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[Remarks] to the Community of Los Angeles 5/8/92 [OA 6101] [1]
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[Remarks] to the Community of Los Angeles 5/8/92 [OA 6101] [1]
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MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Speech File Draft Files
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Chron File, 1989-1993
OA/ID Number:
13621
Folder ID Number:
13621-006
Folder Title:
[Remarks] to the Community of Los Angeles 5/8/92 [OA 6101] [1]
Stack:
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26
18
2
1
TIME OF TRANSMISSION
TIME OF RECEIPT
WHITE HOUSE
SITUATION ROOM
PRECEDENCE: IMMEDIATE
RELEASER:
PRIORITY
ROUTINE
DTG:
MESSAGE NO.
CLASSIFICATION UNCLASS
PAGES 19
FROM Carol aarhus
4567750
111'12
(Name)
(Phone Number)
(Room No.)
MESSAGE DESCRIPTION
URGENT
FACT-CHECK As + CHILE
TO (Agency)
DELIVER TO:
DEPT/ROOM NO.
PHONE NUMBER
Dave Demarest ) Senior Staff
Dan McGroarty 3 office C.A.
REMARKS:
URGENT!
#*MASTER* *
DDDM
FACT-CHECK CHANGES!
Group
Draft Two
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
[ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]
Let me first thank the people of Los Angeles for all they
have done during my visit. With all that has transpired these
last few days, I can imagine the headaches our visit has caused,
but I can assure you we do plan to leave on schedule. The
police, the community groups, the Mayor's office, the Governor:
Everyone has been tremendously helpful.
It was vitally important that I come here. The Los Angeles
Community has been the site of a terrible tragedy. Not just for
you, but for our country -- and everyone around the world who
looks to America as a model of freedom and justice. That's why I
want to say a few things about my visit, to speak with you about
what I've seen in this city -- and most importantly -- about
where we must go as a nation. For as I said yesterday at Mt.
If POTUS
used JAG's
zion Church we are one people -- one-family -- one nation under
remarks,
God.
this is true.
(Anecdote(s) from tour and meetings.] When people terrorize
He did
one another and burn each others property, I can hardly imagine
Jay it.
the volume of fear and anger people must feel. In sum, on the
same city block -- I saw tragic signs of hatred but remarkable
signs of hope.
2
This tragedy seemed to come suddenly but it has been many,
many years in the making. I know it will take time to put things
right. I could have said "put things right again", but that
would miss the point. Things weren't right before a week ago
Wednesday. Things aren't right in too many cities across
America. We must not return to the status quo -- not here -- not
in any city where the system perpetuates failure, hatred,
poverty, and despair.
Let me tell you a little story about Rudy Campbell. I saw
him on TV. He looked to be about eight. His father was murdered
a few years back. I didn't see his mother. Rudy is raised by
his twenty-two year old sister who has five kids of her own. He
lives in South Central. Think about what he has already been
through. And that now he says he fears that things will only get
"badder and badder and badder." It breaks your heart. But we
can't stop there. Our children need more than sympathy.
What went wrong in L.A. -- what were the "underlying
causes", the "root problems" -- that can all be debated. And it
should be -- but not to assign blame. Casting blame gets us
nowhere. Honest talk and principled actions will get us a lot
further -- will move us forward. That's what we must do for our
children.
We must start with some unpleasant realities that most
Americans now recognize. Let me spend just a minute on those.
since the 1960's, we have tried lots of different programs --
3
aimed at stemming the tide of urban violence, drugs, crime, and
social decay.
Lots of different programs and policies -- all with noble
intentions -- have tried to address the need for adequate
housing, education, jobs and job training. Everything from child
care to welfare to health care has been the subject of some
NOTE: ICEMP CIVIS USED THIS STAT.
commission, report, or study.
We have spent huge amounts of money -- some estimates are as
high as two and a half trillion dollars over twenty-five years.
Still waiting
Much of this effort went to construct a safety net -- to provide
some security and hopefully some stability. Even in the last
for OMB the to
decade, federal spending went up for these kinds of efforts. But
chumbers
when we look where this path has taken us, it is not where we
wanted to go.
Now put away the studies and just look around our cities.
Some quick facts: in 1960 the percentage of births to unwed
mothers was 5%. Now it is 27%. If you read about a young black
male dying, odds are that he was murdered. In fact, the odds are
almost 1 out of 2. Kids used to carry just their lunches 129 to
school. Today some carry guns. Between 1987 and 1991, 134 guns
129 is
were seized here in L.A. -- and that was just in the elementary
correct figure schools. Drug and alcohol abuse are serious problems almost
everywhere. The chances that an 8th grader has ever used alcohol
is 70%, and there's & 1 in 10 chance that he or she has used
marijuana.
Statisticians
orig.
According to a recent national survey, 70% of 8th
graders have used alcohol at least once. One in
10 have used marijuana. WEILL NEVERKNOW HOW
MANY INHALED )
- of
MAY
4
In the wake of the L.A. riots -- in the wake of the crack
epidemic sweeping our cities -- in the wake of a lost generation
of inner-city lives: can any of us argue that we've solved the
problems of poverty, racism, and crime? No!
Thanks to a great civil rights revolution, we removed many
Have you
of the legal barriers to discrimination and equality of
opportunity. " But you don't need to look further than the
We
graffiti on the next street to see that hate, bigotry and racism
area seen there whe's
still plague our society. "
Some programs I'm thinking of programs like Head Start or
steaking
programs under the Older Americans Act
Aid to the Elderly -- have shown time-tested positive results.
But many simply have not worked. Our welfare system doesn't get
No such
people off welfare -- it keeps people trapped there.
program exists PER
The statistics are indeed sobering. The sum and substance
is this: our cities are in serious trouble.
Hans Kuttner
We in government have an absolute responsibility to help
OR
suggestion:
solve these problems. Our first responsibility is to WC? preserve
order -- not the order of a prison yard -- but an enabling order.
"aid decapitalize to the
One where families can flourish, children can learn, and jobs can
be created.
Enabling has negative dependent
connotation; also sounds like piece
elderly"?
I have taken a hard look at what the government can do and
legislation. of
how it can help communities with the concerns that really matter!
how people can own property, own their own home, start a
business, create jobs, ensure that people not government make the
big decisions that affect the health, education and care of one's
own family.
MAY
00.20
5
Think of the way the world looks right now to the single
mother on welfare. Government provides you just enough cash for
the bare necessities. Government tells you where you can live -
Hans
- where your kids go to school. When you're sick -- government
tells you what kind of care you get, and when. If you find a
job, the government cuts your welfare benefits. If you save, if
has to this his line
you manage to put some money away -- towards a home or maybe to
help your kid through college -- the government comes after you
for welfare fraud.
Every one of those things happens with the system we've got
right now. And then we wonder: why can't folks on welfare take
control of their lives --- where's their sense of responsibility?
If we had set out to devise a system that would perpetuate
dependency -- a system that would strip away dignity and
personal responsibility -- we could hardly have done better than
the system we have today.
Every American knows it's time we tried something different.
A fresh approach -- a radical change in the way we look at
welfare and the inner city economy.
We must start with policies that foster personal
responsibility, policies that refocus entitlement programs to
serve those who are most needy, and increase the effectiveness of
government services through competition and choice. I believe in
policies that keep power close to the people -- and that use
states as laboratories for innovation. I believe in policies
that encourage entrepreneurship -- increase investment -- create
6
jobs. My agenda for economic opportunity flows from these
principles:
one, we must spark an economic revival in urban America.
That's why I want to see Enterprise Zones, with a zero capital
gains rate for entrepreneurs and investors who locate businesses
and create jobs in America's inner cities. We must break the
perverse dis-incentives that discourage work and encourage
welfare. We've got to reform our AFDC rules -- stop penalizing
people who want to work and save -- people who must the
missing
individual initiative to leave welfare behind.
WORD
Two, we must reclaim neighborhoods now ravaged by crime and
drugs. We're doing that through a new initiative called Weed and
Seed -- to "weed out" the gang leaders, the drug dealers and
career criminals, and "seed" those neighborhoods with expanded
educational opportunities and social services.
Three, safe neighborhoods are places where our children can
learn. But that's not enough. We've got to revolutionize our
schools. We do it through choice and competition -- two key
ideas at the heart of the strategy I call American 2000. We must
give parents in our nation's hardest-hit communities the same
jaswho?
choices. Parents, not the government, should be free to choose
who cares for their children -- and where their children go to
school.
Four, we must promote new hope through home ownership.
That's the aim of our HOPE initiative, to give people a real
stake in their communities -- something of value they can pass
MAY-07-1992 08:30 FROM L.A. TRIP SITE
TO
55577
P.09
7
along to their kids -- by turning public housing tenants into
homeowners. Redundant- choose one OR the other
Finally, fifth, we must assure all Americans access to basic
health care -- and we can do it without compromising choice and
quality, through my comprehensive plan for health care reform.
Needs
Some will say, "you've proposed all this before." They are
right. And I am proposing it again. Because I am right. Some
Dash period
will say, "Where is the new money, the new programs, the new
bureaucracy?" I will say, government doesn't create wealth free
enterprise and free people do. I will say, a government program
does not raise children, families do. A government program does
not dispense spiritual and moral guidance, churches, synagogues
and parents do. A government program does not build
neighborhoods, people do.
I'm not a social scientist. I have never pretended to be.
I look at things from my own experience.
"THE DOOMAS OF THE We've tried the old ways of thinking. Now as Lincoln said
QUIET PAST ARE INAGEQUATE TOTHE STORMY PRESENT.
we
MUST
it
is
time
to
think
anew!"
Our approach is a radical break
with the policies of the past. It is new because it's never been
Duh.
/
tried before. If ever the Congress needed a reason to try
something new it is Los Angeles, California.
heard
When I saw the verdict in the Rodney King case, my reaction
was not much different than the rest of America, as I said to the
American people last Friday. I was stunned, but I remain
confident in our system of justice. And when I saw the violence
and rage erupt on your streets, my reaction was the same as most
8
other people. We all knew we had to restore order. A civilized
society cannot tackle any of the really tough problems in the
midst of chaos. It's as simple as that. We must never condone
violence and brutality, and I am confident we never will.
When I saw and read about the heroic acts, the responsible
acts, the selfless acts, of so many of the citizens of Los
Angeles, my reaction was one of relief -- and hope for the
future.
so far I have spoken about what government can do. Now let
me talk about what society must do. I have said we can agree on
Top of
25
several things. For thirty years we've tried many solutions,
pg 10 we
spent a lot of money, and haven't solved the problems. But we
Say 25
are not a morally, spiritually, or intellectually bankrupt
years as
nation. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have the
point. reference We
spirit and the gumption to go at this problem again and again
be should consistent
until we beat it. And we will -- if we try the right things --
things we haven't tried before.
either way.
Even in the short time I've been here, I could sense that
the real anguish of the people in the hardest hit areas is about
their kids. People are worried sick about the children. I
believe all agree that whatever we do must be about the children
-- they are our future. Our actions in the wake of this tragedy
are for them -- not just here in Los Angeles, but all across the
country.
Your own Mayor Bradley was among a group of mayors who came
to see me last January. I have repeated often what he and others
/or 2 mayors did mention money. Bradley mentioned need for
doesn't WORK anymore. we need new ideas, new innovative
new programs. Almost exact quote by Bradley: the old stuff just
programs issue.) that center on the family. (Quietty hits treat Soc.
Must delete
said to me that day. They didn't ask for mere programs or more
money.,I money They said that the most important problem facing our
sent.
cities is the dissolution of the family. They're right. What's
the determining fact right now for whether a child has hope --
stays in school, stays away from drugs? It's not the level of
federal aid. It's not a HUD grant or an SBA loan. It's whether
a child lives in a loving home with a mother and a father.
History tells us that societies cannot succeed without some
fundamental building blocks in place. The state of our nation is
the state of our communities. Good communities are safe and
decent. They care for their young people -- instill them with
character and values and good habits for life. They have good
schools. Good communities provide opportunity and hope, rooted
in the dignity of work and reward for achievement.
So this is obviously not a crisis just of economics. This
is about rebuilding our spirit. It's about rebuilding bonds
among individuals, and among ethnic groups, between races. We
must not let our diversity destroy us. It is central to our
strength as a country. Our ability to live and work together has
made America the inspiration of the world.
That's why guaranteeing a hopeful future for the children of
our cities is about a lot more than rebuilding burned out
buildings. It's about building a new American community. And
history shows us that government alone cannot come close to
creating the scale and energy needed to transform the lives of
NOTE: DOJ REQUESTS CITIES IN SCHOOLS DELETION.
c.l.s. IS NOT A FULLY PRIVATE
10 PROGRAM BUT IN FACT RELIES HEAVILY
ON FEDERAL FUNDING CHANNELED THROUGH
DOJ.
people in need. Anyone who believes otherwise has been living in
R
WE
a
cave for the last twenty-five years.
Lyon "MUST HAVE"
WANT
F
We
ASK/
In every city in America, tens of thousands of groups, and
SUGGEST
THAT
30 say on mid change
hundreds of thousands of individuals, who have never been
KIND
OF
involved before, and who will never be paid one nickel for their
SPENDOM
8.
INCREASE
8 to
efforts, must become partners in solving our most serious social
Pogs.
problems. One need not look far for the evidence that this is
central to the solution. there actually are 100 of them.
Right now, this community has many of the answers within
itself. For example, there are four Cities in Schools programs,
2,000
CHILDREN
there are MM members of One Hundred Black Men mentoring boys in
THIS AREA OR WTHE LOS ANGELES AREA.
South Central Los Angeles. If instead there were Ten Thousand
Programs are in: Black Men working with CHILDREN boys, and twenty-five Cities in Schools
Engliwood
compton
programs helping [hispanic] children learn and so on with the
why hispanic ? ALL AT RISK CHILDREN
- long Beach
hundreds of people and groups that work with kids -- there is no
4
- Nicknown
question that what happened last week would have been much, much
Gardens
less severe. So it only makes sense that a large part of our
challenge is to dramatically expand the scale of what we already
know works in community after community.
The phrase I have repeated perhaps more often than any other
is worth repeating here "From now on in America, any definition
of a successful life must include serving others". That goes for
institutions as well as individuals.
When we look to ensure a decent and hopeful future for our
children, I mean this about every community: First, every group
and institution in America -- schools, businesses, churches --
MAY-07-1992
08:34
11
must do its part. We must praise what works and share what
works. Second, all leaders -- all leaders must mobilize and
inspire their people to take action. Third, community centers
IN
must link those that care with those who need the help. Fourth,
the media must cover what is working, so we can share and repeat
our successes many times over. Finally, we must change our
liability laws that frighten good people away from helping
others.
But there's something society must cultivate that
government cannot provide. Something we can't legislate -- or
establish by government order. I'm talking about the moral sense
that must guide us all. In the simplest terms -- I'm talking
about knowing right from wrong.
Let ne come back again to that little boy I spoke about
earlier -- Rudy Campbell. There's a lesson he learned that
survived the horror and the hate. In the midst of all the chaos
-- in the midst of so much that's gone wrong -- he knows what's
right. When he was asked about the violence, here's what he
said, "They should know what's right and wrong, because when I
was four... that's when I learned."
That's got to give us hope. God bless Rudy Campbell. And
God bless the person who cared enough to teach him right from
wrong. Now, it's up to us -- everyone of us in this room -- to
guarantee that Rudy and all the millions of kids like him have a
shot at a better life.
12
I believe wer are right about family. We are right about
freedom and free enterprise. We are right about faith. And most
of all, we are right about America's future. We have the
capacity in our government, in our communities, and in ourselves
to transform America into the nation we have dreamed of for
generations.
Thank you for the conviction you have to act on your
beliefs. Thank you for all you have done. God bless the United
States of America.
# # #
TOTAL P.14
Dan- we're still working on
these two speeches.
(Smith/Aarhus)
Please give input.
May 6, 1992
Draft One
CHILE
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
ARRIVAL STATEMENT FOR CHILEAN
PRESIDENT AYLWIN
SOUTH LAWN
WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1992
Friends of Chile and the United States, ladies and
gentlemen. / President Aylwin, I am honored to welcome you to
the White House -- an opportunity not only to exchange views, but
to return hospitality. //
I remember visiting Santiago with my daughter Doro in
December of 1990. I will never forget how warmly you, Dona
Leonor, your family, and the Chilean people received us. //
[Anecdote].
Mr. President, you once described Chile's success as "the
reflection of a mature country that knows what it wants and is
able to achieve it by means of the democratic process. " / That
maturity has been hard-won: Americans shared your pain during
Chile's dark years -- when democracy was a fading dream and
peace, a faded hope. / But it has been won. Today, your
government serves its people -- and serves as a model to others.
The same may be said of your leadership: since taking
office, you have revived Chilean democray. / In 19 , Theodore
Roosevelt visited Chile and spoke of a "democratic experiment on
a far vaster scale than has ever been attempted anywhere else in
2
the world. " / As proof, look to next month. Your people will
vote in Chile's first local elections in twenty years.
Look, too, to the economy -- where you have married free
people with free markets: a union of economic growth -- growth
faster than any other economy in Latin America. / Today, your
trade barriers are falling -- your exports rising -- largely
because as a member of the Cairnes Group, you led the way against
agricultural subsidies and protectionism. //
I salute these achievements. So did the Inter-American
Development Bank -- turning first to Chile to implement its
investment policy program. And under the Enterprise for the
Americas Initiative, Chile was also first to have official debt
to the United States forgiven. // The reason is not only that
our peoples share what your government called the "community of
ideas, of feelings and needs" -- we share this land. We share
more than the New World -- we share a responsibility to keep our
world new. //
So, last February, we signed an agreement helping Chile
create an environmental project fund with money which would have
otherwise serviced debt -- though we'll continue to address
economic concerns under our 1990 trade and investment framework
agreement. // Our challenge now is to build on those beginnings
-- and show why Bernardo O'Higgins, the father of your
independence, wrote that "the Americas [give] great hopes to
philosophers and patriots alike. " //
3
Today, Chile gives hope to an entire hemisphere. / With
market-oriented reforms, you've led by example. In international
relations, you're leading through integrity: Other nations count
on Chilean leadership in the Organization of American States / in
the United Nations / and in the community of nations. Your
people did the hard work of freedom in Kuwait, El Salvador,
Guatemala, and Cambodia. You joined your neighbors to defend
democracy -- first at last year's OAS General Assembly, then most
recently in Haiti and Venezuela. //
There's a poem I learned when I was in Chile. Doro
especially likes it. It's called Machado's "Caminante. " /
There's one line I remember: "Traveler, there is no road, you
make a road in traveling. II //
Mr. President, I believe Chile is that traveler. Traveling
the road of history -- a history made one step at a time. Chile
offers an eloquent rebuke to those enemies of democracy -- far
left or right -- who try to mislead and confuse the people.
Chile shows how liberty can shape not only a nation of great
promise -- but a people of promises kept. //
Traveling together, Mr. President, we will keep our
promises, and make that road to a better tomorrow. / We are
honored to welcome to welcome to Washington, as our guest, one of
our hemisphere's greatest leaders.
#
#
#
#
(Smith/Aarhus)
May 7, 1992
Draft Two
TOAST
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
STATE DINNER TOAST TO PRESIDENT
AYLWIN OF CHILE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1992
President Aylwin, I am pleased to welcome you and Donna
Leonor to the White House -- and to return the warm reception you
gave me during my visit to your country. / I learned many things
on that trip -- including a Chilean proverb. It goes: "The
shrimp that falls asleep, it is taken by the current." I use it
to scare Ranger. //
Among my memories of my trip was a lunch we shared at your
home in Santiago. In particular, I recall the pride and delight
you took in your children and your grandchildren. / Mr.
President, it has been said that "the greatest glory of a free-
born people is to transmit that freedom to their children." Your
country's bright future lies in the hands and hearts of a free-
born people, determined to see their children born free --
passing liberty from mother to daughter, from father to son. //
Today, I was reminded how your father, an esteemed Supreme
Court Justice, passed his love of law and liberty to his son:
you, yourself a revered legal scholar. And I thought of, how
over sixty years ago, our Louis Brandeis observed that "the final
end of the State was to make men free to develop their
faculties." He added that those who love freedom know "liberty
2
to be the secret of happiness / and courage to be the secret of
liberty. " //
Mr. President, Justice Brandeis could find no better example
of courage in pursuit of liberty than the Chilean people and
their leader. Today, Chileans are "free to develop their
faculties" to the fullest -- having inherited the political and
economic rights their parents worked to achieve. They've also
assumed liberty's responsibilities: the knowledge that freedom
taken for granted can become freedom taken away. / Chile
continues the hard work of freedom: defending democracy in Haiti
and Venezuela -- promoting peace in Central America and the
Middle East. //
My friend President Alywin and I first met nearly two years
ago at the White House. Today, I have again had the chance to
observe his insight and eloquence. ( (The President, of course,
is fluent in both English and French. / I'm jealous. / Some say
English is my only foreign language. )) //
Talking to him today, I knew that Chile will continue to
export its material goods. I know also it will export its
dreams: the courage, hope, and imagination of free markets and
free peoples. Chile teaches others that political differences
never excuse indifference to the law -- and that social needs are
better met by the invisible hand of the free market than by the
iron fist of bureaucracy.
Thirty years ago, President Eisenhower spoke to your people,
saying: "We in the Western Hemisphere are still young nations,
3
still growing, still experimenting. " / I believe that's still
true today -- because democracy is as young as our children -- as
all the children of the world. //
Mr. President, I am honored to lift my glass to you, to
Chile, and to the bonds of friendship between our two peoples.
#
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
May 7, 1992
MEMORANDUM FOR DAN McGROARTY
FROM:
JOHN HERRMANN St
SUBJECT:
Presidential Remarks: To the Community of Los
Angeles
Several members of the Office of Policy Development staff
have reviewed the attached presidential remarks and noted
suggested changes on the draft. Roger Porter is travelling
with the President and has not reviewed these suggestions.
If you have any questions or we can be of further
assistance, please let us know.
CC: Phillip D. Brady
Document No.
326535SS
MH
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
-CK
RN
HK
5/6/92
11:00AM, THURS MAY
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
SUBJECT:
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
ROGICH
CALIO
ROLLINS
DEMAREST
SMITH
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
GRAY
FINDLAY
HOLIDAY
KAUFMAN
BOSKIN
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly
to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to
this office NO LATER THAN 11:00AM, THURSDAY, MAY 7.
Thank you.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
DDDM
Group
Draft One
02 MAY P5:28
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
[ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]
Let me first thank the people of the City of Los Angeles for
PRODUCTIVE
all they have done to make this visit so successful. With all
that has transpired these last few days, I can't imagine the
headaches we've probably caused, but I can assure you we do plan
to leave on schedule. The police, the community groups, the
Mayor's office, the Governor: Everyone has been tremendously
helpful.
It was important that I come here. Los Angeles has been the
site of a terrible tragedy. Not just for you, but for all of us.
That's why it's important that I say a few things about this
TODAY I'D LIKE
visit, to speak with you about what I've seen in this city -- and
about where we must now go as a country.
[Anecdote(s) from tour and meetings.]
?
on the same
=
city block -- I saw shocking signs of hatred and remarkable signs
of hope.
This tragedy has been many, many years in the making. It
will take a long time to put things right. I could have said
"put things right again", but that would miss the point. Things
weren't right before a week ago Wednesday. The status quo here,
and in too many cities across America is not right. We must not
return to the status quo -- not here -- not in any city where the
status quo perpetuates failure, hatred, and despair.
2
Let me tell you a little about Rudy Cambell. Saw him on TV.
THIS A
Looks to be about eight. Father? Murdered a few years back.
BREAKS
THE
Mother? Didn't see her. Rudy is raised by his twenty-two year
frow
old sister who has five kids of her own. Lives in a tough
INCLUDE
IN
neighborhood. Think about what he has already been through. And
AMECIDOTE
that now he says he fears that things will only get "badder and
SECTION
ON PE.
badder and badder." It breaks your heart.
What went wrong in L.A. -- what were the "underlying
causes", the "root problems" -- that can all be debated. And it
should be. Not to assign blame. Casting blame gets us nowhere.
MUCH
Honest talk and principled actions will get us let further
AND
will move us forward.
I believe there are some facts that most Americans can agree
with. Let me spend just a minute on those. Since the sixties,
MANY
lots of different programs have been tried -- aimed at stemming
the tide of urban violence, drugs, crime, and social decay.
Lots of different programs have tried to address the need
for adequate housing, sol for health care, of for education, AND for job
training. Everything from child care to welfare to health care
has been the subject of some commission, report, or study.
Huge amounts of money have been spent -- some estimates are
as high as two and a half trillion dollars over twenty-five
AND CONTRARY TO WHAT SOME MIGHT HAVE You BELIEVE
years. Check the numbers: Even in the last decade, federal
spending went up for these kinds of efforts, HAS INCREASED OVER THE LAST
RESOURCES ARE IMPORTANT, BUT THE SUCCESS OR FAILURE of A PROGRAM must BE MEASURED
Put away the studies and look around our cities. Some quick
ha
facts: in 1960 the percentage of births to unwed mothers was 5%.
3
Now it is 27% -- 5 times as great. If you read about a young
black male dying, odds are that he was murdered. In fact, odds
are 4 out of 10. Our young black men are at a crisis: If you're
a black male between 15-25 here in California, you're three times
more likely to be murdered than to enter the University of
California. Kids used to carry just their lunches to school.
Between 1987 and 1991, 134 guns were seized here in L.A. -- and
that was in our elementary schools. Numbers for high schools are
10 times as great. The chances that an 8th grader has ever used
alcohol is 70%, and there's a 1 in 10 chance that he or she has
used marijuana.
In the wake of the L.A. riots -- in the wake of the crack
epidemic -- in the wake of the lost generation of inner-city
youth: can any of us argue that we've solved the problems of
poverty, racism, and crime?
IN
We have made progress removing many of the legal barriers to
discrimination and equality. [[ But you don't need to look
further than the graffiti on the next street to see that hate,
bigotry and racism still plagues our society. 1]
Some programs -- I'm thinking of a program like Head Start -
- have shown time-tested positive results. But many, many more
BEEN EFFECTIVE.
simply have not worked. Our welfare system doesn't get people
off welfare -- it keeps them there. Our safety net -- as
essential as it is -- stops short of providing the people it
MEANS TO BREAK
serves a way out of a dehumanizing and inefficient cycle of
poverty.
WHAT STATISTICS ?
4
POVERTY ?
We know all too well the sobering statistics -- severest in
DELETE
our nation's urban areas. The summary fact is this: our cities
are in serious trouble.
We in government have an absolute responsibility to
participate in solving these problems. Our first responsibility
is to create order -- not the order of a prison yard -- but an
THAT PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES FOR
enabling order. One where families can flourish, children can
TO
TO
TO
learn, and jobs can be created.
I have taken a hard look at what the government can do and
its responsibility to help communities with the concerns that
really matter: how people can own property or a home, how people
can start a business and create jobs in the community, ensure
that the people not the government are making the big decisions
that affect the health, education and care of one's own family.
THE CURRENT STRUCTURE OF WELFARE PROGRAMS, HOWEVER, DENIES
Think of the way it looks right now to the ordinary person
THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE THESE CHOICES.
on welfare! Government provides you the money you live on -- the
1st and 15th of every month.
Government tells you where you can DELETE
THE TYPICO
live -- where your kids go to school. When you're sick --
PERSON ON
WELFARE 411
DELETE
government tells you what doctor you'll see, and when. If you
IN PRIVATE
NOT PUBLIC
find part-time work -- you worry that government may cut your
HOUSING.
welfare benefits. If you save, manage to put some money away --
TO PROMOTE COORDINATED CARE.
MEDICALD CHOLE WAIVER. OBTAINED WAIVERS A
you worry that government may come after you for fraud.
WE'RE ENCOURAGING THESE
UNLESS THE STATE HAS
Every one of those things happens with the system we've got
GUARANTEES PATIENTS FREEDOM OF
right now. And then we wonder: why can't these people take
control of their lives -- where's their sense of responsibility?
If we had set out to devise a system that would perpetuate
DELETE - WE SUPPORT Atis Pricy.
you SHOULD LOSE YOUR BENERTS.
5
dependency -- a system that would strip away personal
responsibility -- we could hardly have done better than the
system we have today.
SET A NEW COURSE
It's time we tried something different. A fresh approach.
I believe we must start with a set of principles -- principles
that give the word opportunity real meaning for people. They are
very simple: Order is better than disorder. Tolerance is better
than intolerance. Work is better than welfare. Opportunity is
better than entitlement. Independence is better than dependence.
Ownership is better than tenancy. And traditional family values
are better than moral relativism and government paternalism.
I believe in policies that foster personal responsibility,
policies that refocus entitlement programs to serve those who are
look TO THE COMMUNITY AS THE KEY TO RENEWAL
truly needy, Vand increase choice and competition in delivering
government services. I believe in policies that rely on the
community for guidance and that use states as laboratories. I
believe in policies that encourage entrepreneurship -- increase
AND
investment create jobs.
My economic opportunity plan flows from these principles:
We must spark an economic revival in urban America. That's
why I want to see Enterprise Zones, with a zero capital gains
rate for entrepreneurs and investors who locate businesses in
America's inner cities.
We must reclaim neighborhoods now ravaged by crime and
drugs. We're doing that through a new initiative called Weed and
Seed -- to "weed out" the gang leaders, the drug dealers and
6
career criminals, and "seed" those neighborhoods with expanded
ARE WE
educational opportunities and social services. And I've sent to
REALLY
SENDINE
Congress today an urgent request to bring Weed and Seed to Los
SOMETHING
Angeles as soon as possible.
TO
7
CONERESS
We must break the perverse dis-incentives that discourage
CHECK
THIS ISN:
CAREFULLY
work and encourage welfare. We've got to reform our AFDC rules
THE
ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO MAKE THE LEAP FROM WELFARE TO WORK
APPROACH
stop penalizing people who manage to work and save and show
WE'RE TAKI
individual initiative the very things that will help them
on WORK.
WE OPPOSE
leave welfare behind.
LIBERACIZING
THE EARNEN
We must promote new hope through home ownership. That's the DISREBAL
aim of our HOPE initiative, to give people a real stake in their
communities -- something they can pass along to their kids -- by
turning public housing tenants into homeowners.
We must give parents in our nation's hardest-hit communities
ENJOYED By PARENTS IN AFFLUENT COMMUNITIES.
the same choices\ Parents, not the government, should be free to
choose who cares for their children -- and where their children
go to school.
Finally, we must assure all Americans access to basic health
care -- and we can do it without compromising choice and quality,
through my comprehensive plan for health care reform.
Some will say, "you've proposed all this before.' They are
right. And I am proposing it again because I am right. Some
will say, "Where is the new money, the new program, the new
bureaucracy?" I will say, a government program does not raise
children, families do. A government program does not dispense
7
spiritual guidance, churches do. A government program does not
build neighborhoods, citizens do.
I'm not a social scientist. Never pretended to be. I look
LESS
at things from a more uncomplicated point of view. As a father
with kids -- now with grandkids. As a volunteer -- coaching
little league or knocking doors for the United Negro College
Fund. As someone who spent half his life in a business trying to
build a future for his family. As someone who spent the other
half of his life trying to serve the public. That's how I look
at the world.
We've tried other ways to solve problems -- now is not the
time to re-invent the wheel. We must try something different.
Our approach is different. Let's give it a chance to work. If
LAST WEEK'S RIOTS HERE /
ever the Congress needed a reason to pass my plan it isVLos
Angeles,
When I saw the verdict in the Rodney King case, my reaction
was not much different than the rest of America, as I said to the
American people last Friday. And when I saw the violence and
rage erupt on your streets, once again, my reaction was the same
as most other people. We all knew that order had to be restored.
A civilized society cannot tackle any of the tough problems in
the midst of chaos. It's as simple as that. We must never
condone violence and brutality, and I am confident we never will.
And when I saw and read about the heroic acts, the
responsible acts, the selfless acts, of so many of your people,
my reaction was one of relief -- and hope for the future.
8
So-far I have spoken about what government can do. Now let
me talk about what society must do. I have said we can agree on
several things. In sum, for thirty years we've tried a lot of
solutions, spent a lot of money, and haven't solved the problems.
But we are not a morally, spiritually, or intellectually bankrupt
nation. In other words, we have the spirit and the gumption to
go at this problem again and again until we beat it. Maybe even
to try some things we haven't tried before.
Before I arrived I was told that the real anguish of the
CONCERN
people in the hardest hit areas is about the children. This we
should be able to agrée on as well -- whatever we do must be
about the children -- they are the future. Our actions in the
wake of this tragedy are for them -- not just here in Los
Angeles, but all across the country.
Your own Mayor Bradley was among a group of mayors who came
to see me last January. I have repeated often what he and others
said to me that day. They didn't say more programs or more
WERE NEEDED.
money". They said that the most important problem facing our
cities is the dissolution of the family. They're right. What's
the determining fact right now in whether a child has hope --
stays in school, stays away from drugs? It's not the level of
federal aid. It's not a HUD grant or an SBA loan. It's whether
a child lives in a home with a mother and a father.
We know from a longer term look at history, that societies
cannot be successful without some fundamental building blocks in
place. The state of our nation is the state of our communities.
9
Good communities are safe and decent. They care for their young
people -- instill them with character and values and good habits
for life. They have good schools. And good communities provide
opportunity and hope, rooted in the dignity of work and reward
for achievement.
So this is obviously not a crisis just of economics. This
is about rebuilding our spirit. It's about rebuilding the bonds
between individuals, and between ethnic groups, between races.
We must not let our diversity destroy us. Our diversity is
central to our strength as a country.
That's why guaranteeing a hopeful future for the children of
our cities is about a lot more than rebuilding burned out
buildings. It's about building a new American community. And
history shows us that government cannot come close to creating
the scale and energy needed to transform the lives of people in
need. Anyone who believes otherwise has been living in a cave
for the last twenty-five years.
The simple fact is that in every city in America, tens of
thousands of groups, and hundreds of thousands of individuals,
who have never been involved before, and who will never be paid
one nickel for their efforts, must become partners in solving our
most serious social problems. One need not look far for the
evidence that this is part of the solution.
Right now, this community has many of the answers within
itself. For example, there are four Cities in Schools programs,
there are XX members of One Hundred Black Men mentoring boys in
10
South Central Los Angeles. If instead there were Ten Thousand
Black Men working with boys, and twenty-five Cities in Schools
programs helping young people learn -- and so on with the
hundreds of people and groups that work with kids -- there is no
question that what happened last week would have been much, much
less severe. So it only makes sense that a large part of our
challenge is to expand the scale of what we already know works in
community after community.
Perhaps the phrase I have repeated more often than any other
is "Any definition of a successful life must include service to
others". That goes for institutions as well as individuals.
When we look to ensure a decent and hopeful future for our
children, I mean this: First, we must praise what works and
share what works. Second, our leaders must mobilize and inspire
their communities to take action. Third, community centers must
link those that care with those who need help. Fourth, the
media must cover what is working, so we can share and repeat our
successes many times over. Finally, we must change our laws that
frighten good people away from helping others. Finally, there's
something society must cultivate that government cannot provide.
Something we can't legislate -- or establish by government order.
I'm talking about the moral sense that must guide us all. In
simplest terms -- I'm talking about knowing right from wrong.
THE
Let me come back again to that little boy I spoke about
earlier -- Rudy Campbell. There's a lesson he's learned that
survived the horror and the hate. In the midst of all the chaos
11
-- in the midst of so much that's gone wrong -- he knows what's
right. When he was asked about the violence, here's what he
said, "They should know what's right and wrong, because when I
was four that's when I learned."
That's got to give us hope. God bless Rudy Campbell. And
God bless the person who cared enough to teach him right from
wrong. Now, it's up to us -- everyone of us in this room -- to
CHANCE
guarantee Rudy and all the millions of kids like him have a shot
FOR
at a better life.
I believe we are right about family. We are right about
faith, about America's future. We must take these steps to
reclaim the American Dream for the people of our cities.
Thank you for the conviction you have to act on your
beliefs. Thank you for all you have done. God bless the United
States of America.
# # #
Document No.
326535SS
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
5/6/92
11:00AM, THURS' MAY
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
Ellen
6266
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
ROGICH
&
CALIO
ROLLINS
DEMARES
SMITH
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
GRAY ciberraon 6251 N/C
FINDLAY
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
BOSKIN
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly
to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to
this office NO LATER THAN 11:00AM, THURSDAY, MAY 7.
Thank you.
RESPONSE:
partial comments from OMB and Boskin
MASTER
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
5
dependency -- a system that would strip away personal
responsibility -- we could hardly have done better than the
system we have today.
(Darman) to
It's time we tried something different. A fresh approach.
I believe we must start with a set of principles -- principles
that give the word opportunity real meaning for people. They are
very simple: Order is better than disorder. Tolerance (Darman) is better
than intolerance. Work is better than welfare. Opportunity is
better than entitlement. Independence is better than dependence.
Ownership is better than tenancy. And traditional family values
are better than moral relativism and government paternalism
I believe in policies that foster personal responsibility,
policies that refocus entitlement programs to serve those who are
truly needy, and increase choice and competition in delivering Boskin.
Thisis
government services.
I believe in policies that rely on the
inside the
Beltway
community for guidance and that use states as laboratories.
I Jargon
esp.
believe in policies that encourage entrepreneurship -- increase
laboratori
reference
investment -- create jobs.
Give
My economic opportunity plan flows from these principles:
states
more
We must spark an economic revival in urban America. That's
power
why I want to see Enterprise Zones, with a zero capital gains
rate for entrepreneurs and investors who locate businesses in
America's inner cities.
Janet
We must reclaim neighborhoods now ravaged by crime and
Hale Hamar
This should be done through
drugs. We're doing that through a new initiative called Weed and
Seed -- to "weed out" the gang leaders, the drug dealers and
6
career criminals, and "seed" those neighborhoods with expanded
(Darman)
educational opportunities and social services. And I've sent to
Congress today an urgent request to bring Weed and Seed to Los
Angeles as soon as possible.
We must break the perverse dis-incentives that discourage
work and encourage welfare. [we've got to reform our AFDC rules -
- stop penalizing people who manage to work and save and show
individual initiative -- the very things that will help them
leave welfare behind. Couples might lose their married eligibility or
if they seperate/divoice. "Stay married" set
We must promote new hope through home ownership. That's the
aim of our HOPE initiative, to give people a real stake in their
communities -- something they can pass along to their kids -- by
turning public housing tenants into homeowners.
We must give parents in our nation's hardest-hit communities
the same choices. Parents, not the government, should be free to
choose who cares for their children -- and where their children
go to school.
Finally, we must assure all Americans access to basic health
care -- and we can do it without compromising choice and quality,
through my comprehensive plan for health care reform.
Some will say, "you've proposed all this before." They are
right. And I am proposing it again because I am right. Some
will say, "Where is the new money, the new program, the new
bureaucracy?" I will say, a government program does not raise
children, families do. A government program does not dispense
7
spiritual guidance, churches do. A government program does not
(Darman) People
build neighborhoods, citizens do.
(Darman)
I'm not a social scientist. Never pretended to be. I look
at things from a more less uncomplicated point of view. As a father
with kids -- now with grandkids. As a volunteer -- coaching
little league or knocking doors for the United Negro College
Fund. As someone who spent half his life in a business trying to
build a future for his family. As someone who spent the other
half of his life trying to serve the public. That's how I look
at the world.
We've tried other ways to solve problems -- now is not the
time to re-invent the wheel. We must try something different.
Our approach is different. Let's give it a chance to work. If
ever the Congress needed a reason to pass my plan it is Los
Angeles, California.
When I saw the verdict in the Rodney King case, my reaction
was not much different than the rest of America, as I said to the
American people last Friday. And when I saw the violence and
rage erupt on your streets, once again, my reaction was the same
as most other people. We all knew that order had to be restored.
A civilized society cannot tackle any of the tough problems in
the midst of chaos. It's as simple as that. We must never
condone violence and brutality, and I am confident we never will.
And when I saw and read about the heroic acts, the
X
(Boskin) citizens ofL.A.
responsible acts, the selfless acts, of so many of your people,
my reaction was one of relief -- and hope for the future.
8
So far I have spoken about what government can do. Now let
me talk about what society must do. I have said we can agree on
several things (Darman) In sum for thirty years we've tried a lot of
solutions, spent a lot of money, and haven't solved the problems.
But we are not a morally, spiritually, or intellectually bankrupt
nation. In other words, we have the spirit and the gumption to
go at this problem again and again until we beat it. Maybe even
to try some things we haven't tried before.
Before I arrived I was told that the real anguish of the
people in the hardest hit areas is about the children. This we
should be able to agree on as well -- whatever we do must be
about the children -- they are the future. Our actions in the
wake of this tragedy are for them -- not just here in Los
Angeles, but all across the country.
Your own Mayor Bradley was among a group of mayors who came
to see me last January. I have repeated often what he and others
said to me that day. They didn't say more programs or more
money. They said that the most important problem facing our
cities is the dissolution of the family. They're right. What's
the determining fact right now in whether a child has hope --
stays in school, stays away from drugs? It's not the level of
federal aid. It's not a HUD grant or an SBA loan. It's whether
a child lives in a home with a mother and a father.
We know from a longer term look at history, that societies
cannot be successful without some fundamental building blocks in
place. The state of our nation is the state of our communities.
The President's Schedule
MAY 1992
Issue: 05/05/92
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
1
2
6:45
Staff Time
B
7:00 Great American Workout
Proposed & Tentative
7:30 Mtg. w/AG Barr
for Administrative
9:15 Mtg. w/minority Idrs.
Use Only
10:55 Staff Time
11:00 Mtg. w/Sec. Baker
T Tentative
a
11:45 Volunteer Luncheon
B First Lady
2:45 Photo w/Goldman Envir.
Prize Winners
Away from WH
9:00 Address to the Nation
9:30 Depart f/Camp David
RON CAMP DAVID
RON CAMP DAVID
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
9:00 Mtg. w/AG Barr
8:20
Hold
6:00 Mtg. w/Sec. Baker
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
9:15 Mtg. w/Sec. Kemp,
9:00 Mtg w/AG Barr, Dep. Sec
9:15 Mtg. w/Cabinet Members
Martin & Bullivan
Atwood & Gen. Powell
9:45 Staff Time
*
Events TBD
Events TBD
9:45 Domestic Briefing
9:15 Mtg. w/Sec. Kemp,
10:30 Mtg. w/Pres. Kravchuk
10:50 Staff Time
Martin, Sullivan, AG
11:45 Lunch w/Pres. Kravchuk
11:00 Mtg. w/N. Amer.
Barr
12:45 Treaty Signing Cere.
Members of Council
*
10:30 Senate Repub. Conf.
1:45 Teleconf. to American
f/Sustainable Develop.
12:00 Lunch with VP
Newspaper Publ. Assoc.
11:30 Photo w/Asthma &
1:00 Staff Time
2:00 Video Taping Session
Allergy Poster Child
*
2:00 Cele. f/Cinco De Mayo
2:45 Mtg. w/Dr. Dobson
2:15 Staff Time
3:00 Dip. Credentials Care.
3:00 Mtg. w/Pres. Callejas
3:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Brady
4:00 Staff Time
4:00 Depart f/Camp David
TBD Arrive White House
B* 7:45 WH Corresp. Dinner
*
4:30
Michel unvelling
4:45 Staff Time
*
6:00 Depart f/Califomia
(Black Tie)
B*
6:00
Recp f/Ntl. Rehab Hosp
5:15
Hold
RON WASHINGTON. D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON LOS ANGELES, CA
RON LOS ANGELES. CA
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
10
Mother's Day
11
12
13
14
15
16
Armed Forces Day
9:45 Domestic Briefing
10:00 Cong. Ldrship. Mtg.
8:00 Mtg. w/Sec: Baker
8:25 Photo w/U.S. Amb. to
*
10:00 Address Law
Dallas, Texas
11:30 Mtg. & working lunch
B
10:00 Arrival Cere.
Finland
Enforcement Memorial
*
8:30 Intv. w/Edit. Board of
11:15 Photo w/Amer. Trauma
w/Boutros
f/President Aylwin
9:15 Staff Time
Ceremony
Dallas Moming News
Society Poster Child
Boutros-Ghall, U.N.
10:30
Mtg. w/Pres. Aylwin of
9:45 Economic Briefing
10:45 Depart f/Pennsylvania
*
10:00
Address Southern
1:30
Hold
Secy. Gen.
Chile
11:35 Photo w/MS Mother &
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Methodist University
2:00 Healthcare event
1:15 Photo w/US Amb. to UN
1:30 Mtg. w/PM of Finland
Father of the Year
12:30 B/Q Fundraising Lunch
Commencement
3:00 Mtg: w/FM of France
1:45 Staff Time
3:00 Admin. Time
12:00 Lunch w/Cabnt. Members
2:35 Depart for Texas
3:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Cheney
3:30
Hold
TBD Amer. Recreation
Houston, Texas
3:45 Staff Time
Coalition
4:15 Arrive Houston
4:20 Depart f/Pennsylvania
4:00 Satellite Tour
*
Hold
3:25 Photo w/Ntl. Troopers
7:45 Doug Sanders Celebrity
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
5:00 Mtg. w/PM Manning of
Coalition
Classic fundraising
8:00 B/Q Fundraising
Trinidad & Tabago
3:30 Briefing w/NRCC House
recept. & dinner to
Dinner
7:30 Dinner w/Singapore SM
B
7:15 State Dinner
Council
benefit UNCF
9:10
Arrive White House
Lee Kuan Yew
(Black Tie)
B
6:00 Private Dinner
(Black Tie)
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON. D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON HOUSTON, TEXAS
RON HOUSTON, TEXAS
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
9:45 Domestic Briefing
8:15 Photo Ops w/U.S. Ambs.
Houston, Texas
10:00 Video Taping Session
11:00 Mtg. w/President
to Namibia, Latvia,
9:10 Depart f/Ohio
11:05 Depart f/Indiana
11:00 Event f/50th Anniv. of
Nazarbayev of
Estonia and Lithuania
Cleveland, Ohio
Homebullders
Kazakhstan
10:00 Cong. Ldrship Mtg.
11:00 B/Q Fundraising Lunch
South Bend, Indiana
11:20 Photo w/winners of the
12:15 Lunch w/President
11:45 Mtg. w/PM Mulroney
2:00 Address University of
US FIRST Competition
Nazarbayev
12:00 Lunch w/PM Mulroney
Notre Dame
12:00 Hold
1:15 Departure Statements
1:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Baker
3:10 Depart f/New York
Commencement
1:30 Photo Ops
1:45 Staff Time
3:00 Staff Time
3:00 Address Ntl. Retail
3:00 Admin. Time
3:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Brady
Federation
Westchester, New York
3:20 Staff Time
*
5:00 B/Q Fundraising
3:30 Satellite Tour
Dinner
6:05 Arrive South Lawn
B
6:30 Dinner w/Sir John Swan
Premier of Bermuda
B* 6:30 Private Dinner
8:15 Arrive Kennebunkport
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON KENNEBUNKPORT
RON KENNEBUNKPORT
RON KENNEBUNKPORT
24
25
Memorial Day
26
27
28
29
30
9:45 Domestic Briefing
B TBD Depart f/Maryland
10:15 Cong. Ldrship. Mtg.
Annapolis, Maryland
9:45 Economic Briefing
Los Angeles, CA
B* 10:30 Address the United
*
TBD Asian-Pacific American
12:00 Lunch w/Cabinet
States Naval Academy
Raily
Members
Commencement
12:00 Lunch with VP
RON KENNEBUNKPORT
1:45
Staff Time
1:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Baker
31
TBD Depart f/Arizona
B
TBD Arrive White House
*
TBD Depart f/Dallas
5:00
Hold
TBD Depart f/Georgia
Phoenix, Arizona
5:45 Staff Time
Atlanta, Georgia
*
TBD McCain Fundraising
Los Angeles, California
Dallas, Texas
6:00 Satellite Intve.
*
6:30 B/Q Fundraising
Dinner
*
TBD Presidential Trust
6:30 Texas Victory '92
Dinner
TBD Arrive Los Angeles
Dinner
Dinner
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHING DICT TRON LOGANORDES, CA
RON LOS ANGELES, CA
RON CAMP DAVID
The President's Schedule
JUNE 1992
Issue: 05/05/92
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
1
2
3
4
5
6
11:30 Photo w/Fisherman of
10:00 Cong. Ldrship Mtg.
10:30 Mtg. w/Norweglan PM
the Year
Brundtland
12:00 Lunch with VP
11:00 Mtg. w/Sec. Baker
1:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Baker
TBD Mtg. w/P.M. Major
2:00 Mtg. w/French Opp.
Ldr., Edouard Balladur
3:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Cheney
3:00 Admin. Time
TBD Congressional BBQ
8 TBD Congressional BBQ
(raindate)
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON. D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON. D.C.
RON CAMP DAVID
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Hold
Hold
10:00 Cong. Ldrship. Mtg.
12:00 Lunch with VP
1:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Baker
TBD Mtg. w/P.M. Major
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
*
TBD Arien Specter
3:00 Admin. Time
3:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Brady
Fundraiser
6:30 Private Dinner
RON WASHINGTON. D.C.
RON WASHINGTON. D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON. D.C.
RON TBD
RON TBD
14
Flag Day
15
16
17
18
19
20
Hold
10:00 Cong. Ldrship. Mtg.
TBD Mtg. w/President
TBD Mtg. w/President
Hold for travel
TBD Hold for travel
Yeltsin
Yeltsin
1:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Baker
3:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Cheney
3:00 Admin. Time
TBD Cere. f/Presidential
Scholars
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON. D.C.
RON TBD
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON CAMP DAVID
21
Father's Day
22
23
24
25
26
27
TBD Present. of Ntl. Medal
10:00 Cong. Ldrship. Mtg.
of Science & Ntl.
11:00 Mtg. w/Sec. Baker
Medal of Technology
12:00 Lunch with VP
1:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Baker
3:00 Admin. Time
3:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Brady
Camp David
B TBD Hold for Rehearsal
B* 5:00 Dorothy Bush Wedding
5:30 Recept. I/New Amer.
Dinner
Schools Dev. Corps,
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON CAMP DAVID
28
29
30
10:00 Cong. Ldrship. Mtg.
Proposed & Tentative
for Administrative
Use Only
T Tentative
3:30 Mtg. w/Sec. Cheney
B First Lady
* Away from WH
8
TBD Diptomatic Corps
Picnic
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHINGTON, D.C.
RON WASHIGTONCUTIVE
DO NOT COPY
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
5/7/92
-----
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
ROGICH
CALIO
ROLLINS
DEMAREST
SMITH
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
FINDLAY
GRAY
HOLIDAY
KAUFMAN
BOSKIN
MCGROARTY
REMARKS:
The attached has been forwarded to the President.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
LOS ANGELES, CA
THU 07 MAY 92 11:57
PG.02
DDDM
Group
Draft Two
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
[ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]
Let me first thank the people of Los Angeles for all they
have done during my visit. With all that has transpired these
last few days, I can imagine the headaches our visit has caused,
but I can assure you we do plan to leave on schedule. The
police, the community groups, the Mayor's office, the Governor:
Everyone has been tremendously helpful.
It was vitally important that I come here. The Los Angeles
Community has been the site of a terrible tragedy. Not just for
you, but for our country -- and everyone around the world who
looks to America as a model of freedom and justice. That's why I
want to say a few things about my visit, to speak with you about
what I've seen in this city -- and most importantly -- about
where we must go as a nation. For as I said yesterday at Mt.
Zion Church we are one people -- one-family -- one nation under
God.
[Anecdote (s) from tour and meetings.] When people terrorize
one another and burn each others property, I can hardly imagine
the volume of fear and anger people must feel. In sum, on the
same city block -- I saw tragic signs of hatred but remarkable
signs of hope.
LOS ANGELES, CA
THU 07 MAY 92 11:57
PG.03
2
This tragedy seemed to come suddenly but it has been many,
many years in the making. I know it will take time to put things
right. I could have said "put things right again", but that
would miss the point. Things weren't right before a week ago
Wednesday. Things aren't right in too many cities across
America. We must not return to the status quo -- not here -- not
in any city where the system perpetuates failure, hatred,
poverty, and despair.
Let me tell you a little story about Rudy Campbell. I saw
him on TV. He looked to be about eight. His father was murdered
a few years back. I didn't see his mother. Rudy is raised by
his twenty-two year old sister who has five kids of her own. He
lives in South Central. Think about what he has already been
through. And that now he says he fears that things will only get
"badder and badder and badder." It breaks your heart. But we
can't stop there. Our children need more than sympathy.
What went wrong in L.A. -- what were the "underlying
causes", the "root problems" -- that can all be debated. And it
should be -- but not to assign blame. Casting blame gets us
nowhere. Honest talk and principled actions will get us a lot
further -- will move us forward. That's what we must do for our
children.
We must start with some unpleasant realities that most
Americans now recognize. Let me spend just a minute on those.
Since the 1960's, we have tried lots of different programs --
LOS ANGELES, CA
THU 07 MAY 92 11:59
PG.01
3
aimed at stemming the tide of urban violence, drugs, crime, and
social decay.
Lots of different programs and policies -- all with noble
intentions -- have tried to address the need for adequate
housing, education, jobs and job training. Everything from child
care to welfare to health care has been the subject of some
commission, report, or study.
We have spent huge amounts of money -- some estimates are as
high as two and a half trillion dollars over twenty-five years.
Much of this effort went to construct a safety net -- to provide
some security and hopefully some stability. Even in the last
decade, federal spending went up for these kinds of efforts. But
when we look where this path has taken us, it is not where we
wanted to go.
Now put away the studies and just look around our cities.
Some quick facts: in 1960 the percentage of births to unwed
mothers was 5%. Now it is 27%. If you read about a young black
male dying, odds are that he was murdered. In fact, the odds are
almost 1 out of 2. Kids used to carry just their lunches to
school. Today some carry guns. Between 1987 and 1991, 134 guns
were seized here in L.A. -- and that was just in the elementary
schools. Drug and alcohol abuse are serious problems almost
everywhere. The chances that an 8th grader has ever used alcohol
is 70%, and there's a 1 in 10 chance that he or she has used
marijuana.
LOS ANGELES, CA
THU 07 MAY 92 12:00
PG.01
4
In the wake of the L.A. riots -- in the wake of the crack
epidemic sweeping our cities -- in the wake of a. lost generation
of inner-city lives: can any of us argue that we've solved the
problems of poverty, racism, and crime? No!
Thanks to a great civil rights revolution, we removed many
of the legal barriers to discrimination and equality of
opportunity. [[ But you don't need to look further than the
graffiti on the next street to see that hate, bigotry and racism
still plague our society. ]]
Some programs -- I'm thinking of programs like Head Start or
Aid to the Elderly -- have shown time-tested positive results.
But many simply have not worked. Our welfare system doesn't get
people off welfare -- it keeps people trapped there.
The statistics are indeed sobering. The sum and substance
is this: our cities are in serious trouble.
We in government have an absolute responsibility to help
solve these problems. Our first responsibility is to preserve
order -- not the order of a prison yard -- but an enabling order.
One where families can flourish, children can learn, and jobs can
be created.
I have taken a hard look at what the government can do and
how it can help communities with the concerns that really matter:
how people can own property, own their own home, start a
business, create jobs, ensure that people not government make the
big decisions that affect the health, education and care of one's
own family.
LOS ANGELES, CA
THU 07 MAY 92 12:00
PG.02
5
Think of the way the world looks right now to the single
mother on welfare. Government provides you just. enough cash for
the bare necessities. Government tells you where you can live -
- where your kids go to school. When you're sick -- government
tells you what kind of care you get, and when. If you find a
job, the government cuts your welfare benefits. If you save, if
you manage to put some money away -- towards a home or maybe to
help your kid through college -- the government comes after you
for welfare fraud.
Every one of those things happens with the system we've got
right now. And then we wonder: why can't folks on welfare take
control of their lives -- where's their sense of responsibility?
If we had set out to devise a system that would perpetuate
dependency -- a system that would strip away dignity and
personal responsibility -- we could hardly have done better than
the system we have today.
Every American knows it's time we tried something different.
A fresh approach -- a radical change in the way we look at
welfare and the inner city economy.
We must start with policies that foster personal
responsibility, policies that refocus entitlement programs to
serve those who are most needy, and increase the effectiveness of
government services through competition and choice. I believe in
policies that keep power close to the people -- and that use
states as laboratories for innovation. I believe in policies
that encourage entrepreneurship -- increase investment -- create
THU 07 MAY 92 12:02
PG.01
LOS ANGELES, CA
6
jobs. My agenda for economic opportunity flows from these
principles:
One, we must spark an economic revival in urban America.
That's why I want to see Enterprise Zones, with a zero capital
gains rate for entrepreneurs and investors who locate businesses
and create jobs in America's inner cities. We must break the
perverse dis-incentives that discourage work and encourage
welfare. We've got to reform our AFDC rules -- stop penalizing
people who want to work and save -- people who must the
individual initiative to leave welfare behind.
Two, we must reclaim neighborhoods now ravaged by crime and
drugs. We're doing that through a new initiative called Weed and
Seed -- to "weed out" the gang leaders, the drug dealers and
career criminals, and "seed" those neighborhoods with expanded
educational opportunities and social services.
Three, safe neighborhoods are places where our children can
learn. But that's not enough. We've got to revolutionize our
schools. We do it through choice and competition -- two key
ideas at the heart of the strategy I call American 2000. We must
give parents in our nation's hardest-hit communities the same
choices. Parents, not the government, should be free to choose
who cares for their children -- and where their children go to
school.
Four, we must promote new hope through home ownership.
That's the aim of our HOPE initiative, to give people a real
stake in their communities -- something of value they can pass
LOS ANGELES, CA
THU 07 MAY 92 12:02
PG.02
7
along to their kids -- by turning public housing tenants into
homeowners.
Finally, fifth, we must assure all Americans access to basic
health care -- and we can do it without compromising choice and
quality, through my comprehensive plan for health care reform.
Some will say, "you've proposed all this before." They are
right. And I am proposing it again. Because I am right. Some
will say, "Where is the new money, the new programs, the new
bureaucracy?" I will say, government doesn't create wealth, free
enterprise and free people do. I will say, a government program
does not raise children, families do. A government program does
not dispense spiritual and moral guidance, churches, synagogues
and parents do. A government program does not build
neighborhoods, people do.
I'm not a social scientist. I have never pretended to be.
I look at things from my own experience.
We've tried the old ways of thinking. Now as Lincoln said
"it is time to think anew." Our approach is a radical break
with the policies of the past. It is new because it's never been
tried before. If ever the Congress needed a reason to try
something new it is Los Angeles, California.
When I saw the verdict in the Rodney King case, my reaction
was not much different than the rest of America, as I said to the
American people last Friday. I was stunned, but I remain
confident in our system of justice. And when I saw the violence
and rage erupt on your streets, my reaction was the same as most
LOS ANGELES, CA
THU 07 MAY 92 12:03
PG.03
8
other people. We all knew we had to restore order. A civilized
society cannot tackle any of the really tough problems in the
midst of chaos. It's as simple as that. We must never condone
violence and brutality, and I am confident we never will.
When I saw and read about the heroic acts, the responsible
acts, the selfless acts, of so many of the citizens of Los
Angeles, my reaction was one of relief -- and hope for the
future.
So far I have spoken about what government can do. Now let
me talk about what society must do. I have said we can agree on
several things. For thirty years we've tried many solutions,
spent a lot of money, and haven't solved the problems. But we
are not a morally, spiritually, or intellectually bankrupt
nation. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have the
spirit and the gumption to go at this problem again and again
until we beat it. And we will -- if we try the right things --
things we haven't tried before.
Even in the short time I've been here, I could sense that
the real anguish of the people in the hardest hit areas is about
their kids. People are worried sick about the children. I
believe all agree that whatever we do must be about the children
they are our future. Our actions in the wake of this tragedy
are for them -- not just here in Los Angeles, but all across the
country.
Your own Mayor Bradley was among a group of mayors who came
to see me last January. I have repeated often what he and others
LOS ANGELES, CA
THU 07 MAY 92 12:03
PG.04
9
said to me that day. They didn't ask for more programs or more
money. They said that the most important problem facing our
cities is the dissolution of the family. They're right. What's
the determining fact right now for whether a child has hope --
stays in school, stays away from drugs? It's not the level of
federal aid. It's not a HUD grant or an SBA loan. It's whether
a child lives in a loving home with a mother and a father.
History tells us that societies cannot succeed without some
fundamental building blocks in place. The state of our nation is
the state of our communities. Good communities are safe and
decent. They care for their young people -- instill them with
character and values and good habits for life. They have good
schools. Good communities provide opportunity and hope, rooted
in the dignity of work and reward for achievement.
So this is obviously not a crisis just of economics. This
is about rebuilding our spirit. It's about rebuilding bonds
among individuals, and among ethnic groups, between races. We
must not let our diversity destroy us. It is central to our
strength as a country. Our ability to live and work together has
made America the inspiration of the world.
That's why guaranteeing a hopeful future for the children of
our cities is about a lot more than rebuilding burned out
buildings. It's about building a new American community. And
history shows us that government alone cannot come close to
creating the scale and energy needed to transform the lives of
LOS ANGELES, CA
THU 07 MAY 92 12:04
PG.01
10
people in need. Anyone who believes otherwise has been living in
a cave for the last twenty-five years.
In every city in America, tens of thousands of groups, and
hundreds of thousands of individuals, who have never been
involved before, and who will never be paid one nickel for their
efforts, must become partners in solving our most serious social
problems. One need not look far for the evidence that this is
central to the solution.
Right now, this community has many of the answers within
itself. For example, there are four Cities in Schools programs,
there are XX members of One Hundred Black Men mentoring boys in
South Central Los Angeles. If instead there were Ten Thousand
Black Men working with boys, and twenty-five Cities in Schools
programs helping hispanic children learn -- and so on with the
hundreds of people and groups that work with kids -- there is no
question that what happened last week would have been much, much
less severe. so it only makes sense that a large part of our
challenge is to dramatically expand the scale of what we already
know works in community after community.
The phrase I have repeated perhaps more often than any other
is worth repeating here "From now on in America, any definition
of a successful life must include serving others". That goes for
institutions as well as individuals.
When we look to ensure a decent and hopeful future for our
children, I mean this about every community: First, every group
and institution in America -- schools, businesses, churches --
LOS ANGELES, CA
THU 07 MAY 92 12:05
PG.02
11
must do its part. We must praise what works and share what
works. Second, all leaders -- all leaders must: mobilize and
inspire their people to take action. Third, community centers
must link those that care with those who need the help. Fourth,
the media must cover what is working, so we can share and repeat
our successes many times over. Finally, we must change our
liability laws that frighten good people away from helping
others.
But. there's something society must cultivate that
government cannot provide. Something we can't legislate -- or
establish by government order. I'm talking about the moral sense
that must guide us all. In the simplest terms -- I'm talking
about knowing right from wrong.
Let He come back again to that little boy I spoke about
earlier -- Rudy Campbell. There's a lesson he learned that
survived the horror and the hate. In the midst of all the chaos
-- in the midst of so much that's gone wrong -- he knows what's
right. When he was asked about the violence, here's what he
said, "They should know what's right and wrong, because when I
was four... that's when I learned."
That's got to give us hope. God bless Rudy Campbell. And
God bless the person who cared enough to teach him right from
wrong. Now, it's up to us -- everyone of us in this room -- to
guarantee that Rudy and all the millions of kids like him have a
shot at a better life.
LOS ANGELES, CA
THU 07 MAY 92 12:06
PG.01
12
I believe we are right about family. We are right about
freedom and free enterprise. We are right about faith. And most
of all, we are right about America's future. We have the
capacity in our government, in our communities, and in ourselves
to transform America into the nation we have dreamed of for
generations.
Thank you for the conviction you have to act on your
beliefs. Thank you for all you have done. God bless the United
States of America.
# # #
name,
l don it this believe
you Version. rec'd 700
Document No.
326535SS
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
5/6/92
11:00AM, THURS, MAY
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
ROGICH
CALIO seecomm
ROLLINS
DEMAREST
SMITH
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
FINDLAY
GRAY
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
BOSKIN
REMARKS:
Machorty
Please provide comments on the attached directly
to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to
this office NO LATER THAN 11:00AM, THURSDAY, MAY 7.
Thank you.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
DDDM
Group
Draft One
02
MAY
6
a
5
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
[ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]
Let me first thank the people of the City of Los Angeles for
all they have done to make this visit so successful. With all
that has transpired these last few days, I can't imagine the
headaches we've probably caused, but I can assure you we do plan
to leave on schedule. The police, the community groups, the
Mayor's office, the Governor: Everyone has been tremendously
helpful.
It was important that I come here. Los Angeles has been the
site of a terrible tragedy. Not just for you, but for all of us.
That's why it's important that I say a few things about this
visit, to speak with you about what I've seen in this city -- and
about where we must now go as a country.
[Anecdote (s) from tour and meetings.] In sum, on the same
city block -- I saw shocking signs of hatred and remarkable signs
of hope.
This tragedy has been many, many years in the making. It
will take a long time to put things right. I could have said
"put things right again", but that would miss the point. Things
weren't right before a week ago Wednesday. The status quo here,
and in too many cities across America is not right. We must not
return to the status quo -- not here -- not in any city where the
status quo perpetuates failure, hatred, and despair.
2
Let me tell you a little about Rudy Cambell. Saw him on TV.
Looks to be about eight. Father? Murdered a few years back.
Mother? Didn't see her. Rudy is raised by his twenty-two year
old sister who has five kids of her own. Lives in a tough
neighborhood. Think about what he has already been through. And
that now he says he fears that things will only get "badder and
badder and badder. " It breaks your heart.
What went wrong in L.A. -- what were the "underlying
causes", the "root problems" -- that can all be debated. And it
should be. Not to assign blame. Casting blame gets us nowhere.
Honest talk and principled actions will get us a lot further --
will move us forward.
I believe there are some facts that most Americans can agree
with. Let me spend just a minute on those. Since the sixties,
lots of different programs have been tried -- aimed at stemming
the tide of urban violence, drugs, crime, and social decay.
Lots of different programs have tried to address the need
for adequate housing, for health care, for education, for job
training. Everything from child care to welfare to health care
has been the subject of some commission, report, or study.
Huge amounts of money have been spent -- some estimates are
as high as two and a half trillion dollars over twenty-five
years. Check the numbers: Even in the last decade, federal
spending went up for these kinds of efforts.
Put away the studies and look around our cities. Some quick
facts: in 1960 the percentage of births to unwed mothers was 5%.
3
Now it is 27% -- 5 times as great. If you read about a young
black male dying, odds are that he was murdered. In fact, odds
are 4 out of 10. Our young black men are at a crisis: If you're
a black male between 15-25 here in California, you're three times
more likely to be murdered than to enter the University of
California. Kids used to carry just their lunches to school.
Between 1987 and 1991, 134 guns were seized here in L.A. -- and
that was in our elementary schools. Numbers for high schools are
10 times as great. The chances that an 8th grader has ever used
alcohol is 70%, and there's a 1 in 10 chance that he or she has
used marijuana.
In the wake of the L.A. riots -- in the wake of the crack
epidemic -- in the wake of the lost generation of inner-city
youth: can any of us argue that we've solved the problems of
poverty, racism, and crime?
We have made progress removing many of the legal barriers to
discrimination and equality. [ [ But you don't need to look
further than the graffiti on the next street to see that hate,
bigotry and racism still plagues our society. ]]
Some programs -- I'm thinking of a program like Head Start -
- have shown time-tested positive results. But many, many more
simply have not worked. Our welfare system doesn't get people
off welfare -- it keeps them there. Our safety net -- as
essential as it is -- stops short of providing the people it
serves a way out of a dehumanizing and inefficient cycle of
poverty.
4
We know all too well the sobering statistics -- severest in
our nation's urban areas. The summary fact is this: our cities
are in serious trouble.
We in government have an absolute responsibility to
participate in solving these problems. Our first responsibility
is to create order -- not the order of a prison yard -- but an
enabling order. One where families can flourish, children can
learn, and jobs can be created.
I have taken a hard look at what the government can do and
its responsibility to help communities with the concerns that
really matter: how people can own property or a home, how people
can start a business and create jobs in the community, ensure
that the people not the government are making the big decisions
that affect the health, education and care of one's own family.
Think of the way it looks right now to the ordinary person
on welfare. Government provides you the money you live on -- the
1st and 15th of every month. Government tells you where you can
live -- where your kids go to school. When you're sick --
government tells you what doctor you'll see, and when. If you
find part-time work -- you worry that government may cut your
welfare benefits. If you save, manage to put some money away --
you worry that government may come after you for fraud.
Every one of those things happens with the system we've got
right now. And then we wonder: why can't these people take
control of their lives -- where's their sense of responsibility?
If we had set out to devise a system that would perpetuate
5
dependency -- a system that would strip away personal
responsibility -- we could hardly have done better than the
system we have today.
It's time we tried something different. A fresh approach.
I believe we must start with a set of principles -- principles
that give the word opportunity real meaning for people. They are
very simple: Order is better than disorder. Tolerance is better
than intolerance. Work is better than welfare. Opportunity is
better than entitlement. Independence is better than dependence.
Ownership is better than tenancy. And traditional family values
are better than moral relativism and government paternalism.
I believe in policies that foster personal responsibility,
policies that refocus entitlement programs to serve those who are
truly needy, and increase choice and competition in delivering
government services. I believe in policies that rely on the
community for guidance and that use states as laboratories. I
believe in policies that encourage entrepreneurship -- increase
investment -- create jobs.
My economic opportunity plan flows from these principles:
We must spark an economic revival in urban America. That's
why I want to see Enterprise Zones, with a zero capital gains
rate for entrepreneurs and investors who locate businesses in
America's inner cities.
We must reclaim neighborhoods now ravaged by crime and
drugs. We're doing that through a new initiative called Weed and
Seed -- to "weed out" the gang leaders, the drug dealers and
6
career criminals, and "seed" those neighborhoods with expanded
educational opportunities and social services. And I've sent to
Congress today an urgent request to bring Weed and Seed to Los
Angeles as soon as possible.
We must break the perverse dis-incentives that discourage
work and encourage welfare. We've got to reform our AFDC rules -
- stop penalizing people who manage to work and save and show
individual initiative -- the very things that will help them
leave welfare behind.
We must promote new hope through home ownership. That's the
aim of our HOPE initiative, to give people a real stake in their
communities -- -something they can pass along to their kids -- by
turning public housing tenants into homeowners.
We must give parents in our nation's hardest-hit communities
the same choices. Parents, not the government, should be free to
choose who cares for their children -- and where their children
go to school.
Finally, we must assure all Americans access to basic health
care -- and we can do it without compromising choice and quality,
through my comprehensive plan for health care reform.
Some will say, "you've proposed all this before." They are
right. And I am proposing it again because I am right. Some
will say, "Where is the new money, the new program, the new
bureaucracy?" I will say, a government program does not raise
children, families do. A government program does not dispense
7
spiritual guidance, churches do. A government program does not
build neighborhoods, citizens do.
I'm not a social scientist. Never pretended to be. I look
at things from a more uncomplicated point of view. As a father
with kids -- now with grandkids. As a volunteer -- coaching
little league or knocking doors for the United Negro College
Fund. As someone who spent half his life in a business trying to
build a future for his family. As someone who spent the other
half of his life trying to serve the public. That's how I look
at the world.
We've tried other ways to solve problems -- now is not the
time to re-invent the wheel. We must try something different.
Our approach is different. Let's give it a chance to work. If
ever the Congress needed a reason to pass my plan it is Los
Angeles, California.
When I saw the verdict in the Rodney King case, my reaction
was not much different than the rest of America, as I said to the
American people last Friday. And when I saw the violence and
rage erupt on your streets, once again, my reaction was the same
as most other people. We all knew that order had to be restored.
A civilized society cannot tackle any of the tough problems in
the midst of chaos. It's as simple as that. We must never
condone violence and brutality, and I am confident we never will.
And when I saw and read about the heroic acts, the
responsible acts, the selfless acts, of so many of your people,
my reaction was one of relief -- and hope for the future.
8
So far I have spoken about what government can do. Now let
me talk about what society must do. I have said we can agree on
several things. In sum, for thirty years we've tried a lot of
solutions, spent a lot of money, and haven't solved the problems.
But we are not a morally, spiritually, or intellectually bankrupt
nation. In other words, we have the spirit and the gumption to
go at this problem again and again until we beat it. Maybe even
to try some things we haven't tried before.
Before I arrived I was told that the real anguish of the
people in the hardest hit areas is about the children. This we
should be able to agree on as well -- whatever we do must be
about the children -- they are the future. Our actions in the
wake of this tragedy are for them -- not just here in Los
Angeles, but all across the country.
Your own Mayor Bradley was among a group of mayors who came
to see me last January. I have repeated often what he and others
said to me that day. They didn't say more programs or more
money. They said that the most important problem facing our
cities is the dissolution of the family. They're right. What's
the determining fact right now in whether a child has hope --
stays in school, stays away from drugs? It's not the level of
federal aid. It's not a HUD grant or an SBA loan. It's whether
a child lives in a home with a mother and a father.
We know from a longer term look at history, that societies
cannot be successful without some fundamental building blocks in
place. The state of our nation is the state of our communities.
9
Good communities are safe and decent. They care for their young
people -- instill them with character and values and good habits
for life. They have good schools. And good communities provide
opportunity and hope, rooted in the dignity of work and reward
for achievement.
So this is obviously not a crisis just of economics. This
is about rebuilding our spirit. It's about rebuilding the bonds
between individuals, and between ethnic groups, between races.
We must not let our diversity destroy us. Our diversity is
central to our strength as a country.
That's why guaranteeing a hopeful future for the children of
our cities is about a lot more than rebuilding burned out
buildings. It's about building a new American community. And
history shows us that government cannot come close to creating
the scale and energy needed to transform the lives of people in
need. Anyone who believes otherwise has been living in a cave
for the last twenty-five years.
The simple fact is that in every city in America, tens of
thousands of groups, and hundreds of thousands of individuals,
who have never been involved before, and who will never be paid
one nickel for their efforts, must become partners in solving our
most serious social problems. One need not look far for the
evidence that this is part of the solution.
Right now, this community has many of the answers within
itself. For example, there are four Cities in Schools programs,
there are XX members of One Hundred Black Men mentoring boys in
10
South Central Los Angeles. If instead there were Ten Thousand
Black Men working with boys, and twenty-five Cities in Schools
programs helping young people learn -- and so on with the
hundreds of people and groups that work with kids -- there is no
question that what happened last week would have been much, much
less severe. So it only makes sense that a large part of our
challenge is to expand the scale of what we already know works in
community after community.
Perhaps the phrase I have repeated more often than any other
is "Any definition of a successful life must include service to
others". That goes for institutions as well as individuals.
When we look to ensure a decent and hopeful future for our
children, I mean this: First, we must praise what works and
share what works. Second, our leaders must mobilize and inspire
their communities to take action. Third, community centers must
link those that care with those who need the help. Fourth, the
media must cover what is working, so we can share and repeat our
successes many times over. Finally, we must change our laws that
frighten good people away from helping others. Finally, there's
something society must cultivate that government cannot provide.
Something we can't legislate -- or establish by government order.
I'm talking about the moral sense that must guide us all. In
simplest terms -- I'm talking about knowing right from wrong.
Let me come back again to that little boy I spoke about
earlier -- Rudy Campbell. There's a lesson he's learned that
survived the horror and the hate. In the midst of all the chaos
11
-- in the midst of so much that's gone wrong -- he knows what's
right. When he was asked about the violence, here's what he
said, "They should know what's right and wrong, because when I
was four
that's when I learned.' "
That's got to give us hope. God bless Rudy Campbell. And
God bless the person who cared enough to teach him right from
wrong. Now, it's up to us -- everyone of us in this room -- to
guarantee Rudy and all the millions of kids like him have a shot
at a better life.
I believe we are right about family. We are right about
faith, about America's future. We must take these steps to
reclaim the American Dream for the people of our cities.
Thank you for the conviction you have to act on your
beliefs. Thank you for all you have done. God bless the United
States of America.
# # #
Document No.
326535SS
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
5/6/92
11:00AM, THURS, MAY
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
SUBJECT:
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
ROGICH
CALIO
ROLLINS
DEMAREST
SMITH
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
GRAY
FINDLAY
HOLIDAY
KAUFMAN
BOSKIN
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly
to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to
this office NO LATER THAN 11:00AM, THURSDAY, MAY 7.
Thank you.
RESPONSE:
FDS.
See Pg 5-7.
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
DDDM
Group
Draft One
92 MAY 6 P5: 28
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
[ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]
Let me first thank the people of the City of Los Angeles for
all they have done to make this visit so successful. With all
trouble that has transpired these last few days, I can't imagine the
G(trite)
headaches we've probably caused, but I can assure you we do plan
to leave on schedule. The police, the community groups, the
Mayor's office, the Governor: Everyone has been tremendously
helpful.
It was important that I come here. Los Angeles has been the
site of a terrible tragedy. Not just for you, but for all of us.
That's why it's important that I say a few things about this
visit, to speak with you about what I've seen in this city -- and
about where we must now go as a country.
[Anecdote (s) from tour and meetings.] In sum, on the same
city block -- I saw shocking signs of hatred and remarkable signs
of hope.
This tragedy has been many, many years in the making. It
will take a long time to put things right. I could have said
"put things right again", but that would miss the point. Things
weren't right before a week ago Wednesday. The status quo here,
and in too many cities across America is not right. We must not
return to the status quo -- not here -- not in any city where the
status quo perpetuates failure, hatred, and despair.
2
Let me tell you a little about Rudy Cambell. Saw him on TV.
Looks to be about eight. Father? Murdered a few years back.
Mother? Didn't see her. Rudy is raised by his twenty-two year
old sister who has five kids of her own. Lives in a tough
neighborhood. Think about what he has already been through. And
that now he says he fears that things will only get "badder and
badder and badder. " It breaks your heart.
What went wrong in L.A. -- what were the "underlying
causes", the "root problems" -- that can all be debated. And it
should be. Not to assign blame. Casting blame gets us nowhere.
Honest talk and principled actions will get us a lot further --
will move us forward.
I believe there are some facts that most Americans can agree
with. Let me spend just a minute on those. Since the sixties,
lots of different programs have been tried -- aimed at stemming
the tide of urban violence, drugs, crime, and social decay.
Lots of different programs have tried to address the need
for adequate housing, for health care, for education, for job
training. Everything from child care to welfare to health care
has been the subject of some commission, report, or study.
Huge amounts of money have been spent -- some estimates are
as high as two and a half trillion dollars over twenty-five
years. Check the numbers: Even in the last decade, federal
spending went up for these kinds of efforts.
Put away the studies and look around our cities. Some quick
facts: in 1960 the percentage of births to unwed mothers was 5%.
3
Now it is 27% -- 5 times as great. If you read about a young
black male dying, odds are that he was murdered. In fact, odds
are 4 out of 10. Our young black men are at a crisis: If you're
a black male between 15-25 here in California, you're three times
more likely to be murdered than to enter the University of
California. Kids used to carry just their lunches to school.
Between 1987 and 1991, 134 guns were seized here in L.A. -- and
that was in our elementary schools. Numbers for high schools are
10 times as great. The chances that an 8th grader has ever used
alcohol is 70%, and there's a 1 in 10 chance that he or she has
used marijuana.
In the wake of the L.A. riots -- in the wake of the crack
epidemic -- in the wake of the lost generation of inner-city
youth: can any of us argue that we've solved the problems of
poverty, racism, and crime?
We have made progress removing many of the legal barriers to
discrimination and equality. [[ But you don't need to look
further than the graffiti on the next street to see that hate,
bigotry and racism still plagues our society. ]]
Some programs -- I'm thinking of a program like Head Start -
- have shown time-tested positive results. But many, many more
simply have not worked. Our welfare system doesn't get people
off welfare -- it keeps them there. Our safety net -- as
essential as it is -- stops short of providing the people it
serves a way out of a dehumanizing and inefficient cycle of
poverty.
4
We know all too well the sobering statistics -- severest in
goes
our nation's urban areas. The summary fact is this: our cities
without saying
are in serious trouble.
We in government have an absolute responsibility to
participate in solving these problems. Our first responsibility
is to create order -- not the order of a prison yard -- but an
enabling order. One where families can flourish, children can
learn, and jobs can be created.
I have taken a hard look at what the government can do and
its responsibility to help communities with the concerns that
really matter: how people can own property or a home, how people
can start a business and create jobs in the community, ensure
that the people not the government are making the big decisions
that affect the health, education and care of one's own family.
Think of the way it looks right now to the ordinary person
on welfare. Government provides you the money you live on -- the
1st and 15th of every month. Government tells you where you can
live -- where your kids go to school. When you're sick --
government tells you what doctor you'll see, and when. If you
find part-time work -- you worry that government may cut your
welfare benefits. If you save, manage to put some money away --
you worry that government may come after you for fraud.
Every one of those things happens with the system we've got
right now. And then we wonder: why can't these people take
control of their lives -- where's their sense of responsibility?
If we had set out to devise a system that would perpetuate
my specific easts arent imporiana +1 S The conceps if empiry
linkung real language to beaurocratic lingo that people don't
"get".
5
dependency -- a system that would strip away personal
responsibility -- we could hardly have done better than the
system we have today.
It's time we tried something different. A fresh approach.
I believe we must start with a set of principles -- principles
that give the word opportunity real meaning for people. They are
very simple: Order is better than disorder. Tolerance is better
than intolerance. Work is better than welfare. Opportunity is
handonts
better than entitlement. Independence is better than dependence.
Ownership is better than tenancy. And traditional family values
are better than moral relativism and government paternalism.
newerd give ponsit Liby to people
I believe in policies that foster personal responsibility,
make
policies that refocus entitlement programs to serve those who are
programs that give people choices and foster competition in
truly needy, and increase choice and competition in delivering
providing
Just like everprimate sector The healthy competition of our
government services. I believe in policies that rely on the private
each of you, the
policies let the dowhat's best for the sector.
community for guidance and that use states as laboratories. I
believe in policies that encourage entrepreneurship -- increase
(txamph
investment -- create jobs.
Wisconsin example on welfare
plan to revive our economy is based in
My economic opportunity plan flows from these principles:
We must spark an economic revival in urban America. That's
Texplain what they are)
why I want to see Enterprise Zones, with a zero capital gains
(explain what ct is)
rate for entrepreneurs and investors who locate put businesses in
America's inner cities.
We must reclaim neighborhoods now ravaged by crime and
our
drugs. We're doing that through a new initiative called Weed and
program
Seed -- to "weed out" the gang leaders, the drug dealers and
6
career criminals, and "seed" those neighborhoods with expanded
educational opportunities and social services. And I've sent to
Its working in Philladelphra
Congress today an urgent request to bring Weed and Seed to Los
Angeles as soon as possible.
We must break the perverse dis-incentives that discourage
work and encourage welfare. We've got to reform our AFDC rules -
- stop penalizing people who manage to work and save and show
individual initiative -- the very things that will help them
leave welfare behind.
We must promote new hope through home ownership. That's the
aim of our HOPE initiative, to give people a real stake in their
communities -- something they can pass along to their kids -- by
turning public housing tenants into homeowners.
We must give parents in our nation's hardest-hit communities
the same choices. Parents, not the government, should be free to
choose who cares for their children -- and where their children
go to school.
Finally, we must assure all Americans access to basic health
care -- and we can do it without compromising choice and quality,
through my comprehensive plan for health care reform.
Some will say, "you've proposed all this before.' They are
right. And I am proposing it again because I am right. Some
will say, "Where is the new money, the new program, the new
bureaucracy?" I will say, a government program does not raise
children, families do. A government program does not dispense
7
spiritual guidance, churches do. A government program does not
build neighborhoods, citizens do.
I'm not a social scientist. Never pretended to be. I look
at things from a more uncomplicated point of view. As a father
with kids -- now with grandkids. As a volunteer -- coaching
little league or knocking doors for the United Negro College
Fund. As someone who spent half his life in a business trying to
build a future for his family. As someone who spent the other
half of his life trying to serve the public. That's how I look
at the world.
We've tried other ways to solve problems -- now is not the
time to re-invent the wheel. V We must try something different.
Let's focus our time money and energy on what works and get vid of roadblocks
Our approach is different. Let's give it a chance to work. If in our
ever the Congress needed a reason to pass my plan it is Los
way.
Angeles, California. If ever the American people needed a
reason to support my Plan it is Los Angele, California
When I saw the verdict in the Rodney King case, my reaction
was not much different than the rest of America, as I said to the
American people last Friday. And when I saw the violence and
rage erupt on your streets, once again, my reaction was the same
as most other people. We all knew that order had to be restored.
A civilized society cannot tackle any of the tough problems in
the midst of chaos. It's as simple as that. We must never
condone violence and brutality, and I am confident we never will.
And when I saw and read about the heroic acts, the
responsible acts, the selfless acts, of so many of your people,
my reaction was one of relief -- and hope for the future.
8
So far I have spoken about what government can do. Now let
me talk about what society must do. I have said we can agree on
several things. In sum, for thirty years we've tried a lot of
solutions, spent a lot of money, and haven't solved the problems.
But we are not a morally, spiritually, or intellectually bankrupt
nation. In other words, we have the spirit and the gumption to
go at this problem again and again until we beat it. Maybe even
to try some things we haven't tried before.
Before I arrived I was told that the real anguish of the
people in the hardest hit areas is about the children. This we
should be able to agree on as well -- whatever we do must be
about the children -- they are the future. Our actions in the
wake of this tragedy are for them -- not just here in Los
Angeles, but all across the country.
Your own Mayor Bradley was among a group of mayors who came
to see me last January. I have repeated often what he and others
said to me that day. They didn't say more programs or more
money. They said that the most important problem facing our
cities is the dissolution of the family. They're right. What's
the determining fact right now in whether a child has hope --
stays in school, stays away from drugs? It's not the level of
federal aid. It's not a HUD grant or an SBA loan. It's whether
a child lives in a home with a mother and a father.
We know from a longer term look at history, that societies
cannot be successful without some fundamental building blocks in
place. The state of our nation is the state of our communities.
9
Good communities are safe and decent. They care for their young
people -- instill them with character and values and good habits
for life. They have good schools. And good communities provide
opportunity and hope, rooted in the dignity of work and reward
for achievement.
So this is obviously not a crisis just of economics. This
is about rebuilding our spirit. It's about rebuilding the bonds
between individuals, and between ethnic groups, between races.
We must not let our diversity destroy us. Our diversity is
central to our strength as a country.
That's why guaranteeing a hopeful future for the children of
our cities is about a lot more than rebuilding burned out
buildings. It's about building a new American community. And
history shows us that government cannot come close to creating
the scale and energy needed to transform the lives of people in
need. Anyone who believes otherwise has been living in a cave
for the last twenty-five years.
The simple fact is that in every city in America, tens of
thousands of groups, and hundreds of thousands of individuals,
who have never been involved before, and who will never be paid
one nickel for their efforts, must become partners in solving our
most serious social problems. One need not look far for the
evidence that this is part of the solution.
Right now, this community has many of the answers within
itself. For example, there are four Cities in Schools programs,
there are XX members of One Hundred Black Men mentoring boys in
10
South Central Los Angeles. If instead there were Ten Thousand
Black Men working with boys, and twenty-five Cities in Schools
programs helping young people learn -- and so on with the
hundreds of people and groups that work with kids -- there is no
question that what happened last week would have been much, much
less severe. So it only makes sense that a large part of our
challenge is to expand the scale of what we already know works in
community after community.
Perhaps the phrase I have repeated more often than any other
is "Any definition of a successful life must include service to
others". That goes for institutions as well as individuals.
When we look to ensure a decent and hopeful future for our
children, I mean this: First, we must praise what works and
share what works. Second, our leaders must mobilize and inspire
their communities to take action. Third, community centers must
link those that care with those who need the help. Fourth, the
media must cover what is working, so we can share and repeat our
successes many times over. Finally, we must change our laws that
frighten good people away from helping others. Finally, there's
something society must cultivate that government cannot provide.
Something we can't legislate -- or establish by government order.
I'm talking about the moral sense that must guide us all. In
simplest terms -- I'm talking about knowing right from wrong.
Let me come back again to that little boy I spoke about
earlier -- Rudy Campbell. There's a lesson he's learned that
survived the horror and the hate. In the midst of all the chaos
11
-- in the midst of SO much that's gone wrong -- he knows what's
right. When he was asked about the violence, here's what he
said, "They should know what's right and wrong, because when I
was four
that's when I learned. "
That's got to give us hope. God bless Rudy Campbell. And
God bless the person who cared enough to teach him right from
wrong. Now, it's up to us -- everyone of us in this room -- to
guarantee Rudy and all the millions of kids like him have a shot
at a better life.
I believe we are right about family. We are right about
faith, about America's future. We must take these steps to
reclaim the American Dream for the people of our cities.
Thank you for the conviction you have to act on your
beliefs. Thank you for all you have done. God bless the United
States of America.
# # #
Document No.
326535SS
CHARLIE
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
5/6/92
11:00AM, THURS MAY
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
ROGICH
CALIO
ROLLINS
DEMAREST
SMITH
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
GRAY
FINDLAY
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
BOSKIN
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly
to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to
this office NO LATER THAN 11:00AM, THURSDAY, MAY 7.
Thank you.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
DDDM
Group
Draft One
02 MAY 6 P5:28
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
[ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]
Let me first thank the people of the City of Los Angeles for
all they have done to make this visit so successful. With all
that has transpired these last few days, I can't imagine the
headaches we've probably caused, but I can assure you we do plan
to leave on schedule. The police, the community groups, the
Mayor's office, the Governor: Everyone has been tremendously
helpful.
It was important that I come here. Los Angeles has been the
site of a terrible tragedy. Not just for you, but for all of us.
That's why it's important that I say a few things about this
visit, to speak with you about what I've seen in this city -- and
about where we must now go as a country.
[Anecdote (s) from tour and meetings.] In sum, on the same
city block -- I saw shocking signs of hatred and remarkable signs
of hope.
This tragedy has been many, many years in the making. It
will take a long time to put things right. I could have said
"put things right again", but that would miss the point. Things
weren't right before a week ago Wednesday. The status quo here,
and in too many cities across America is not right. We must not
return to the status quo -- not here -- not in any city where the
status quo perpetuates failure, hatred, and despair.
2
Let me tell you a little about Rudy Cambell. Saw him on TV.
Looks to be about eight. Father? Murdered a few years back.
Mother? Didn't see her. Rudy is raised by his twenty-two year
old sister who has five kids of her own. Lives in a tough
neighborhood. Think about what he has already been through. And
that now he says he fears that things will only get "badder and
badder and badder." It breaks your heart.
What went wrong in L.A. -- what were the "underlying
causes", the "root problems" -- that can all be debated. And it
should be. Not to assign blame. Casting blame gets us nowhere.
Honest talk and principled actions will get us a lot further --
will move us forward.
I believe there are some facts that most Americans can agree
with. Let me spend just a minute on those. Since the sixties,
lots of different programs have been tried -- aimed at stemming
the tide of urban violence, drugs, crime, and social decay.
Lots of different programs have tried to address the need
for adequate housing, for health care, for education, for job
training. Everything from child care to welfare to health care
has been the subject of some commission, report, or study.
Huge amounts of money have been spent -- some estimates are
as high as two and a half trillion dollars over twenty-five
years. Check the numbers: Even in the last decade, federal
spending went up for these kinds of efforts.
^ problem. Sometimes R seem that
aux that may be pait of The
Put away the studies and look around our cities. Some quick
facts: in 1960 the percentage of births to unwed mothers was 5%
The focus is on programs how many, how
much stending and not on helping
3
Now it is 27% -- 5 times as great. If you read about a young
black male dying, odds are that he was murdered. In fact, odds
are 4 out of 10. Our young black men are at a crisis: If you're
a black male between 15-25 here in California, you're three times
more likely to be murdered than to enter the University of
California. Kids used to carry just their lunches to school.
Between 1987 and 1991, 134 guns were seized here in L.A. -- and
that was in our elementary schools. Numbers for high schools are
10 times as great. The chances that an 8th grader has ever used
alcohol is 70%, and there's a 1 in 10 chance that he or she has
used marijuana.
In the wake of the L.A. riots -- in the wake of the crack
epidemic -- in the wake of the lost generation of inner-city
youth: can any of us argue that we've solved the problems of
poverty, racism, and crime?
We have made progress removing many of the legal barriers to
discrimination and equality. [[ But you don't need to look
further than the graffiti on the next street to see that hate,
bigotry and racism still plagues our society. ]]
Some programs -- I'm thinking of a program like Head Start -
- have shown time-tested positive results. But many, many more
simply have not worked. Our welfare system doesn't get people
off welfare -- it keeps them there. Our safety net -- as
essential as it is -- stops short of providing the people it
serves a way out of a dehumanizing and inefficient cycle of
poverty.
4
We know all too well the sobering statistics -- severest in
our nation's urban areas. The summary fact is this: our cities
are in serious trouble.
We in government have an absolute responsibility to
participate in solving these problems. Our first responsibility
is to create order -- not the order of a prison yard -- but an
enabling order. One where families can flourish, children can
learn, and jobs can be created.
I have taken a hard look at what the government can do and
its responsibility to help communities with the concerns that
really matter: how people can own property or a home, how people
can start a business and create jobs in the community, ensure
that the people not the government are making the big decisions
that affect the health, education and care of one's own family.
Think of the way it looks right now to the ordinary person
on welfare. Government provides you the money you live on -- the
1st and 15th of every month. Government tells you where you can
live -- where your kids go to school. When you're sick --
government tells you what doctor you'll see, and when. If you
find part-time work -- you worry that government may cut your
welfare benefits. If you save, manage to put some money away --
you worry that government may come after you for fraud.
Every one of those things happens with the system we've got
right now. And then we wonder: why can't these people take
control of their lives -- where's their sense of responsibility?
If we had set out to devise a system that would perpetuate
Diana Furchtgott-Relh (OPD)
5
dependency -- a system that would strip away personal
responsibility -- we could hardly have done better than the
system we have today.
It's time we tried something different. A fresh approach.
I believe we must start with a set of principles -- principles
that give the word opportunity real meaning for people. They are
very simple: Order is better than disorder. Tolerance is better
than intolerance. Work is better than welfare. Opportunity is
better than entitlement. Independence is better than dependence.
Ownership is better than tenancy. And traditional family values
are better than moral relativism and government paternalism.
I believe in policies that foster personal responsibility,
policies that refocus entitlement programs to serve those who are
truly needy, and increase choice and competition in delivering
government services. I believe in policies that rely on the
community for guidance and that use states as laboratories. I
believe in policies that encourage entrepreneurship -- increase
investment -- create jobs.
My economic opportunity plan flows from these principles:
We must spark an economic revival in urban America. That's
why I want to see Enterprise Zones, with a zero capital gains
rate for entrepreneurs and investors who locate businesses in
America's inner cities.
We must reclaim neighborhoods now ravaged by crime and
drugs. We're doing that through a new initiative called Weed and
Seed -- to "weed out" the gang leaders, the drug dealers and
6
career criminals, and "seed" those neighborhoods with expanded
educational opportunities and social services. And I've sent to
Congress today an urgent request to bring Weed and Seed to Los
Angeles as soon as possible.
We must break the perverse dis-incentives that discourage
work and encourage welfare. We've got to reform our AFDC rules -
- stop penalizing people who manage to work and save and show
individual initiative -- the very things that will help them
leave welfare behind.
We must promote new hope through home ownership. That's the
aim of our HOPE initiative, to give people a real stake in their
communities -- something they can pass along to their kids -- by
turning public housing tenants into homeowners.
We must give parents in our nation's hardest-hit communities
enjoyed by parents in afficient communitis
the same choices. Parents, not the government, should be free to
choose who cares for their children -- and where their children
go to school.
Finally, we must assure all Americans access to basic health
care -- and we can do it without compromising choice and quality,
through my comprehensive plan for health care reform.
Some will say, "you've proposed all this before." They are
right. And I am proposing it again because I am right. Some
will say, "Where is the new money, the new program, the new
bureaucracy?", I will say, a government program does not raise
children, families do. A government program does not dispense
Well, There are all the old quitime. and They don't
point us toward new solutions.
7
spiritual guidance, churches do. A government program does not
build neighborhoods, citizens do.
I'm not a social scientist. Never pretended to be. I look
leve
at things from a more uncomplicated point of view. As a father
with kids -- now with grandkids. As a volunteer -- coaching
little league or knocking doors for the United Negro College
Fund. As someone who spent half his life in a business trying to
build a future for his family. As someone who spent the other
half of his life trying to serve the public. That's how I look
at the world.
We've tried other ways to solve problems -- now is not the
time to re-invent the wheel. We must try something different.
Our approach is different. Let's give it a chance to work. If
ever the Congress needed a reason to pass my plan it is Los
Angeles, California.
When I saw the verdict in the Rodney King case, my reaction
was not much different than the rest of America, as I said to the
American people last Friday. And when I saw the violence and
rage erupt on your streets, once again, my reaction was the same
and
as most other people. We all knew that order had to be restored.
A civilized society cannot tackle any of the tough problems in
the midst of chaos. It's as simple as that. We must never
condone violence and brutality, and I am confident we never will.
And when I saw and read about the heroic acts, the
responsible acts, the selfless acts, of so many of your people,
my reaction was one of relief -- and hope for the future.
8,
So far I have spoken about what government can do. Now let
me talk about what society must do. I have said we can agree on
several things. In sum, for thirty years we've tried a lot of
solutions, spent a lot of money, and haven't solved the problems.
But we are not a morally, spiritually, or intellectually bankrupt
nation. In other words, we have the spirit and the gumption to
go at this problem again and again until we beat it. Maybe even
to try some things we haven't tried before.
Before I arrived I was told that the real anguish of the
people in the hardest hit areas is about the children. This we
should be able to agree on as well -- whatever we do must be
about the children -- they are the future. Our actions in the
wake of this tragedy are for them -- not just here in Los
Angeles, but all across the country.
Your own Mayor Bradley was among a group of mayors who came
to see me last January. I have repeated often what he and others
said to me that day. They didn't say more programs or more
money. They said that the most important problem facing our
cities is the dissolution of the family. They're right. What's
the determining fact right now in whether a child has hope --
stays in school, stays away from drugs? It's not the level of
federal aid. It's not a HUD grant or an SBA loan. It's whether
a child lives in a home with a mother and a father.
We know from a longer term look at history, that societies
cannot be successful without some fundamental building blocks in
place. The state of our nation is the state of our communities.
9
Good communities are safe and decent. They care for their young
people -- instill them with character and values and good habits
for life. They have good schools. And good communities provide
opportunity and hope, rooted in the dignity of work and reward
for achievement.
So this is obviously not a crisis just of economics. This
is about rebuilding our spirit. It's about rebuilding the bonds
between individuals, and between ethnic groups, between races.
We must not let our diversity destroy us. Our diversity is
central to our strength as a country.
That's why guaranteeing a hopeful future for the children of
our cities is about a lot more than rebuilding burned out
buildings. It's about building a new American community. And
history shows us that government cannot come close to creating
the scale and energy needed to transform the lives of people in
need. Anyone who believes otherwise has been living in a cave
for the last twenty-five years.
The simple fact is that in every city in America, tens of
thousands of groups, and hundreds of thousands of individuals,
who have never been involved before, and who will never be paid
one nickel for their efforts, must become partners in solving our
most serious social problems. One need not look far for the
evidence that this is part of the solution.
Right now, this community has many of the answers within
itself. For example, there are four Cities in Schools programs,
there are XX members of One Hundred Black Men mentoring boys in
10
South Central Los Angeles. If instead there were Ten Thousand
Black Men working with boys, and twenty-five Cities in Schools
programs helping young people learn -- and so on with the
hundreds of people and groups that work with kids -- there is no
question that what happened last week would have been much, much
less severe. So it only makes sense that a large part of our
challenge is to expand the scale of what we already know works in
community after community.
Perhaps the phrase I have repeated more often than any other
is "Any definition of a successful life must include service to
others". That goes for institutions as well as individuals.
When we look to ensure a decent and hopeful future for our
children, I mean this: First, we must praise what works and
share what works. Second, our leaders must mobilize and inspire
their communities to take action. Third, community centers must
link those that care with those who need the help. Fourth, the
media must cover what is working, so we can share and repeat our
successes many times over. Finally, we must change our laws that
frighten good people away from helping others. Finally, there's
something society must cultivate that government cannot provide.
Something we can't legislate -- or establish by government order.
I'm talking about the moral sense that must guide us all. In
simplest terms -- I'm talking about knowing right from wrong.
Let me come back again to that little boy I spoke about
earlier -- Rudy Campbell. There's a lesson he's learned that
survived the horror and the hate. In the midst of all the chaos
11
-- in the midst of so much that's gone wrong -- he knows what's
right. When he was asked about the violence, here's what he
said, "They should know what's right and wrong, because when I
was four
that's when I learned."
That's got to give us hope. God bless Rudy Campbell. And
God bless the person who cared enough to teach him right from
wrong. Now, it's up to us -- everyone of us in this room -- to
guarantee Rudy and all the millions of kids like him have a shot
at a better life.
I believe we are right about family. We are right about
faith, about America's future. We must take these steps to
reclaim the American Dream for the people of our cities.
Thank you for the conviction you have to act on your
beliefs. Thank you for all you have done. God bless the United
States of America.
# # #
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
To Dan McGroarty
Fundamentally a very
good speech. As you will
see, I've done a lot of
editing.
I look forward to seeing
the next draft.
Good a luck
Document No.
326535SS
- samman
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
minissan
5/6/92
11:00AM, THURS, MAY
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
ROGICH
CALIO
ROLLINS
DEMAREST
SMITH
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
GRAY
FINDLAY
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
BOSKIN
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly
to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to
this office NO LATER THAN 11:00AM, THURSDAY, MAY 7.
Thank you.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
DDDM
Group
Draft One
92 MAY 6 P5: 20
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS TO THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1992
[ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]
Let me first thank the people of the City of Los Angeles for
all they have done to make this visit so successful. With all
that has transpired these last few days, I can't imagine the
headaches we've probably caused, but I can assure you we do plan
to leave on schedule. The police, the community groups, the
Mayor's office, the Governor: Everyone has been tremendously
helpful.
It was important that I come here. Los Angeles has been the
site of a terrible tragedy. Not just for you, but for all of us.
That's why it's important that I say a few things about this
visit, to speak with you about what I've seen in this city -- and
about where we must now go as a country.
[Anecdote (s) from tour and meetings.] In sum, on the same
city block -- I saw shocking signs of hatred and remarkable signs
of hope.
This tragedy has been many, many years in the making. It
will take a long time to put things right. I could have said
"put things right again", but that would miss the point. Things
weren't right before a week ago Wednesday. The status quo here,
and in too many cities across America is not right. We must not
return to the status quo -- not here -- not in any city where the
status quo perpetuates failure, hatred, and despair.
2
Let me tell you a little about Rudy Cambell. P Saw him on TV.
Looks to be about eight. Father? Murdered a few years back.
Mother? Didn't see her. Rudy is being raised by his twenty-two year
old sister who has five kids of her own. Lives in a tough
neighborhood. Think about what he has already been through. And
that now he says he fears that things will only get "badder and
badder and badder. " It breaks your heart.
What went wrong in L.A. -- what were the "underlying
causes", the "root problems" -- that can all be debated. And
it
should be. Not to assign blame. Casting blame gets us nowhere.
Honest talk and principled actions will get us a lot further, At
will move us forward
IT believe there are some facts that most Americans can agree
with. Let me spend just a minute on those. Since the sixties,
lots of different programs have been tried -- aimed at stemming
the tide of urban Other violence, drugs, crime, and social decay.
Lots of different programs have tried to address the need
for adequate housing, for health care, for education, for job
training. Everything from child care to welfare to health care
whole lot of legis/ation and regulation.
has been the subject of some commission report, or study, and 2
Huge amounts of money have been spent -- some estimates are
as high as two and a half trillion dollars over twenty-five
years. Check the numbers: Even in the last ber decade, federal
idminis Indlin spending Put Democret went up. the and for Republican these kinds - of Since efforts These 1n cnedsed progroms during Deg every da.
Now away studies, and look around our cities. Some quick
1set 191/4 the Duroduendeies
facts: in 1960 the percentage of births to unwed mothers was 5%.
3
Now it is 27% -- 5 times as great. If you read about a young
black male dying, odds are that he was murdered. In fact, odds
are 4 out of 10. Our young black men are at a crisis: If you're
and
a black male between 15+25 here in California, you're three times
more likely to be murdered than to enter the University of
California. Kids used to carry just their lunches to school.
Between 1987 and 1991, 134 guns were seized here in L.A. -- and
that was in our elementary schools. Numbers for high schools are
alcohol is 70%, and there's a 1 in 10 chance that he or she has
used marijuana.
epidemic -- in the wake of the lost generation of inner-city
Is d nation have
wk program to get nutritious foods to pregndat
women and Debies
10 times as great. The chances that an 8th grader has ever used
In the wake of the L.A. riots -- in the wake of the crack
youth: can any of us argue that we we solved the problems of
poverty, racism, and crime?
We have made progress removing many of the legal barriers to
discrimination and equality. [[ But you don't need to look
further than the graffiti on the next street to see that hate,
2)
bigotry and racism still plagues our society. ]]
on
Some programs -- I'm thinking of a program like Head start, -
- have shown time-tested positive results. But many, many more
simply have not worked. Our welfare system doesn't get people
And it ften discourages Them from ledving
off welfare it keeps them there. Our safety net -- as
Too often fails to
essential
as
it
is
--
stops short of providing the people it
serves a way out of a dehumanizing and inefficient cycle of
poverty.
4
We know all too well the sobering statistics severest in
our nation's urban areas The summary fact is this: our cities inner
are in serious trouble.
We in government have an absolute responsibility to
participate in solving these problems. Our first responsibility
is to create order -- not the order of a prison yard -- but an
enabling order. One where families can flourish, children can
learn, be created.
211 Vand edu jobs walk can sifely on Their sidewalks,
I have taken a hard look at what the government can do and
its responsibility to help communities with the concerns that
really matter: how people can own property or a home, how people they
have d decent chance to
can start a business and create jobs in the community, ensure
ir own
how to
that the people not the government are making the big decisions crucid
some impersone/ funeducriey
that affect the how health, education and care of one's own family.
Think of the way it looks right now to the ordinary person
on welfare. Government provides the money you live on -- on the
1st and 15th of every month. Government tells you where you can 25ford
and, therefore,
to live -- where your kids go to school. When you're sick -- the
government tells you what doctor you'll see, and when. If you
find part-time work -- you worry that government may cut your
welfare benefits. If you save manage and to put some money away --
you that de ing the welfore
worry government may come after you for fraud.
Every one of those things happens under with the system we've got
Program.
right now. And then we wonder: why can't these pror people take
in this dountry
control of their lives -- where's their sense of responsibility?
If we had set sought out to devise a system that would perpetuate
5
dependency -- a system that would strip away personal
responsibility -- we could hardly have done better than the
one
system we have today.
It's time we tried something different. A fresh approach,
I believe we must start ing with a set of principles -- principles
permitting states and cities
that give the word opportunity real meaning for people. They are
very simple: Order is better than disorder. Tolerance is better
than intolerance. Work is better than welfare. Opportunity is
better than entitlement. Independence is better than dependence.
Ownership is better than tenancy. And traditional family values
are better than moral relativism and government paternalism.
I believe in policies that foster personal responsibility,
policies that refocus entitlement programs to serve those who are
truly needy, and increase choice and competition in delivering
government services. I believe in policies that rely on the
community for guidance and that use states as laboratories. I
to setl their infrastructure to signed the an private nerscutive sector order and channet the proceeds back
into their communities to busi Id new infrastructure, lower their clebt, or reduce takes.
believe in policies that encourage entrepreneurship -- increase
investment -- create jobs.
My economic opportunity plan flows from these principles.
That's why last week
We must spark an economic revival in urban America. That's
why I want to see Enterprise Zones, with a zero capital gains
rate for entrepreneurs and investors who locate businesses in
America's inner cities. insert from OPD (Diana Furchtgo H Roth)
We must reclaim neighborhoods now ravaged by crime and
drugs. We re doing that through x our new initiative called Weed and
An excellent way to to
Seed -- to "weed out" the is gang leaders, the drug dealers and
thick
initiative designed to
and other governorst Engine welfare populations to Take ad-
authorily Under exiscing (dev, dnd + encourage Cov. Wilson
programs that fit then The needs 6 of our time, and let's be
vantage oppor Let's design welfore
Truly innovative for a change.
career criminals, and ""seed" those neighborhoods with expanded
educational opportunities and effective social services. And I've sent to
Congress today an urgent request to bring Weed and Seed to Los
Angeles as soon as possible.
We must break the perverse disfincentives that discourage
work and encourage welfare. We've got to reform our the AFDC rules -
on welting
- stop penalizing people who manage to work and save and show
individual initiative the very things that will help them
leave welfare behind. we'll do that through our wdiver
We And must let's promote People hope through a reglistic home ownership. Chdnce to That's own their the homes.
low income Families
aim of our HOPE initiative, to give people a real stake in their
communities -- something they can pass along to their kids, At by
--To give them roots
well do that
turning public housing tenants into homeowners.
We must give parents in our nation's hardest-hit communities choices
most other American Families have-
the same choices. Parents, not the government, should be free to
choose who cares for their children -- and where their children
go to school.
Finally, we must assure all Americans access to basic health
care -- and we can do it without compromising choice and quality,
through my comprehensive plan for health care reform. Some of the
Some will say, "you've proposed all this before. II They are
these are right. the right I things am proposing to do. it Hopefully again because thatwill I am right. finally Some be recognized
will say, "Where is the new money, the new program, the new
bureaucracy?" I WILL say, X a government program
5 does not raise
children, families do. A government program does not dispense
element of That Plan That would De parlicularly
Congrests edrlier This week, and other elements novt will no. be sent
meaning ful here in Los Angeles were sent to The
Dought eicher adppiness on Tranquility, especially
when spent unwisely.
7
spiritual guidance, churches do. A government program does not
build neighborhoods, citizens do. And money alone has never
I'm not a social scientist. Ivever Never pretended to be. I look
at things from anmore uncomplicated point of view. As a father
with kids -- now with grandkids. As a volunteer -- coaching
little league or knocking doors for the United Negro College
Fund. As someone who spent half his MJ life in a business trying to
build a future for his my family. As someone who spent the other
half of his my life trying to serve the public. That's how I look
at the world.
We've tried other ways to solve problems now is not the
Particulary time to when re-invent The old the wheels Drs creaking and breaking
wheel We must try something different.
vastly different.
Our approach is different, Let's give it a chance to work. If
ever support the Congress and endet needed what a reason I have to pass my Proposed plan it it. theevents Los
of
recent days in Los
Angeles, California should vividly Provide it.
the Sdmeds That of
When I saw the verdict in the Rodney King case, my reaction
was not much different than the rest of America, as I said to the
American people last Friday. And when I saw the violence and
+ works Felt the same emotions
rage erupt on your streets, once again, my reaction was the same
of disgust most for other The criminality people. We of all it, knew compassion that for the victims, and empathy
A civilized society cannot tackle anyZotZtXe any the tough immediately problems in
did Order had to be restored.
the midst of chaos. It's as simple as that. We must never
in This nation
condone violence and brutality, and I I am confident we never will.
Fortunitely, And (when I saw there and was on lifting side of this story too.
read, about the heroic acts, the
behavior examples of
responsible acts, the selfless actsu of SQ many of your people,
ness 2nd Kind ness
my reaction was one of relief -- and hope for the future.
for The community destruction
8
So far I have spoken about what government can do. Now let
me talk about what society must do. I have said we can agree on
several things. In sum, for thirty years we've tried / lot 5 of
solutions, spent a lot of money, and haven't solved the problems.
But we are not a morally, spiritually, or intellectually bankrupt
nation. In other words, We have the spirit and the gumption to
attrck go at this problem and we must 150 have, The political courage
again again until we beat it. Maybe even
to try some things we haven't tried before.
Before I arrived I was told that the real Foremost anguish of the
people in the hardest hit areas is about the children. This we
should be able to agree on as well -- whatever we do must be
about the children -- they are the future. Our actions in the
wake of this tragedy are for them -- not just here in Los
Angeles, but all across the country.
Your own Mayor Bradley was among a group of mayors who came
to see me last January. I have repeated often what he and others
ask For
said to me that day. They didn't say more programs or more
money. They said that the most important problem facing our
cities is the dissolution of the family. They're right. What's
the determining fact right now in whether a child has hope --
stays in school, stays away from drugs? It's not the level of
federal aid. It's not a HUD grant or an SBA loan. It's whether
a child lives in a home with a mother and a father.
We know from a longer term certain look at history, that societies
cannot be successful without some fundamental building blocks, in
place. The state of our nation is the state of our communities.
and
active chunches. demonstrate
9
Good communities are safe and decent. They care for their young
people -- instill them with character and values and good habits
for life. They have good schools. And good communities provide
opportunity and hope, rooted in the dignity of work and reward
for achievement, and sdid Family relationships.
So This this is obviously not a crisis just of economics. This
is about rebuilding the our spirit. It's about rebuilding the the bonds
between individuals, and between ethnic groups, between races.
We must not let our diversity destroy us. Our Fivers diversity is
in many other places.
central to our strength as a country.
That's why guaranteeing a hopeful future for the children of
involves much
our cities IS about a lot more than rebuilding burned out
buildings. It's about building a here new American in central community Los Angeles And
history shows us that government cannot come close to ies creating
the scale and energy needed to transform the lives of people in
need. Anyone who believes otherwise has been living in a cave
for the last twenty-five years.
The simple fact is that in every city in America, tens of
thousands of groups, and hundreds of thousands of individuals,
who have never been involved before, and who will never be paid
one nickel for their efforts, must become partners in solving our
most serious social problems. One need not look far for the
evidence that this is part of the solution.
Right now, this community has many of the answers within
itself. For example, there are four Cities in Schools programs,
there are XX members of One Hundred Black Men mentoring boys in
of comparable
expansion
10
10,000
South Central Los Angeles. If instead there were Ten Thousand
25
Black Men working with boys, and twenty-five Cities in Schools
programs helping young people learn -- and along on with the
hundreds of people and groups that work with kids -- there is no
question that what happened last week would have been much, much
There Form,
less severe. So it only makes sense that a large part of our
construct
challenge is to expand the scale of what we already know works in
community after community. In other words we need more people power
in our inner Perhaps cities the phrase I have substituting repeated more for often Firepower than any destructive other
is "Any definition of a successful life must include service to
others". That goes for institutions as well as individuals.
When we look to ensure a decent and hopeful future for our
children, I mean this: First, we must praise what works and
Success does Dryed success.
share what works. Second, our leaders must mobilize and inspire
their communities to take action. Third, community centers must
link those that care with those who need the help. Fourth, the
your right must not fover what what is goes working, wrong, so we can share multiply and repeat our
successes many times over. Finally, we must change our laws that
frighten H In addition
good people away from helping others. Finally, there's
something society must cultivate that government cannot provide.
Something we can't legislate -- or establish by government order.
I'm talking about the moral sense that must guide us all. In
simplest terms -- I'm talking about knowing right from wrong.
Let me come back again to that little boy I spoke about
earlier -- Rudy Campbell. There's a lesson he's learned that
survived the horror and AA hate. In the midst of all the chaos
11
-- in the midst of SO much that's gone wrong -- he knows what's
right. When he was asked about the violence, here's what he
said, "They should know what's right and wrong, because when I
was four
that's when I learned."
That's got to give us hope. God bless Rudy Campbell. And
God bless the person who cared enough to teach him right from
wrong. Now, it's up to us -- everyone of us in this room -- to
make Sure Chet
guarantee Rudy and all the millions of kids like him have a shot
at a better life.
ies
I believe we are right about family. We are right about
faith, about America's future. We must take these steps to
reclaim the American Dream for the people of our cities.
Thank you for the conviction you have to act on your
beliefs. Thank you for all you have done. God bless the United
States of America.
And
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