONS, TO NEW WAVES OF IMMIGRANTS. WITH YOUR
NUMBERS, WITH YOUR STRENGTH OF SPIRIT, I KNOW AMERICA'S
FRATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS WILL PERFORM A GREAT PART IN
KEEPING THIS PROMISE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME. ///
THANK YOU AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU.
#
#
#
Document No. 27366lss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
9/26/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: MONDAY, 9/30/91 10:00 am
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. THURS. OCTOBER 3rd
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
>
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
SNOW
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than 10:00 a.m., MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, with a copy to this
office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
910 comment
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 26, 1991
Draft Two
91 SEP 26 P | : 00
FRAT.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
XXXXX PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. It's a pleasure always to be with my good friend
Virgil Dechant. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later. ]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, our Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
The motto spoke for the fundamental freedom of conscience:
for the rights of worship, speech and assembly enshrined in the
First Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
J
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A polity of tolerance
arose in our land from Puritan New England, through New York and
Pennsylvania's settlements of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the Southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
2
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
Slovaks and Jews, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life and health
insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found those
protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups gave,
and still give, scores of millions of hours of voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to voluntarism -- and voluntary
service flourishes more in America than in any other Western
society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I listed in
1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of light. " //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. //
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. //
We must not allow the state to crowd voluntary groups out of
the social services field. Nor should we let the state
monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education. Years before the rise of government
education bureaucracies and large tax-funded school systems, no
one distinguished "public" schools from "non-public" education.
Schools were schools. They served the same public purpose,
whether their organizers were Methodist preachers or Catholic
nuns or county councils.
Strictly speaking, that's still true today. Any school that
meets fundamental state standards, and does not violate anti-
discrimination laws, provides public education. But schools that
aren't operated by government and funded by tax dollars are
finding it harder and harder to survive on such an uneven
financial playing field. Not many parents can afford both high
tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
4
For many of you, this must be obvious. Surely many among
you who have wrestled with a "choice" that wasn't a fair choice.
Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to attend a Christian day
school or a Catholic or Lutheran parochial school, but couldn't
afford to. A sad irony here is that church-based schools on
average operate at a much lower cost per pupil than government-
run schools. These are community schools, not "elitist" schools.
By standard measurements, the average quality of these schools is
quite high.
My administration wants to change all this. Our America
2000 education strategy aims to restore real freedom for parents
to choose schools for their children. At the same time we want
to foster creative new approaches to school organization and
management. We're enlisting parents, innovative teachers,
business leaders, churches and voluntary associations in the
enterprise of creating "New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From birth to high-school
graduation, our children on average spend only nine percent of
5
their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh of the
time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
parents -- just 15 minutes! If that actually reflects a national
pattern, we could make our schools the best in the world and
still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents have to
talk, and parents have to take an active role in encouraging
their children to learn and excel in school.
Moreover, we must admit that our kids spend a startling
amount of time with the electronic babysitter -- the television.
With some of the programming that comes on during children's
waking hours, I worry about the impact on their young minds and,
yes, their character.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
6
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the world,"
he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the laws,
or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for
common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. Our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 30, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
DAVID DEMAREST
TONY SNOW 75
FROM:
JOSEPH P. DUGGAN 8 P=
SUBJECT:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS ADDRESS
On Thursday, October 3rd at 2:00 p.m. you will deliver
remarks (eleven minutes) to 1,000 members of the National
Fraternal Congress of America at Washington D.C.'s Grand Hyatt.
Your speech focuses on the contributions of fraternal societies
throughout America's history, and the integral role these groups
continue to play today. Your remarks promote the America 2000
education reforms, especially parental choice.
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 30, 1991
Draft Three
FRAT.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
GRAND HYATT HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
2:00 PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later. ]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, our Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A great religious
diversity arose in our land from Puritan New England, through
Newport and New Amsterdam's early Jewish settlements, through the
Middle Atlantic communities of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
2
Slovaks and Poles, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life insurance and
health insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found
those protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups
gave, and still give, millions of hours to voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to community service -- and
voluntary service flourishes more in America than in any other
Western society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I
listed in 1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of
light. " 11
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. / /
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. //
We must not allow the government to crowd voluntary groups
out of the social services field. Nor should we let the
government monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education.
From the earliest times, Americans have sought to provide
quality education as universally as possible. Historically our
schools have served the same public purpose, whether their
organizers were Methodist pastors or Catholic nuns or county
councils. Strictly speaking, any school that meets fundamental
state standards, and does not violate anti-discrimination laws,
provides public education.
But schools that aren't operated by government and funded by
tax dollars are finding it harder and harder to survive on such
an uneven financial playing field. Not many parents can afford
both high tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
Surely many among you have wrestled with a "choice" that
wasn't a fair choice. Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to
4
attend a Christian day school or a Lutheran high school, but
couldn't afford to.
Our America 2000 education strategy aims to restore real
freedom for parents to choose schools for their children. We're
confident that greater choice will encourage creative competition
among public, private and parochial schools, improving education
for everyone. At the same time we want to foster imaginative new
approaches to school organization and management. We're
enlisting parents, innovative teachers, business leaders,
churches and voluntary associations in the enterprise of creating
"New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From kindergarten to high-
school graduation, our children on average spend only nine
percent of their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh
of the time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
5
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
parents -- just 15 minutes! Moreover, the U.S. Department of
Education reports that our eighth-graders spend an average of
more than 21 hours per week watching television but fewer than
six hours a week doing homework. If these surveys actually
reflect wider patterns, we could make our schools the best in the
world and still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents
have to talk, and parents have to take an active role in
encouraging their children to learn and excel in school.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
6
De Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the
world,' " he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the
laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute
for common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. Our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 30, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
DAVID DEMAREST
TONY SNOW 75
FROM:
JOSEPH P. DUGGAN of i=
SUBJECT:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS ADDRESS
On Thursday, October 3rd at 2:00 p.m. you will deliver
remarks (eleven minutes) to 1,000 members of the National
Fraternal Congress of America at Washington D.C.'s Grand Hyatt.
Your speech focuses on the contributions of fraternal societies
throughout America's history, and the integral role these groups
continue to play today. Your remarks promote the America 2000
education reforms, especially parental choice.
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 30, 1991
Draft Three
FRAT.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
GRAND HYATT HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
2:00 PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later. ]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, our Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A great religious
diversity arose in our land from Puritan New England, through
Newport and New Amsterdam's early Jewish settlements, through the
Middle Atlantic communities of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
2
Slovaks and Poles, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life insurance and
health insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found
those protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups
gave, and still give, millions of hours to voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to community service -- and
voluntary service flourishes more in America than in any other
Western society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I
listed in 1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of
light. " //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. //
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. //
We must not allow the government to crowd voluntary groups
out of the social services field. Nor should we let the
government monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education.
From the earliest times, Americans have sought to provide
quality education as universally as possible. Historically our
schools have served the same public purpose, whether their
organizers were Methodist pastors or Catholic nuns or county
councils. Strictly speaking, any school that meets fundamental
state standards, and does not violate anti-discrimination laws,
provides public education.
But schools that aren't operated by government and funded by
tax dollars are finding it harder and harder to survive on such
an uneven financial playing field. Not many parents can afford
both high tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
Surely many among you have wrestled with a "choice" that
wasn't a fair choice. Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to
4
attend a Christian day school or a Lutheran high school, but
couldn't afford to.
Our America 2000 education strategy aims to restore real
freedom for parents to choose schools for their children. We're
confident that greater choice will encourage creative competition
among public, private and parochial schools, improving education
for everyone. At the same time we want to foster imaginative new
approaches to school organization and management. We're
enlisting parents, innovative teachers, business leaders,
churches and voluntary associations in the enterprise of creating
"New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From kindergarten to high-
school graduation, our children on average spend only nine
percent of their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh
of the time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
5
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
parents -- just 15 minutes! Moreover, the U.S. Department of
Education reports that our eighth-graders spend an average of
more than 21 hours per week watching television but fewer than
six hours a week doing homework. If these surveys actually
reflect wider patterns, we could make our schools the best in the
world and still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents
have to talk, and parents have to take an active role in
encouraging their children to learn and excel in school.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
6
De Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the
world," he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the
laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute
for common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. Our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 26, 1991
Draft Two
FRAT.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
XXXXX PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. It's a pleasure always to be with my good friend
Virgil Dechant. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later. ]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, out Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
The motto spoke for the fundamental freedom of conscience:
for the rights of worship, speech and assembly enshrined in the
First Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A polity of tolerance
arose in our land from Puritan New England, through New York and
Pennsylvania's settlements of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the Southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
2
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
Slovaks and Jews, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life and health
insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found those
protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups gave,
and still give, scores of millions of hours of voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to voluntarism -- and voluntary
service flourishes more in America than in any other Western
society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I listed in
1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of light. " //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. //
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. //
We must not allow the state to crowd voluntary groups out of
the social services field. Nor should we let the state
monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education. Years before the rise of government
education bureaucracies and large tax-funded school systems, no
one distinguished "public" schools from "non-public" education.
Schools were schools. They served the same public purpose,
whether their organizers were Methodist preachers or Catholic
nuns or county councils.
Strictly speaking, that's still true today. Any school that
meets fundamental state standards, and does not violate anti-
discrimination laws, provides public education. But schools that
aren't operated by government and funded by tax dollars are
finding it harder and harder to survive on such an uneven
financial playing field. Not many parents can afford both high
tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
4
For many of you, this must be obvious. Surely many among
you who have wrestled with a "choice" that wasn't a fair choice.
Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to attend a Christian day
school or a Catholic or Lutheran parochial school, but couldn't
afford to. A sad irony here is that church-based schools on
average operate at a much lower cost per pupil than government-
run schools. These are community schools, not "elitist" schools.
By standard measurements, the average quality of these schools is
quite high.
My administration wants to change all this. Our America
2000 education strategy aims to restore real freedom for parents
to choose schools for their children. At the same time we want
to foster creative new approaches to school organization and
management. We're enlisting parents, innovative teachers,
business leaders, churches and voluntary associations in the
enterprise of creating "New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From birth to high-school
graduation, our children on average spend only nine percent of
5
their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh of the
time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
parents -- just 15 minutes! If that actually reflects a national
pattern, we could make our schools the best in the world and
still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents have to
talk, and parents have to take an active role in encouraging
their children to learn and excel in school.
Moreover, we must admit that our kids spend a startling
amount of time with the electronic babysitter -- the television.
With some of the programming that comes on during children's
waking hours, I worry about the impact on their young minds and,
yes, their character.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
6
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the world," "
he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the laws,
or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for
common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. Our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
#
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 25, 1991
Draft One
Fraternal
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
XXXXX PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. It's a pleasure always to be with my good friend
Virgil Dechant. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later.]
its
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won her independence two
centuries ago, out Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
Expressed a spirit
federal union of the thirteen original states, but it also was
an
emblem of openness, and tolerance and liberty. The motto spoke
for the fundamental freedom of conscience: for the rights of
Amendment
worship, speech and assembly enshrined in the first article of
the Bill of Rights.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A polity of tolerance
arose in our land even as differences of culture and creed ranged
across the new nation from Puritan New England, through New York
and Pennsylvania's settlements of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the plantations
and farms of the Southern states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
2
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
Slovaks and Jews, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life and health
insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found those
protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups gave,
and each year still give, scores of millions of hours of
voluntary social service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
America's distincter
illustrates
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition is a key to why
brand
of
a kind of help that
voluntarism has flourished in America more than in any other
Western society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I
listed in 1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of
light." //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism for strength to
lead us back to our roots and away from a debilitating social
experiment -- government paternalism. //
3
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
provided most social services. Thankfully, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
and
competition to stimulate government agencies as well as other
voluntary groups. They offer not just aid, but also choice, to
those whom they serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that
anything public must be governmental. //
We must not allow the state to crowd voluntary groups out of
s
the social services field. Nor whould we let the state
monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education. Years before the rise of government
education bureaucracies and large tax-funded school systems,
we didn't
distinguish between
there wasn't a dichotomy between "public" and "non-public"
education. Schools were schools. They served the same
recognized public purpose whether their organizers were Methodist
preachers or Catholic nuns or county councils.
Strictly speaking, that's still true today. Any school that
meets fundamental state standards, and does not violate anti-
discrimination laws, provides public education. But schools that
aren't operated by government and funded by tax dollars are
finding it harder and harder to survive on such an uneven
4
financial playing field. Not many parents can afford both high
tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
For many of you, this must be obvious. Surely many among
you who have wrestled with a "choice" that wasn't a fair choice.
Maybe you deeply wanted your son or daughter to attend a
Christian day school or a Catholic or Lutheran parochial school,
couldn't afford the cost.
but felt the weight of school taxes plus tuition just too heavy
to bear. A sad irony here is that church-based schools such as
these on average operate at a much lower cost per pupil than
government-run schools. These are community schools, not
"elitist" schools. By standard measurements, the average quality
of these schools is quite high.
My administration wants to change all this. Our America
2000 education reform strategy aims to restore real freedom for
parents to choose schools for their children. At the same time
we want to foster creative new approaches to school organization
and management. We're enlisting parents, innovative teachers,
business leaders, churches and voluntary associations in the
enterprise of creating "New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. To advance the financing and structural reforms I've
mentioned, you can help by getting the message to your members of
Congress, your state legislators and your local school officials.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
WE must do far more to
organizational reforms are, there far more we all must do to
improve American education.
5
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. Even if a child never misses a
day of class, when one factors in summer vacation and weekends
and the hours before and after school, the child spends only nine
no:
ofthe
percent of his year in the classroom. That's just one-eleventh
first 9% is years,
of the time.
coughly school 12.3%
The other 91 percent of the time, he's at home, or playing
turing
with friends, or maybe at out a video arcade.
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said the average parent spends just 15 minutes a day -- just 15
minutes -- in conversation with them. If that actually reflects
a national pattern, we could make our schools the best in the
world and still find ourselves in deep trouble.
Moreover, we shouldn't shrink from facing the fact that our
kids spend a startling amount of time with the electronic
babysitter -- the television. With some of the programming that
comes on during little children's waking hours, I worry about the
impact on their young minds and, yes, their character.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. First and foremost it's parents --
with some help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors
will
children's Moral character. Parents will supply the
-- who set the model for what sort of moral character and
needs
motivation and discipline a young person is going to develop.
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
accustomed
become so inured to a big government role in education that they
can't understand this priority.
Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the world,"
he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the laws,
or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for
common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
Our nation
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
It
made great by
wasn't^a costly, activist government that made this country
converted America
great; it was individual initiatives and voluntary associationsa from
Personal faith inspires public progress.
rough wilterass
into the
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
gratest
mation in
Eatho
forefathers to these shores still reaches out to new generations,
to new waves of immigrants. With your millions of members, with
your strength of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations
will perform a great part in bringing this promise once again to
keeping this
for generations to came
fruition.
# # #
Document No. 27366lss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
91 SEP 27 P3:50
DATE:
9/26/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: MONDAY, 9/30/91 10:00 am
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
SUBJECT:
WASHINGTON, D.C. THURS. OCTOBER 3rd
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
SNOW
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than 10:00 a.m., MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, with a copy to this
office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
OK78
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 26, 1991
Draft Two
31 SEP 26 PI: 00
FRAT.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
XXXXX PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. It's a pleasure always to be with my good friend
Virgil Dechant. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later.]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, out Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
The motto spoke for the fundamental freedom of conscience:
for the rights of worship, speech and assembly enshrined in the
First Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A polity of tolerance
arose in our land from Puritan New England, through New York and
Pennsylvania's settlements of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the Southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
2
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
Slovaks and Jews, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life and health
insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found those
protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups gave,
and still give, scores of millions of hours of voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to voluntarism -- and voluntary
service flourishes more in America than in any other Western
society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I listed in
1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of light.' " //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. 11
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. //
We must not allow the state to crowd voluntary groups out of
the social services field. Nor should we let the state
monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education. Years before the rise of government
education bureaucracies and large tax-funded school systems, no
one distinguished "public" schools from "non-public" education.
Schools were schools. They served the same public purpose,
whether their organizers were Methodist preachers or Catholic
nuns or county councils.
Strictly speaking, that's still true today. Any school that
meets fundamental state standards, and does not violate anti-
discrimination laws, provides public education. But schools that
aren't operated by government and funded by tax dollars are
finding it harder and harder to survive on such an uneven
financial playing field. Not many parents can afford both high
tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
4
For many of you, this must be obvious. Surely many among
you who have wrestled with a "choice" that wasn't a fair choice.
Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to attend a Christian day
school or a Catholic or Lutheran parochial school, but couldn't
afford to. A sad irony here is that church-based schools on
average operate at a much lower cost per pupil than government-
run schools. These are community schools, not "elitist" schools.
By standard measurements, the average quality of these schools is
quite high.
My administration wants to change all this. Our America
2000 education strategy aims to restore real freedom for parents
to choose schools for their children. At the same time we want
to foster creative new approaches to school organization and
management. We're enlisting parents, innovative teachers,
business leaders, churches and voluntary associations in the
enterprise of creating "New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From birth to high-school
graduation, our children on average spend only nine percent of
5
their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh of the
time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
parents -- just 15 minutes! If that actually reflects a national
pattern, we could make our schools the best in the world and
still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents have to
talk, and parents have to take an active role in encouraging
their children to learn and excel in school.
Moreover, we must admit that our kids spend a startling
amount of time with the electronic babysitter -- the television.
With some of the programming that comes on during children's
waking hours, I worry about the impact on their young minds and,
yes, their character.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
Document No. 27366lss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
91 SEP 30 A10: 00
DATE: 9/26/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: MONDAY, 9/30/91 10:00 am
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. THURS. OCTOBER 3rd
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
SNOW
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than 10:00 a.m., MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, with a copy to this
office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
No comment. Thanks.
09/30/91
PK
Paul Korfonta
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 9-30-91 ; 9:02AM ;
4562983-
6218;# 1
Document No. 273661ss
91 SEWHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
9/26/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: MONDAY, 9/30/91 10:00 am
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
SUBJECT:
WASHINGTON, D.C. THURS. OCTOBER 3rd
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
SNOW
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than 10:00 a.m., MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, with a copy to this
office. Thank you.
so
RESPONSE:
may meets or to world All AD you
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 9-30-91 ; 9:03AM ;
4562983-
6218;# 2
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 26, 1991
Draft Two
31 SEP P I : 00
FRAT.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
XXXXX PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. It's a pleasure always to be with my good friend
virgil Dechant. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later.]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, out Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
The motto spoke for the fundamental freedom of conscience:
for the rights of worship, speech and assembly enshrined in the
First Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A polity of tolerance
arose in our land from Puritan New England, through New York and
Pennsylvania's settlements of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the Southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 9-30-91 ; 9:03AM ;
4562983->
6218;# 3
2
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
Slovaks and Jews, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life and health
insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found those
protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups gave,
and still give, scores of millions of hours of voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to voluntarism - and voluntary
service flourishes more in America than in any other Western
society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I listed in
1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of light." 11
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. 11
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 9-30-91 ; 9:04AM ;
4562983-
6218:# 4
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. 11
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. 11
We must not allow the state to crowd voluntary groups out of
the social services field. Nor should we let the state
monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew my its thinking
about public education. Years before the rise of government
I
don't
t
education bureaucracies and large tax-funded school systems, no
this think is
one distinguished "public" schools from "non-public" education.
true
Schools were schools. They served the same public purpose,
This is.
whether their organizers were Methodist preachers or Catholic
nuns or county councils.
Strictly speaking, that's still true today. Any school that
meets fundamental state standards, and does not violate anti-
discrimination laws, provides public education. But schools that
aren't operated by government and funded by tax dollars are
finding it harder and harder to survive on such an uneven
financial playing field. Not many parents can afford both high
tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 9-30-91 ; 9:04AM ;
4562983->
6218;# 5
4
goe , THE Starents
For many of you, this must be obvious.
1
you who have wrestled with a "choice" that
Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to attend a Christian day
our
to
school or a Catholic or Lutheran parochial school, but couldn't
afford to. A sad irony here is that church-based schools on
is
average operate at a much lower cost per pupil than government-
run schools. These are community schools, not "elitist" schools.
sh
By standard measurements, the average quality of these schools is
quite high.
My administration wants to change all this. our America
2000 education strategy aims to restore real freedom for parents
to choose schools for their children. At the same time we want
to foster creative new approaches to school organization and
management. We're enlisting parents, innovative teachers,
business leaders, churches and voluntary associations in the
enterprise of creating "New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From birth to high-school
graduation, our children on average spend only nine percent of
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 9-30-91 ; 9:05AM ;
4562983-
6218:# 6
5
their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh of the
time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
Other spend sitting - front of the TV.
parents -- just 15 minutes! If that actually reflects a national
pattern, we could make our schools the best in the world and
still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents have to
talk, and parents have to take an active role in encouraging
their children to learn and excel in school.
Moreover we must admit that our kids spend a startling
amount of time with the electronic babysitter the television.
With some of the programming that comes on during children's
waking hours, I worry about the impact on their young minds and,
yes, their character.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 9-30-91 ; 9:05AM ;
4562983->
6218;# 7
6
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the world,"
he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the laws,
or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for
common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
#
MEMORANDUM
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 26, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR TONY SNOW/JOE DUGGAN
FROM:
John S. Gardner Job.
SUBJECT:
Fraternal Congress Remarks
This was a fine speech, well articulating the principle of
school choice. The reference to Lutheran schools is particularly
nice; as you probably know, the Missouri Synod Lutherans operate
the second largest parochial school system in the country.
One small historical comment: On p. 1, para. 4, line 2, I
would replace a "polity of tolerance" with "a great religious
diversity." A true polity of tolerance really existed only in
Maryland in the 17th century, and then only for Trinitarian Christians.
Boston expelled Quakers and Baptists. Other colonies permitted free
exercise of religion, but often with consequent debarment from civil
rights such as service in the legislature for nonconformists (which is
why it wasn't a "polity" of tolerance.) Only later in the 18th
century (sometimes later) were these civil penalties and established
churches abolished.
You might also want to add a reference to "Newport's and New
Amsterdam's early settlements of Jews" somewhere in the list.
Thanks.
27366lss
Document No.
COUNSEL'S OFFICE
91
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
RECEIVED
SEP 20 1991
DATE:
9/26/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: MONDAY 9/30/91 10:00 am
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. THURS. OCTOBER 3rd
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
SNOW
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than 10:00 a.m., MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, with a copy to this
office. Thank you.
Changes RESPONSE: marked on attached hard corpy-memo to follow
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 26, 1991
Draft Two
FRAT. TS
01 SEP 26 P | : 00
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
XXXXX PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. It's a pleasure always to be with my good friend
Virgil Dechant. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later. ]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, out Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
The motto spoke for the fundamental freedom of conscience
for the rights of worship, speech and assembly enshrined in the
First Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A polity of tolerance
arose in our land from Puritan New England, through New York and
Pennsylvania's settlements of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the Southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
2
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
Slovaks and Jews, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life and health
insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found those
protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups gave,
and still give, scores of millions of hours of voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
ommuni Service to
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to voluntarism -- and voluntary
service flourishes more in America than in any other Western
society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I listed in
1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of light." //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. //
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. //
We must not allow the state to crowd voluntary groups out of
the social services field. Nor should we let the state
monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education. Years before the rise of government
education bureaucracies and large tax-funded school systems, no
one distinguished "public" schools from "non-public" education.
Schools were schools. They served the same public purpose,
whether their organizers were Methodist preachers or Catholic
nuns or county councils.
Strictly speaking, that's still true today. Any school that
meets fundamental state standards, and does not violate anti-
discrimination laws, provides public education. But schools that
aren't operated by government and funded by tax dollars are
finding it harder and harder to survive on such an uneven
financial playing field. Not many parents can afford both high
tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
4
For many of you, this must be obvious. Surely many among
you who have wrestled with a "choice" that wasn't a fair choice.
Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to attend a Christian day
school or a Catholic or Lutheran parochial school, but couldn't
afford to. A sad irony here is that church-based schools on
average operate at a much lower cost per pupil than government-
run schools. These are community schools, not "elitist" schools.
By standard measurements, the average quality of these schools is
quite high.
My administration wants to change all this. Our America
2000 education strategy aims to restore real freedom for parents
to choose schools for their children. At the same time we want
to foster creative new approaches to school organization and
management. We're enlisting parents, innovative teachers,
business leaders, churches and voluntary associations in the
enterprise of creating "New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From birth to high-school
graduation, our children on average spend only nine percent of
5
their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh of the
time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
parents -- just 15 minutes! If that actually reflects a national
pattern, we could make our schools the best in the world and
still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents have to
talk, and parents have to take an active role in encouraging
their children to learn and excel in school.
Moreover, we must admit that our kids spend a startling
amount of time with the electronic babysitter -- the television.
With some of the programming that comes on during children's
waking hours, I worry about the impact on their young minds and,
yes, their character.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
6
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the world,"
he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the laws,
or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for
common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. Our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
#
Document No. 27366lss
91
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
9/26/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: MONDAY, 9/30/91 10:00 am
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
SUBJECT:
WASHINGTON, D.C. THURS. OCTOBER 3rd
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
>
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
>
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
SNOW
>
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than 10:00 a.m., MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, with a copy to this
office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
Ohay- two edts
BT for R
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 26, 1991
Draft Two
31 SEP 26 P I : 00
FRAT.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
XXXXX PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. It's a pleasure always to be with my good friend
Virgil Dechant. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later.]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, out Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
The motto spoke for the fundamental freedom of conscience:
for the rights of worship; speech and assembly enshrined in the
First Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
Early America was not the-ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A polity of tolerance
arose in our land from Puritan New England, through New York and
Pennsylvania's settlements of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the Southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
2
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
Slovaks and Jews, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life and health
insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found those
protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups gave,
and still give, scores of millions of hours of voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to voluntarism -- and voluntary
service flourishes more in America than in any other Western
society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I listed in
1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of light. " //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. //
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. //
We must not allow the state to crowd voluntary groups out of
the social services field. Nor should we let the state
monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education. Years before the rise of government
education bureaucracies and large tax-funded school systems, no
one distinguished "public" schools from "non-public" education.
Schools were schools. They served the same public purpose,
whether their organizers were Methodist preachers or Catholic
nuns or county councils.
Strictly speaking, that's still true today. Any school that
meets fundamental state standards, and does not violate anti-
discrimination laws, provides public education. But schools that
aren't operated by government and funded by tax dollars are
finding it harder and harder to survive on such an uneven
financial playing field. Not many parents can afford both high
tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
4
For many of you, this must be obvious. Surely many among
you who have wrestled with a "choice" that wasn't a fair choice.
Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to attend a Christian day
school or a Catholic or Lutheran parochial school, but couldn't
afford to. A sad irony here is that church-based schools on
average operate at a much lower cost per pupil than government-
run schools. These are community schools, not "elitist" schools.
By standard measurements, the average quality of these schools is
quite high.
My administration wants to change all this. Our America
2000 education strategy aims to restore real freedom for parents
to choose schools for their children. At the same time we want
to foster creative new approaches to school organization and
management. We're enlisting parents, innovative teachers,
business leaders, churches and voluntary associations in the
enterprise of creating "New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From birth to high-school
graduation, our children on average spend only nine percent of
5
their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh of the
time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
parents -- just 15 minutes! If that actually reflects a national
pattern, we could make our schools the best in the world and
still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents have to
talk, and parents have to take an active role in encouraging
their children to learn and excel in school.
Moreover, we must admit that our kids spend a startling
amount of time with the electronic babysitter -- the television.
With some of the programming that comes on during children's
waking hours, I worry about the impact on their young minds and,
yes, their character.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
6
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the world,"
he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the laws,
or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for
common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. Our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
September 30, 1991
WASHINGT 30 P1:47
MEMORANDUM FOR TONY SNOW
FROM:
ROGER B. PORTER
RBP
SUBJECT:
Presidential Remarks: Fraternal Congress
We have reviewed the attached remarks and have noted
several suggested changes on the draft.
Please let us know if you have any questions or if we may
help in any other way.
CC: Phillip D. Brady
Document No. 27366lss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE: 9/26/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: MONDAY, 9/30/91 10:00 am
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
SUBJECT:
WASHINGTON, D.C. THURS. OCTOBER 3rd
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
>
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
SNOW
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than 10:00 a.m., MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, with a copy to this
office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 26, 1991
Draft Two
SI SEP 26 P | : 00
FRAT.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
XXXXX PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. It's a pleasure always to be with my good friend
Virgil Dechant. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later.]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, out Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
The motto spoke for the fundamental freedom of conscience:
for the rights of worship, speech and assembly enshrined in the
First Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A polity of tolerance
arose in our land from Puritan New England, through New York and
Pennsylvania's settlements of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the Southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
2
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
Slovaks and Jews, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life and health
insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found those
protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups gave,
TO
and still give, sceres of millions of hours of voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to voluntarism -- and voluntary
service flourishes more in America than in any other Western
society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I listed in
1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of light. " //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. / /
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental.
//
GOVERNMENT
We must not allow the state to crowd voluntary groups out of
GOVERNMENT
the social services field. Nor should we let the state
monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education. Years before the rise of government
education bureaucracies and large tax-funded school systems, no
one distinguished "public" schools from "non-public" education.
Schools were schools. They served the same public purpose,
whether their organizers were Methodist preachers or Catholic
nuns or county councils.
Strictly speaking, that's still true today. Any school that
meets fundamental state standards, and does not violate anti-
discrimination laws, provides public education. But schools that
aren't operated by government and funded by tax dollars are
finding it harder and harder to survive on such an uneven
financial playing field. Not many parents can afford both high
tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
4
For many of you, this must be obvious. Surely many among
you who have wrestled with a "choice" that wasn't a fair choice.
Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to attend a Christian day
school or a Catholic or Lutheran parochial school, but couldn't
afford to. A sad irony here is that church-based schools on
average operate at a much lower cost per pupil than government-
run schools. These are community schools, not "elitist" schools.
By standard measurements, the average quality of these schools is
quite high.
My administration wants to change all this. Our America
2000 education strategy aims to restore real freedom for parents
to choose schools for their children. At the same time we want
to foster creative new approaches to school organization and
management. We're enlisting parents, innovative teachers,
business leaders, churches and voluntary associations in the
enterprise of creating "New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From birth to high-school
graduation, our children on average spend only nine percent of
5
their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh of the
time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
parents -- just 15 minutes! If that actually reflects a national
pattern, we could make our schools the best in the world and
still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents have to
talk, and parents have to take an active role in encouraging
their children to learn and excel in school.
Moreover, we must admit that our kids spend a startling
amount of time with the electronic babysitter -- the television.
With some of the programming that comes on during children's
waking hours, I worry about the impact on their young minds and,
yes, their character.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
6
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the world," "
he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the laws,
or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for
common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. Our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
#
Document No. 27366lss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
9/26/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: MONDAY, 9/30/91 10:00 am
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
SUBJECT:
WASHINGTON, D.C. THURS. OCTOBER 3rd
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE N/C
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER N/C
DARMAN N/C
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
SNOW
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY Netso 2816
HOLIDAY
MU
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than 10:00 a.m., MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, with a copy to this
office. Thank you.
RESPONSE: p² - - Many or sons/daughters of immigrants so needs reference to world changes. See Education
comments too.
Brady- micht add reference to "Newport's and New 4msterdam's early settlements of Jews"
somewhere in the list.
MASTER
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 26, 1991
Draft Two
01 SEP 26 P | : 00
FRAT. TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FRATERNAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
XXXXX PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. It's a pleasure always to be with my good friend
Virgil Dechant. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later.]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
our (TRON)
centuries ago, out Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
The motto spoke for the fundamental freedom of conscience:
for the rights of worship, speech and assembly enshrined in the
First Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
(GRAY)
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
great religious diversity (Gardner)
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A polity of tolerance
arose in our land from Puritan New England, through New York and
Pennsylvania's settlements of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the Southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
2
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
Slovaks and Jews, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life and health
insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found those
protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups gave,
(TRON)
to
and still give, scores of millions of hours of voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
community communityservice(GRAD) (GRAY)
America's distinctive commitment to voluntarism and voluntary
service flourishes more in America than in any other Western
society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I listed in
1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of light. " //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. / /
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. //
government
(PORTER)
We must not allow the state to crowd voluntary groups out of
the social services field. Nor should we let the statel government
monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
(p2)
I don't
about public education. Years before the rise of government
think this
education bureaucracies and large tax-funded school systems, no
is true
one distinguished "public" schools from "non-public" education.
Schools were schools. They served the same public purpose,
(D2)
This is.
whether their organizers were Methodist preachers or Catholic
nuns or county councils.
Strictly speaking, that's still true today. Any school that
meets fundamental state standards, and does not violate anti-
discrimination laws, provides public education. But schools that
aren't operated by government and funded by tax dollars are
finding it harder and harder to survive on such an uneven
financial playing field. Not many parents can afford both high
tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
Joe- remember "choice is driven by the need to
upgrade education through compe tition not to
drive parents away from "public schools system"
Our goal is not to glorify pdrochial school education
per se.
(PORTER) ⁴
4
For many of you, this must be obvious. Surely many among
e(GRAY)
you who have wrestled with a "choice" that wasn't a fair choice.
Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to attend a Christian day
school or a Catholic or Lutheran parochial school, but couldn't
afford to. A sad irony here is that church-based schools on
average operate at a much lower cost per pupil than government-
run schools. These are community schools, not "elitist" schools.
By standard measurements, the average quality of these schools is
quite high.
(PORTER)
My administration wants to change all this. Our America
2000 education strategy aims to restore real freedom for parents
to choose schools for their children. At the same time we want
to foster creative new approaches to school organization and
management. We're enlisting parents, innovative teachers,
business leaders, churches and voluntary associations in the
enterprise of creating "New American Schools."
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From birth to high-school
graduation, our children on average spend only nine percent of
5
their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh of the
time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
y
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
other surveys say they Spend - sitting in front (D2) of the T
parents -- just 15 minutes! ^ If that actually reflects a national
pattern, we could make our schools the best in the world and
still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents have to
talk, and parents have to take an active role in encouraging
their children to learn and excel in school.
Moreover, we must admit that our kids spend a startling
amount of time with the electronic babysitter -- the television
With some of the programming that comes on during children's
waking hours, I worry about the impact on their young minds and,
(PORTER)
yes, their character.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
6
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the world,"
he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the laws,
or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for
common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. Our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
#
(Duggan/Grossman)
September 30, 1991
Draft Three
FRAT.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
FRATERNAL CONGRESS
GRAND HYATT HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1991
2:00 PM
Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Pat
Donlin, for the kind introduction. Bishop Daily, it's an honor
to be with you. [Names of other dignitaries to be provided
later. ]
Ladies and gentlemen, when America won its independence two
centuries ago, our Founders chose a national motto. They decided
upon e pluribus unum: out of many, one. It symbolized the
federal union of the thirteen original states, and captured the
new nation's spirit of openness and tolerance and liberty.
Early America was not the ethnic and religious melting pot
of today, but neither was it monolithic. A great religious
diversity arose in our land from Puritan New England, through
Newport and New Amsterdam's early Jewish settlements, through the
Middle Atlantic communities of Dutch Calvinists and German
Lutherans, through Maryland's Catholic colony to the southern
states' Anglicans and Presbyterians.
Constitutional protection of freedom of conscience made the
melting pot possible, even inevitable. E pluribus unum became a
self-fulfilling prophecy. True to our motto, America attracted
2
Slovaks and Poles, Italians and Greeks, Cubans and Vietnamese,
Chinese and Lebanese and Irish by the millions.
America became a beehive of community self-help, of
fraternalism. Fraternal benefit societies helped millions of
immigrants make the economic and cultural transition from the Old
World to the New. Fraternal societies offered life insurance and
health insurance to Americans who might not otherwise have found
those protections. Local lodges and councils of fraternal groups
gave, and still give, millions of hours to voluntary social
service.
Motivated by fraternal ideals, millions of your members
bring cheer to residents of nursing homes, share friendship with
retarded kids, give elderly neighbors rides to the store, to
church, to the doctor. Your members' voluntary gifts contribute
hundreds of millions of dollars to educational, medical and
social institutions. The fraternalist tradition illustrates
America's distinctive commitment to community voluntary service -- and
stef
voluntary service flourishes more in America than in any other
Western society. Fraternal societies were the prime examples I
listed in 1988, when I first spoke of America's "points of
light. " //
Today, we look to voluntary fraternalism to lead us back to
our roots and away from a debilitating social experiment --
government paternalism. //
Before the advent of the modern welfare state, voluntary
associations -- usually religious or fraternal in character --
3
provided most social services. Fortunately, we still have a
strong voluntary sector in social services, and we need it more
than ever. //
Voluntary social service institutions provide creative
competition for government agencies and other voluntary groups.
They offer not just aid, but also choice, to those whom they
serve. // They belie the dangerous notion that anything public
must be governmental. //
We must not allow the government to crowd voluntary groups
out of the social services field. Nor should we let the
government monopolize public education.
America needs to revise -- actually, renew -- its thinking
about public education.
From the earliest times, Americans have sought to provide
good quality education as universally as possible. Historically
our schools have served the same public purpose, whether their
organizers were Methodist pastors or Catholic nuns or county
councils. Strictly speaking, any school that meets fundamental
state standards, and does not violate anti-discrimination laws,
provides public education.
But schools that aren't operated by government and funded by
tax dollars are finding it harder and harder to survive on such
an uneven financial playing field. Not many parents can afford
both high tax levies and private- or parochial-school tuition.
Surely many among you have wrestled with a "choice" that
wasn't a fair choice. Maybe you wanted your son or daughter to
4
attend a Christian day school or a Lutheran high school, but
couldn't afford to.
Our America 2000 education strategy aims to restore real
freedom for parents to choose schools for their children. We're
confident that greater choice will encourage creative competition
among public, private and parochial schools, improving education
for everyone. At the same time we want to foster imaginative new
approaches to school organization and management. We're
enlisting parents, innovative teachers, business leaders,
churches and voluntary associations in the enterprise of creating
"New American Schools. "
I hope you will join us in working to renew American
education. You can help by getting the message to your members
of Congress, your state legislators and your local school
officials. And you can help by getting involved in your schools.
But as ambitious and promising as these financial and
organizational reforms are, there's far more we all must do to
improve American education.
Schooling takes up just a small part of a youngster's time.
It may surprise you how little. From kindergarten to high-
school graduation, our children on average spend only nine
percent of their time in their school. That's just one-eleventh
of the time.
Our children spend the remaining 91 percent of their time at
home, or playing with friends, or maybe out at a video arcade.
5
Here's the most shocking statistic: Children in one survey
said that they spend just 15 minutes a day talking with their
parents -- just 15 minutes! Moreover, the U.S. Department of
Education reports that our eighth-graders spend an average of
more than 21 hours per week watching television but fewer than
six hours a week doing homework. If these surveys actually
reflect wider patterns, we could make our schools the best in the
world and still find ourselves in deep trouble. Kids and parents
have to talk, and parents have to take an active role in
encouraging their children to learn and excel in school.
So as our administration works for reforms to give parents
more choice in schools, naturally we want parents to join us --
to speak up and fight for their rightful freedoms. We want you
to join us in this cause.
Even more fundamentally, our kids' future -- our nation's
future -- demands that parents responsibly use all the freedom
and power they already have. Parents or guardians -- with some
help from grandparents and pastors and good neighbors -- mold our
children's moral character. They supply the motivation and
discipline young people need.
Learning begins at home, whether the subject is math or
science or literature or civic virtue. I hope people haven't
become so accustomed to a big government role in education that
they forget that the real responsibility for education begins and
ends at home.
6
De Tocqueville understood. "There is no country in the
world," he wrote, "in which everything can be provided for by the
laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute
for common sense and public morality."
The Framers of the Constitution understood. So did the
great men and women, a century later, who founded America's
flourishing alliance of fraternal societies.
I am confident that you, too, understand and accept the
responsibilities that accompany our most precious freedoms.
Costly, activist government didn't make America great. Our
strength and generosity flowed from individual initiatives and
voluntary associations. Personal faith inspires public progress.
The American promise that beckoned your fathers and
forefathers to these shores reaches out to new generations, to
new waves of immigrants. With your numbers, with your strength
of spirit, I know America's fraternal associations will perform a
great part in keeping this promise for generations to come.
Thank you and may God bless you.
#
#
#
'91-09-25 13:05 DOUG GAMBLE
P.1
DOUG GAMBLE
31 SEP 25 P4: 47
424 . 36th Place
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Sept. 25/91
(213) 546-6409
TO: CHRISTINA MARTIN
NATIONAL FRATERNAL CONGRESS (Joe Duggan)
I ALWAYS FEEL MORE CONFIDENT SPEAKING TO PEOPLE WITH STRONG RELIGIOUS
CONVICTIONS. IF IT TAKES A MIRACLE FOR ME TO DELIVER A BETTER SPEECH, I'M
FOLKS
WITH
REGREE
WHO HAVE THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS.
IT'S A PLEASURE TO BE HERE WITH THE ORIGINAL POINTS OF LIGHT. WHENEVER THE
SPIRIT OF VOLUNTEERISM IS MENTIONED IN OUR FAMILY, IT CAUSES AN INSTANT
REACTION. NOTHING CAN CLEAR THE ROOM OF GRANDCHILDREN so QUICKLY AS BARBARA
ASKING "WHO'LL VOLUNTEER TO HELP WITH THE DISHES?"
AS PEOPLE INVOLVED IN SELLING INSURANCE, I'M SURE YOU KNOW THAT INDUSTRY
JARGON CAN BE CONFUSING TO MANY PEOPLE. I HEARD ABOUT AN INSURANCE SALESMAN
WHO SAID TO A CUSTOMER "YOUR PREMIUM WILL BE TEN-FIFTY A MONTH, AND I ASSUME
YOU WANT THAT ON STRAIGHT LIFE." THE CUSTOMER SAID "WELL, I WOULDNT'T MIND
FOOLING AROUND ONCE IN AWHILE ON SATURDAY NIGHTS."