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I
Maggre These are the 4
sample columng. what
do and ago think 7
DE
I
To: Lissa Muscatine
Date: 8/24/95 Time: 16:21:39
Page 2 of 3
1
Back to School
page one
It's time to sharpen the number two pencils and configure the delicate intricacies of -- the
carpool. Although determining which parent can attend each softball game or dance recital
can be as complicated as computing the consumer price index for the past three quarters,
nothing is as important as our children's education. Our children need us more at this time
of year. They must see that our concern for their education and quality of life supersedes
everything else.
My parents demanded a great deal of me in school. IfI did well in a subject there was
praise from my mom, but my father would assert that the teacher just liked to pass high
grades out at the door. Even with this not so gentle jab, I knew directly from my parents
that the most important part of my childhood was making sure I worked hard in school.
Now more than ever we must reassure our children that we stand behind them and support
their work as they attempt to reach their potential. If we as parents do not do this, it won't
just be the child that suffers. It will mean our country will fall behind in a world that
increasingly expects greater levels of competence in a competitive workplace.
In the past, many families had large numbers of children that provided security for their
parents in their old age. With the average number of children in a family declining, we as a
society need to make sure each child is more than adequately schooled so they embrace
their tomorrow with success and continued promise.
If we think that it will be possible to slash funding for education today and rely upon a
successful American workforce in years to come there's a bridge in Brooklyn I might be
able to interest you in. Yes, difficult budgetary decisions must be made, but financially
undermining institutions of learning will lead us to increased spending later on individuals
unable to prosper in our society.
This support for our children's education is an ongoing process with a cumulative effect.
Statistics prove that the child that has the right educational start ends up an educational
success.
A little bit of funding goes a long way in education, and today administrators are learning
how to stretch their dollars for greater productivity. One such program is the "Roots and
Wings" program that serves rural children at risk.
Children in four St. Mary's County, Maryland elementary schools have been participating
in the Roots and Wings program for four years. The schools were targeted because many
students came from families, such as migrant farm workers, unable to put down roots in a
school and achieve stability in their educational pursuits.
Back to School
To: Lissa Muscatine
Date: 8/24/95 Time: 16:22:48
Page 3 of 3
page two
These students are not able to get all the help they need during regular school hours. The
program provides after school work to augment what is taught during the day. With
parents of these children preoccupied with just survival, the program allows kids at risk to
succeed.
The Roots and Wings program received initial government funding, but is designed to
become a self sufficient program within five years of implementation. Pat Richardson of
the St. Mary's County Public Schools says the program helped identify areas where
county government was duplicating efforts and costs. Now the Parks and Recreation
Department is pooling resources with the school system providing funding for Roots and
Wings instead of running unilateral after school programs. I like that.
Discipline, teamwork and standards are what is necessary in school. I have listened to so
many parents who only want one thing: quality education for the children they love. It is
the right of every American to expect that for their family.
An American educator I admire, Mary McLeod Bethune, toiled for decades to provide
educational opportunities to African Americans, many the children and grandchildren of
slaves. When she finally was able to open her school she placed a sign over the door that
admonished, "Enter to learn." It did not say "Enter to try but drop out if it gets too rough."
So enter your child's classroom and greet the teachers who will open the world up to them
with the enthusiasm that accompanies a new year. My days of walking Chelsea to the door
on her first day are over. Every year I would walk her to her classroom and start to cry.
By eighth grade Chelsea said she could endure the embarrassment no longer.
I may not walk in with her, but I still cry a little when she goes out the door. Hopefully I'll
get a grip by the time she's in graduate school.
6nH
2
Hillary Clinton piece "Back to School"
A knot still forms in my stomach every August when I first hear the
cicadas buzzing in the trees. When I was a child, the insects'
shrill, droning sound served as a signal that summer was coming to
a close and school was upon me. Every year I looked forward to my
return to the classroom with a combination of enthusiasm and
anxiety.
Now that I am a parent, I find myself remembering those childhood
emotions every year when I send my daughter off to school. As when
I was a girl, I feel mixed emotions, not only for Chelsea but for
all the children of America. On the one hand, I'm delighted at the
thought of all the adventures in learning that are once again going
on in classrooms, big and small, around our nation. On the other
hand, I'm concerned by the fact that many of our children aren't
learning anything near as much as they should.
This is where parents come in. Rather than view our children's
annual return to school as time when we pass on certain
responsibilities to their teachers, why not view it as an
opportunity to consider our own responsibilities in regard to our
children's education?
For in fact parents can do a great deal to enhance children's
intellectual growth. One thing we can do is get our children's
education to be our work, as well. Study after study has shown that
a teacher who knows of a given parent's interest and involvement in
his or her child's education will spend a greater amount of time
with that child. If you make your interest and involvement known,
the teacher will also expect more out of your child precisely
because of your involvement.
It's important to keep the lines of communication open between
parent and teacher. Because of their training, and because they're
in a position to compare children in the same age group, teachers
are often more likely than parents to recognize a child's special
talents, interests, or difficulties. In the same way, parents can
provide teachers with insights into their children that may prove
valuable. A well-functioning teacher-parent partnership can be very
effective in enhancing a child's educational experience.
To be sure, it can be difficult for parents who work outside the
home to be as involved as they would like to be in their children's
education. This is a particular problem for single-parent and two-
wage-earner households. Employers should make every reasonable
effort to work out ways for employees in such situations to attend
school events, PTA meetings, and the like.
Perhaps the single most important thing you can do to improve your
child's education is to do what you're doing right now: read. Read
to them, read with them. Glenn C. Loury, a professor at Boston
University, wrote recently about enrolling his child in the first
grade. He recounted how the school's principal greeted parents with
a speech urging them to read to their children at least half an
hour each day.
"My experience tells me that some of you will follow this advice
and others will not," she concluded. "By the third grade we will
know who is who."
Teachers can teach the fundamentals of reading, but parents need to
drive home that reading is fun and essential. "Proficient readers
tend to perform better academically, not just in English and
literature classes but also in math and science," says Ruth Graves,
president of Reading is Fundamental. Quoted in an article in
Parents magazine, Graves went on to say: "They tend to be better
writers, they're less likely to drop out of high school, and they
are likely to go on to college."
One way to convey the message that reading is fun is to have family
reading sessions. During these sessions, family members can read
separately or out loud together. Such family rituals will also help
increase the amount of "quality time" you spend with your child.
If you have read the Harper Lee novel To Kill A Mockingbird, you
will remember how Atticus Finch read to his daughter, Scout, from
the newspaper every evening. This process continued until Scout
learned to read the stories herself.
Beyond this, it's important to create a home environment that
encourages study and reflection. This means, among other things,
setting a good example by watching television less and reading
more. "The amount of time spent in front of a television or video
screen is the single biggest chunk of time in the waking life of an
average American child," writes Dr. David Walsh in his 1994 book
Selling out America's Children.
Dr. Walsh's title is a disturbing one. Surely few parents have any
intention of "selling out" their children. But many of us could do
much more to help our children grow into citizens capable of making
intelligent decisions about their lives and their society. When the
school bells ring, knots in the stomach and all, let's work to make
this school year the most productive yet.
3
Back to School
This week, Chelsea, her long hair finally all dry after our exhilarating
vacation on the Wyoming rapids, will start her junior year of high school.
It's been three years since Chelsea forbade me from accompanying her to her
first day of school. On every first day until then, without fail and to Chelsea's
great mortification, my eyes would begin to water as I said good bye to her in
front of her classmates.
Still, every September, as I watch Chelsea pack new notebooks, folders and
mechanical pencils in her backpack, a little lump develops in my throat.
Unbeknownst to her, she leaves for school toting not just a year's worth of
school supplies, but that large part of my heart that carries all of my hopes and
dreams for her success in life.
1 hope Chelsea will gain in school all the skills she needs to become a good,
productive adult. That she will learn about things that I had never even
heard of while growing up - of recombinant DNA, of top quarks, and of the
social and political implications of information superhighway.
Like my mother before me who never attended college, but made sure that
her three children did, I hope that my daughter will be prepared enough to
take the most advantage of all the opportunities now available to her. Since
my college days for instance, all the nation's premier universities and service
academies have gone coed. Women have made major strides in many male-
dominated professions. Female students now outnumber male students at
some of the nation's most prestigious medical schools this year.
I am painfully aware that Chelsea is luckier than most American children.
She will not have to worry about whether her parents will be able to afford
college. She will not be among the 3.8 million student loan recipients whose
futures in higher education depend on the outcome of annual budget battles
in Congress.
Like most parents, my husband and I realize that Chelsea's success in school
hinges on our involvement in her education. Numerous studies, backed up
by common sense, have shown that a student cannot reach his or her full
academic potential without the support of parents who have made education
a priority.
Children, as they have throughout the ages, need parents to make sure they
understand that homework comes before MTV, that they have enough light
and space to complete their homework assignments, and that they are
accountable for every poor grade they bring home.
But what of the student who enjoys overwhelming parental support, who
hungrily laps up everything his teachers and textbooks can teach him, only to
find that his high school has not prepared him well enough for any college?
In a Pulitzer-prize winning series of articles last year, Wall Street Journal
reporter Ron Suskind described the heartbreaking plight of a student at an
inner-city high school who worked hard to excel at every subject and even
asked teachers to provide him with more advanced work so that he could
fulfill his dream of attending MIT and becoming an engineer. That dream
slipped away the moment an MIT professor told Cedric, a straight-A student,
that he was too poorly prepared for the rigors of MIT.
Unfortunately, Cedric's tale is not unique. I remember meeting a similar
student while my husband was governor of Arkansas. Each year, we would
invite the state's high school valedictorians to the Governor's mansion for a
reception. At one such reception, I met a very intelligent and well-spoken
student who told me he hoped to become a doctor. When I asked which
school he planned to attend, he told me that could not go to college that fall.
College admissions officers would not even consider students from his school
because it had such a poor academic reputation.
In the new film, "Dangerous Minds," an inner-city school teacher tells her
students that "there are no victims" in her classroom. Cedric and the
Arkansas valedictorian's stories challenge this statement. Though they and
their parents did their part, our schools failed them.
We need to goad our school boards, legislators and the President to make sure
that all students whether rich or poor, urban or rural gain the same high
quality education and are prepared to take full advantage of the diverse
opportunities of 21st century. And all schools need support from students,
parents and the government as they aim for even higher standards in
teaching and curricula.
We need to make our children feel that they take not only their parents' but
our whole nation's hopes and dreams with them to school each day.
4
TALKING IT OVER
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
BACK TO SCHOOL SAMPLE
All right, I admit it. I procrastinated until the very last second to write this column.
It's my own fault, since I picked the topic: nobody made me do this but then, as it
turns out, it was tough enough for me to make me do this. But I can tell fall is coming.
Suddenly, D.C. humidity isn't quite as insufferable as it was a few weeks ago. The
shadows are a little longer on the ground; the leaves of the trees are beginning to
rustle and shake when the wind blows through. Yes indeed, it's about that time.
I
may as well get down to work. It's just that I've been having such a terrific time on
vacation, playing with my husband and my daughter, I didn't want to lose a minute.
So the very thought of the topic "Back to School" made my brain go into melt-down.
That shouldn't be terribly surprising I guess. I spent 18 Augusts preparing for
class - buying new texts, notebooks, that perfect outfit to wear on the first day.
I
remember the day I first bought my books for Yale Law School. I hadn't been there
more than a few hours and already, I was behind in class. Assignments were posted
and the material was due the first day. I ran to the bookstore. The books were so
heavy that I barely got them home. Exhausted and stressed out, I made the mistake of
trying to do my reading. I was expected to understand that? I didn't even know what
the words on the first page meant.
But I was hoist by my own petard. I had wanted to go to law school, and now I
had made it. The next three years were full of possibilities I never would have
imagined on the first day, not all of them academic (I met Bill in the Yale Law Library).
Not everybody is as lucky as I was: not everyone gets to follow a dream. When Bill
was Governor of Arkansas, each year we invited all of the high school valedictorians to
the Governor's Mansion for a party in their honor. One young man who was so
impressive. Intelligent, ambitious, he wanted to be a doctor. But he wouldn't be going
to college. His school had such a poor reputation, colleges wouldn't even consider his
application.
My own classroom days are over (now that they're past, 1 look on them fondly)
but I relive those times through my daughter Chelsea.
Chelsea is starting school again. Amazing. So soon?
I used to take Chelsea to school on the first day of class every year. Then, when
she began eighth grade, she forbade me to go. You see, every year, without fail, I
started crying when I dropped her off. Chelsea thought it was too embarrassing to
have her mother sobbing hysterically. I can't say that I blame her for feeling that way:
I'd probably have felt the same way if I were in her position. It's just that I couldn't help
it.
Each year, I'm overwhelmed with a tidal wave of my emotions. 1 remember my
own experiences at school; I wonder how hers will compare to mine. I think about how
much Chelsea has grown up since the last time I dropped her off at school. I want her
to do well, not only in class, but meeting new friends, in soccer and ballet. I worry
about the challenges and difficulties she will inevitably face. I beam with pride at the
successes I see in her imminent - and distant - future.
I guess I'm not any different from any other parent.
I know that my mother must have felt some of those things. She never went to
college, but she encouraged all of her children to go on with our educations. She saw
our futures and wanted to make sure we were ready for them. I am so thankful. For
her faith in us, and for all the times that she and my father would help me with
homework. I'm thankful for the nights I'd call from college so homesick I couldn't take
it any more and they encouraged me to see it through.
For their support and love; I am forever grateful. They taught me so much more
than just what they helped me study. Can Bill and I teach Chelsea all that? I guess
Chelsea's right about keeping me away from school. I'd have cried again this year,
too.
08/30/95 WED 12:11 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
LISSA MUSCATINE
002
File Column
CREATORS SYNDICATE
KATHERINE A. SEARCY
Vice President and Editorial Director
August 30, 1995
Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mrs. Clinton:
This letter hereby grants permission to Hillary Rodham Clinton to publish reprints of her
columns on adoption (released by Creators Syndicate on July 29-30, 1995) and working
women (released by Creators Syndicate on August 5-6, 1995) in her book "It Takes a
Village, and Other Lessons Our Children Teach Us."
Please do not hesitate to contact us if we may be of service in any other way.
Best regards,
Katherneasearg
Katherine A. Searcy
cc: Richard S. Newcombe
Anita Tobias
Mike Santiago
5777 W. CENTURY BLVD., SUITE 700 LOS ANGELES, CA 90045 Tel. (310) 337-7003 . FAX (310) 337-7625
Fill
CREATORS SYNDICATE
KATHERINE A. SEARCY
Vice President and Editorial Director
August 30, 1995
Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mrs. Clinton:
This letter hereby grants permission to Hillary Rodham Clinton to publish reprints of her
columns on adoption (released by Creators Syndicate on July 29-30, 1995) and working
women (released by Creators Syndicate on August 5-6, 1995) in her book "It Takes a
Village, and Other Lessons Our Children Teach Us."
Please do not hesitate to contact us if we may be of service in any other way.
Best regards,
Katherwa Seary
Katherine A. Searcy
cc: Richard S. Newcombe
Anita Tobias
Mike Santiago
5777 W. CENTURY BLVD., SUITE 700
LOS ANGELES, CA 90045
Tel. (310) 337-7003
FAX (310) 337-7625
maggie
filealumn
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
August 31, 1995
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO give
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. As a reminder,
please do not distribute copies of the column outside the First
Lady's staff.
Hope you enjoy!
fise
08/29/95 TUE 15:34 FAI
CREATORS SYNDICATE
LISA CAPUTO
002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, SEPTEMBER 2-3, 1995
As you read this column, I am traveling to Beijing for the United Nations Fourth
World Conference on Women.
The United States is sending a delegation of 45 men and women. I am the
honorary co-chair, and I know many of our members personally. One is a former
Republican governor of New Jersey. Another is an Ursuline nun. There is a nurse, a law
professor and the editor in chief of Ladies Home Journal. Among the group are mothers,
fathers, Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives.
What unites this group and thousands of others traveling to Beijing is a desire to
focus world attention on issues that matter most to women, children and families: access
to health care, education, jobs and credit, and the chance to enjoy basic legal and
human rights and participate fully in the political life of one's country.
Our ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, is the head of our
delegation. A distinguished scholar, public servant and mother of three daughters, she
knows more than most about the meaning of freedom and democracy. She and her
family were forced to flee both Hitler and Stalin.
Tom Kean, the president of Drew University, is a delegation vice chair. I first met
him when he was governor of New Jersey and my husband was governor of Arkansas.
Although he is a Republican and my husband is a Democrat, they joined forces to
improve education for America's children.
The women's conference is about making the world a better place by helping
women live up to their God-given potential at home, in school, on the job, in their
communities and as mothers, wives, learners, workers and citizens.
It is also a celebration of families, the bedrock of any society.
Families are undermined when women and children lack the opportunities they
need to thrive. In some places around the world, for example, girls are still valued so
little that they are left to die at birth, denied health care and education, or sold into
prostitution by their families.
Figuring out ways to remedy these wrongs and provide women opportunities to
lead healthy and productive lives will be the key issue for 50,000 women and men who
gather in China this week.
It saddens me that a historic event like this is being misconstrued by a small but
vocal group of critics trying to spread the notion that the U.N. gathering is really the work
of radicals and atheists bent on destroying our families.
08/29/95 TUE 15:35 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
- LISA CAPUTO
1
003
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 9/02-03/95
2
The composition of our delegation refutes that charge. It is a broad-based, family-
oriented group committed to the mainstream agenda of the conference.
The deputy chair of our delegation, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, is one of
America's most devoted moms. A former television news correspondent and member of
Congress, she and her husband are raising 11 children - two are adopted and three
are refugees from Asia - in their home in Pennsylvania. "I don't get involved with things
that don't celebrate the family," she said recently.
Even if you agree with me that the conference is a good thing, you may be asking
yourself why Americans should care about it.
After all, don't American women have more political freedom and economic
opportunities than women anywhere else in the world?
There are several reasons why we should care. First, the conference represents
a rare opportunity to educate world leaders about the challenges women confront in
trying to improve their own lives and the lives of their familles.
Improving opportunities for women everywhere is very much in our self-interest.
When other countries become more democratic and all citizens more prosperous, our
future brightens too.
Second, the meeting will give voice to women all over the world, including
American women who are trying to raise children on jobs that pay $4.25 an hour, can't
afford health insurance or child care, or are bumping up against a glass ceiling at work.
Third, the gathering will help convey the silent terror endured by millions of
women victimized by violence, including violence in their own homes.
Concerns about education, health care, the minimum wage and domestic
violence often are written off as "women's issues" unrelated to pressing economic and
political challenges.
In fact, these "women's issues" are crucial to the progress of families everywhere.
If women and girls don't flourish, families won't flourish. And if families don't
flourish, communities and nations won't flourish.
The United States has long played a leading role in protecting the human rights
of all citizens and affording women new opportunities to contribute to the economic lives
of their families and the civic life of their communities.
For that reason, the voices of American women must be heard. And they will be
heard.
Along with our delegation, thousands of women from the United States are
traveling to Beijing, many at their own expense.
08/29/95 TUE 15:35 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
--- LISA CAPUTO
001
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 9/02-03/95
3
A group of CPAs from Virginia is making the trip. So are school principals from
Maryland, women business owners form Florida, optometrists from California and
YWCA leaders from across the country.
Even representatives of the Girl Scouts of America are traveling halfway around
the world to take part.
Indeed, the future of all girls is what this conference is about.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Evan
Fill Co winn
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
August 31, 1995
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO me
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. As a reminder,
please do not distribute copies of the column outside the First
Lady's staff.
Hegre you enjoy!
fise
08/29/95 TUE 15:34 FAI
CREATORS SYNDICATE
+++ LISA CAPUTO
002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, SEPTEMBER 2-3, 1995
As you read this column, I am traveling to Beijing for the United Nations Fourth
World Conference on Women.
The United States is sending a delegation of 45 men and women. I am the
honorary co-chair, and I know many of our members personally. One is a former
Republican governor of New Jersey. Another is an Ursuline nun. There is a nurse, a law
professor and the editor in chief of Ladies Home Journal. Among the group are mothers,
fathers, Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives.
What unites this group and thousands of others traveling to Beijing is a desire to
focus world attention on issues that matter most to women, children and families: access
to health care, education, jobs and credit, and the chance to enjoy basic legal and
human rights and participate fully in the political life of one's country.
Our ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, is the head of our
delegation. A distinguished scholar, public servant and mother of three daughters, she
knows more than most about the meaning of freedom and democracy. She and her
family were forced to flee both Hitler and Stalin.
Tom Kean, the president of Drew University, is a delegation vice chair. 1 first met
him when he was governor of New Jersey and my husband was governor of Arkansas.
Although he is a Republican and my husband is a Democrat, they joined forces to
improve education for America's children.
The women's conference is about making the world a better place by helping
women live up to their God-given potential at home, in school, on the job, in their
communities and as mothers, wives, learners, workers and citizens.
It is also a celebration of families, the bedrock of any society.
Families are undermined when women and children lack the opportunities they
need to thrive. In some places around the world, for example, girls are still valued so
little that they are left to die at birth, denied health care and education, or sold into
prostitution by their families.
Figuring out ways to remedy these wrongs and provide women opportunities to
lead healthy and productive lives will be the key issue for 50,000 women and men who
gather in China this week.
It saddens me that a historic event like this is being misconstrued by a small but
vocal group of critics trying to spread the notion that the U.N. gathering is really the work
of radicals and atheists bent on destroying our families.
08/29/95 TUE 15:35 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
-++ LISA CAPUTO
<<
003
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 9/02-03/95
2
The composition of our delegation refutes that charge. It is a broad-based, family-
oriented group committed to the mainstream agenda of the conference.
The deputy chair of our delegation, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, is one of
America's most devoted moms. A former television news correspondent and member of
Congress, she and her husband are raising 11 children -- two are adopted and three
are refugees from Asia -- in their home in Pennsylvania. "I don't get involved with things
that don't celebrate the family," she said recently.
Even if you agree with me that the conference is a good thing, you may be asking
yourself why Americans should care about it.
After all, don't American women have more political freedom and economic
opportunities than women anywhere else in the world?
There are several reasons why we should care. First, the conference represents
a rare opportunity to educate world leaders about the challenges women confront in
trying to improve their own lives and the lives of their familles.
Improving opportunities for women everywhere is very much in our self-interest.
When other countries become more democratic and all citizens more prosperous, our
future brightens too.
Second, the meeting will give voice to women all over the world, including
American women who are trying to raise children on jobs that pay $4.25 an hour, can't
afford health insurance or child care, or are bumping up against a glass ceiling at work.
Third, the gathering will help convey the silent terror endured by millions of
women victimized by violence, including violence in their own homes.
Concerns about education, health care, the minimum wage and domestic
violence often are written off as "women's issues" unrelated to pressing economic and
political challenges.
In fact, these "women's issues" are crucial to the progress of families everywhere.
If women and girls don't flourish, families won't flourish. And if families don't
flourish, communities and nations won't flourish.
The United States has long played a leading role in protecting the human rights
of all citizens and affording women new opportunities to contribute to the economic lives
of their families and the civic life of their communities.
For that reason, the voices of American women must be heard. And they will be
heard.
Along with our delegation, thousands of women from the United States are
traveling to Beijing, many at their own expense.
08/29/95 TUE 15:35 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
-++ LISA CAPUTO
"
001
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 9/02-03/95
3
A group of CPAs from Virginia is making the trip. So are school principals from
Maryland, women business owners form Florida, optometrists from California and
YWCA leaders from across the country.
Even representatives of the Giri Scouts of America are traveling halfway around
the world to take part.
Indeed, the future of all girls is what this conference is about.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
maggie
File
columns.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 7, 1995
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. As a reminder,
please do not distribute copies of the column outside the First
Lady's staff.
09/06/95 WED 10:29 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
LISA CAPUTO
J.
002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, SEPTEMBER 9-10, 1995
BEIJING "Go to China and stand up for American values."
An American veteran of World War II said these words to me as I was
leaving the V-J Day observances In Hawali last weekend to go to Beijing for the
United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.
A few days later, as I stood before the conference delegates preparing to
give a keynote address, the veteran's words came back to me.
Looking out at the sea of faces representing nearly every country in the
world, I appreciated even more the privilege of living in a free society.
As an American, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are my
birthrights, and they are the birthrights of all Americans. The rights we take for
granted are fought for and died for around the world.
In some countries, citizens are not allowed to vote, speak their minds,
assemble freely or exercise their faith without fear of persecution, arrest or even
torture.
These are what we commonly think of as violations of human rights.
But, as the women's conference taught us, it is also a violation of human
rights when, in countries around the world, women and girls are valued less, fed
less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and beaten up.
If one message rang clear from the conference, it is that women's rights
are human rights. And human rights are women's rights.
As I said to the delegates:
It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or
drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken simply because they are born
girls.
It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the
slavery of prostitution, sometimes by their own brothers and fathers.
It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline,
set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too
small.
It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their
own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a
tactic or prize of war.
09/06/95 WED 10:29 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
+++
LISA CAPUTO
003
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 9/9-10/95
Page 2
It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide
among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own
homes.
It is a violation of human rights when young girls are brutalized by the
painful and degrading practice of genital mutilation, which happens to millions
of women in Africa.
It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan
their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being
sterilized against their will.
Today, women bear the brunt of human rights violations around the
world. As long as those violations persist - and discrimination and inequities
remain commonplace a peaceful and prosperous life is sadly beyond our
reach.
One reason we haven't progressed further is that so many women have
been afraid to speak up and speak out. As I said to the conference delegates, it
is time to break the silence so that women everywhere have a greater say in the
future we share.
As different as we may be, there is more that unites than divides us. The
conference proved that.
I am grateful that on behalf of our country I had the opportunity to attend
this conference with men and women from all over the world who are committed
to speaking out and taking action against abuses and injustices that fly in the
face of human rights.
If we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will be taking bold
steps to better the lives of children and familles too.
Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care.
Families rely on women for labor in the home. And increasingly, families rely on
women for income needed to raise healthy children and care for other relatives.
The women's conference by itself won't change any lives. But I hope that,
by encouraging people to take notice of these issues, it will help lead us to a
world in which every woman and girl is given the respect and dignity she
deserves.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Evan
common
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 7, 1995
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. As a reminder,
please do not distribute copies of the column outside the First
Lady's staff.
09/06/95 WED 10:29 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
->-1
LISA CAPUTO
1
002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, SEPTEMBER 9-10, 1995
BEIJING - "Go to China and stand up for American values."
An American veteran of World War II said these words to me as I was
leaving the V-J Day observances In Hawali last weekend to go to Beijing for the
United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.
A few days later, as I stood before the conference delegates preparing to
give a keynote address, the veteran's words came back to me.
Looking out at the sea of faces representing nearly every country in the
world, I appreciated even more the privilege of living in a free society.
As an American, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are my
birthrights, and they are the birthrights of all Americans. The rights we take for
granted are fought for and died for around the world.
In some countries, citizens are not allowed to vote, speak their minds,
assemble freely or exercise their faith without fear of persecution, arrest or even
torture.
These are what we commonly think of as violations of human rights.
But, as the women's conference taught us, it is also a violation of human
rights when, in countries around the world, women and girls are valued less, fed
less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and beaten up.
If one message rang clear from the conference, it is that women's rights
are human rights. And human rights are women's rights.
As I said to the delegates:
It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or
drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken simply because they are born
girls.
It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the
slavery of prostitution, sometimes by their own brothers and fathers.
It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline,
set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too
small.
It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their
own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a
tactic or prize of war.
09/06/95 WED 10:29 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
+++
LISA CAPUTO
1
003
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 9/9-10/95
Page 2
It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide
among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own
homes.
It is a violation of human rights when young girls are brutalized by the
painful and degrading practice of genital mutilation, which happens to millions
of women in Africa.
It Is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan
their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being
sterilized against their will.
Today, women bear the brunt of human rights violations around the
world. As long as those violations persist - and discrimination and inequities
remain commonplace a peaceful and prosperous life is sadly beyond our
reach.
One reason we haven't progressed further is that so many women have
been afraid to speak up and speak out. As I said to the conference delegates, it
is time to break the silence so that women everywhere have a greater say in the
future we share.
As different as we may be, there is more that unites than divides us. The
conference proved that.
I am grateful that on behalf of our country I had the opportunity to attend
this conference with men and women from all over the world who are committed
to speaking out and taking action against abuses and injustices that fly in the
face of human rights.
If we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will be taking bold
steps to better the lives of children and families too.
Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care.
Families rely on women for labor in the home. And increasingly, families rely on
women for income needed to raise healthy children and care for other relatives.
The women's conference by itself won't change any lives. But I hope that,
by encouraging people to take notice of these issues, it will help lead us to a
world in which every woman and girl is given the respect and dignity she
deserves.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1995
Debut for a Conservative Weekly
Even before the first issue ap-
pears, the involvement of Mr. Mur-
By ELIZABETH KOLBERT
doch and Mr. Kristol had already
gained The Standard more media
The Weekly Standard, the new
attention than most opinion journals
over the magazine and that Mr. Mur-
conservative weekly, arrives at
can expect in a good century.
doch had not known what was in the
newsstands today, just 10 months
Mr. Murdoch, whose News Corpo-
first issue until it was hand-deliv-
after the Republican sweep that in-
ration owns, among other things, the
ered to him and a few hundred other
spired it and a little ahead of George,
Fox Broadcasting Company, The
particularly influential readers Sun-
the glossy new poli-tainment maga-
New York Post and TV Guide, is not
day morning. Mr. Murdoch has
zine edited by John F. Kennedy Jr.
only immensely powerful, but has
pledged to finance The Standard for
In the inevitable comparisons be-
also been in the news lately because
at least three years, starting with an
tween. the two political magazines,
of accusations that he has used some
initial investment of several million
The Standard is not going to win any
of his vast media holdings to curry
dollars, according to Mr. Kristol.
prizes for sexiness: where George
favor with influential lawmakers,
has a cover photo of Cindy Crawford
foremost among them Speaker Ging-
The Standard was founded by Mr.
exposing her midriff, The Standard
rich. (The Speaker's book, "To Re-
Kristol together with Fred Barnes, a
has a cartoon of Newt Gingrich as a
new America," was published by a
former editor at The New Republic
winged-tipped Rambo. While
Murdoch holding, HarperCollins; in
and a regular panelist on the "Mc-
George's editor, Mr. Kennedy, is set
response to charges of conflict of
Laughlin Group,". and John Podhor-
to appear on the sitcom "Murphy
interest, Mr. Gingrich eventually re-
etz, a former White House speech-
Brown" later this month, the editors
turned a $4.5 million advance he had
writer. The three have frequently
of The Standard have had to content.
received for it.)
described the magazine as a sort of
themselves with air time on C-Span
Mr. Kristol served as chief of staff
New Republic of the right.
and "The MacNeil-Lehrer News
to William J. Bennett when he was
Education Secretary, and then to
By editing a conservative maga-
Hour." And while George's first
Vice President Dan Quayle. In 1993,
zine, both Mr. Kristol and Mr. Pod-
press run will be 500,000, The Stand-
ard's will be 100,000.
he established the Project for the
horetz are, in a sense, following fam-
But in Washington, where power
Republican Future, from which he
ily traditions; Mr. Kristol's father,
has long been recognized as the ulti-
dispensed advice to conservative
Irving, was a founding editor of Pub-
mate aphrodisiac, The Standard
politicians in lengthy and often influ-
lic Interest, and Mr. Podhoretz's fa-
clearly beats George as the maga-
ential faxes.
ther, Norman, was until recently the
editor of Commentary.
zine most likely to make pulses ràce.
"The Republican future came
It is-being edited by William Kristol,
faster than I, at least, expected," Mr.
At this point, it is unclear whether
one of the Republican Party's keen-
Kristol said, explaining why he de-
The Standard will compete mainly
est political strategists, and bank-
cided to disband the project and
with other conservative magazines
rolled by Rupert Murdoch, one of the
start a magazine.
like National Review and The Amer-
world's most influential media en-
Mr. Kristol said that his contract
ican Spectator, or with the financial
trepreneurs.
gave him complete editorial control
magazines read by more monied
The first issue of the magazine
reports on topics ranging from Bos-
conservatives or even with The New
nia to budget cuts in a tone that is
Republic itself. Nor is it clear that
clearly intended, at least, to repro-
the market will support another
duce the arch knowingness of The
opinion journal; many more estab-
New Republic. There are four arti-
lished journals of opinion and com-
cles devoted to Speaker Gingrich,
mentary operate at a loss and rely
another to the Republicans' public
on foundation support.
relations strategy on Medicare (it is
deemed successful) and another to
Nevertheless, Mr. Kristol said the
poking fun at Democratic lawmak-
business plan called for The Stand-
ers. Headlines include: "GOP on Of-
ard to be in the black in three years.
fense,' 'Our Kind of Budget Deal,"
For its first issue of 100,000 copies,
and "Are the Democrats Going
the magazine has 50,000 subscribers.
Nuts?"
The newsstand price is $2.95.
Not all of the articles in the maga-
zine, however, are likely to make
The magazine is openly aimed at
conservative hearts leap. For exam-
opinion leaders in Washington and
much of its advertising is from com-
ple, there is a piece by Mr. Kristol
pushing Gen. Colin L. Powell as the
panies and trade groups with busi-
Republican Presidential nominee,
ness on Capitol Hill. So many adver-
despite the general's seemingly
tising pages were sold for the first
issue that it runs to more than 70
more moderate political views. And
of the four pieces on Mr. Gingrich,
pages; future issues, Mr. Kristol
two are essentially critical, though
said, will be closer to 50 pages.
for different reasons. One chastises
Victor S. Navasky, publisher and
the Speaker for timidity, while the
editorial director of The Nation, the
other gives a resoundingly negative
venerable liberal weekly, said that
review to the Speaker's recent book,
while he deplored the rise of conser-
and, more significantly, to the politi-
vative politics in general and Mr.
cal philosophy it implies.
Murdoch's contribution in particu-
"I hope it's a little unpredictable,"
lar, he still welcomed the advent of
Mr. Kristol said of The Standard's
The Standard.
inaugural edition.
"We look forward to having a con-
versation with them in print," he
said:
File
THE WHITE HOUSE
Column
WASHINGTON
September 14, 1995
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO Are
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. In addition, I
have attached HRC's four speeches from the UN Women's Conference
in Beijing, China.
09/13/95 WED 09:38 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
- LISA CAPUTO
4.
002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, SEPTEMBER 16-17, 1995
This year, for the first time ever, I missed my daughter's first week back at
school. While Chelsea was settling into 11th grade, I was at the international women's
conference in China and then in Mongolia, visiting a nomadic family that makes its
livelihood herding cattle in one of the coldest climates in the world.
As with most teen-agers, my daughter was much less concerned by my
absence than I was. I couldn't stop thinking about every "first day" since kindergarten,
and how her dad and I would make her pose for the ritual picture before driving her to
school.
No matter how hard I tried, I could never keep from crying after we dropped her
off. There is something about the way the school year, more than any other part of the
calendar, marks the passage of time in a child's life -- and a parent's.
When I called home during this trip to find out how school was going, Chelsea
told me about her new teachers and how much homework she already had.
But what she really wanted to talk about was my trip. We had traveled to South
Asia together earlier this year, and she was disappointed she couldn't join me this
time, particularly for my stay in Mongolia.
1 told her about the family of herders who hosted me in their "ger" a tent-like
dwelling of wool blankets attached to wooden poles that can be assembled or
disassembled in one hour when the family makes its seasonal moves. Inside were
several beds, cupboards, a vat of fermented mare's milk (yes, I tasted it) and a dung-
burning stove.
The family has six children, who greeted me wearing the colorful vests and hats
that are traditional in Mongolia. Every fall and winter, the parents and two youngest
children migrate to southern pastures with the family's herds. The older children live
with their grandparents in a nearby town so they can attend school. They return to the
"ger" during February and March to help their parents at the height of the animal
birthing season and then go back to school for April and May.
Although I only spent two hours at the "ger," and I don't speak a word of
Mongolian, I couldn't mistake the love and commitment of the family members I met.
The children's faces radiated with beauty. It was a beauty I saw many more times
during my stay, which made it heartbreaking to think of the difficult circumstances
endured by so many Mongolian children.
09/13/95 WED 08:38 FAX
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--- LISA CAPUTO
003
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 9/16-17/95
Page 2
For nearly a century, their country was a Soviet satellite. Then, in 1990,
Mongolia freed itself from the tyranny of communism and became democratic without
bloodshed or violence. Today, it has more than one political party, an independent
court system and laws that respect human rights and private property. Mongolia's
doors are open to free enterprise and foreign investment.
Unfortunately, the road to democracy has not been completely smooth. The
country has struggled with severe economic challenges, and many public schools
have begun charging fees. Many families cannot afford to enroll their children, more
children are dropping out of school and illiteracy is on the rise.
To make matters worse, President Ochirbat told me the schools still use Soviet
textbooks -- simply because they cannot afford new ones. For all the suffering the
Mongolians have been through to achieve democracy, their children cannot read in
school about their own unique history or leaders like Genghis Khan, whose name was
banned during the communist regime.
But I also saw the promise of Mongolia when I visited elected officials committed
to democracy, students at the National University and women doctors, teachers and
lawyers all struggling to move their country forward.
At the Center for Street Children in Ulaanbaatar, the nation's capital, ! met
youngsters who had been living in heating ducts and old railroad cars because their
families could not afford to support or care for them. I talked to the center's doctor, who
works to cure contagious skin diseases easily treated in the United States -- but not in
Mongolia, where medical resources remain scarce.
Over decades, our nation spent trillions of dollars to fight Soviet communism.
We won that Cold War. Now we have another challenge: to strengthen emerging
democracies around the world, especially nations like Mongolia that are trying so hard
to emulate American ideals.
Too often we forget the struggles other people go through for the privileges we
take for granted. As our children head back to school this fall, I hope they will take
advantage of the opportunities they have to pursue an education. I know I will spend a
lot of time thinking about children I met in Mongolia and what education means for
them and their nation.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 5, 1995
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS TO THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION FORUM
ON WOMEN AND HEALTH SECURITY
BEIJING, CHINA
MRS. CLINTON: Thank you very much. Thank you Dr. Nakajima,
Mrs. Mongella, all of the panelists, delegates to this important
conference, and guests from all over the world. I am honored to
be here this morning among women and men who are committed to
improving the health of women and girls everywhere in our world.
I want to start by commending the World Health Organization
for making women's health a top priority and for establishing the
Global Commission on Women's Health.
I am also proud that in the preparatory meetings for this
Fourth World Conference on Women, the United States took the lead
with other countries in highlighting the importance of a
comprehensive approach to women's health. That approach builds on
actions taken at previous women's conferences and the recent
conferences at Cairo and Copenhagen, whose goals to promote the
health and well-being of all people were endorsed by 180 nations.
Cairo was particularly significant as governmental and non-
governmental participants worked together to craft a Program for
Action which, among other things, calls for universal access to
good quality reproductive health care services, including safe,
effective, voluntary family planning; greater access to education
and health care; more responsibility on the part of men in sexual
and reproductive health and childbearing; and reduction of
wasteful resource consumption.
Here at this conference, improving girls and women's health
is a priority of the draft Platform for Action. It includes such
goals as: Access to universal primary health care for all people
-- a goal not yet achieved in many countries, including my own.
The promotion of breast feeding. The provision of safe drinking
water and sanitation. Research in and attention to women's health
issues, including: environmental hazards, prevention of HIV/AIDS
and other sexually transmitted diseases, encouragement for
adolescents to postpone sexual activity and childbearing, and
discouragement of cultural traditions and customs that deny food
and health care to girls and women.
Goals such as these illustrate a new commitment to the well-
being of girls and women and a belief in their rights to live up
to their own God-given potentials.
At long last, people and governments everywhere are
beginning to understand that investing in the health of women and
girls is as important to the prosperity of nations as investing
in the development of open markets and trade. The health of women
and girls cannot and must not be divorced from progress on other
economic and social issues.
Scientists, doctors, nurses, community leaders and women
themselves are working to improve and safeguard the health of
women and families all over the world. If we join together as a
global community, we can lift up the health and dignity of all
women and their families in the remaining years of the 20th
century and on into the next millennium.
Yet, for all the promise the future holds, we also know that
many barriers lie in our way. For too long, women have been
denied access to health care, education, economic opportunities,
legal protection and human rights -- all of which are used as
building blocks for a healthy and productive life.
In too many places today, the health of women and families
is compromised by inadequate, inaccessible and unaffordable
medical care, lack of sanitation, unsafe drinking water, poor
nutrition, insufficient research and education about women's
health practices, and coercive and abusive sexual practices.
In too many places, the status of women's health is a
picture of human suffering and pain. The faces in that picture
are of girls and women who, but for the grace of God or the
accident of birth, could be us or one of our sisters, mothers or
daughters.
Today, at least fifteen percent of pregnant women suffer
life threatening complications and more than one-half million
women around the world die in childbirth. Most of those deaths
could be prevented with basic primary, reproductive and emergency
obstetric health care. In some places, there are 175,000
motherless children for every one million families. Many of those
children don't survive. And of those who do, many are recruited
into a life of exploitation on the streets of our world's cities,
subjected daily to abuse, indignity, disease, and the specter of
early death.
There must be a renewed commitment to improving maternal
health. The World Health Organization launched in 1987 a Safe
Motherhood Initiative to have maternal mortality by the year
2000. To reach that goal, more attention must be paid to
emergency medical care as well as primary prenatal care.
2
Providing emergency obstetric care is a relatively cheap way of
saving lives -- and along with family planning services is among
the most cost effective interventions in even the poorest of
countries.
The commitment of the World Health Organization and its
Global Commission on Women's Health to make childbearing and
childbirth a safe and healthy period of every woman's life
deserves action on the part of every nation represented here.
In addition, one hundred million women cannot obtain or are
not using family planning services because they are poor,
uneducated or lack access to care. Twenty million of these women
will seek unsafe abortions -- some will die, some will be
disabled for life. A growing number of unwanted pregnancies are
occurring among young women, barely beyond childhood themselves.
As we know, when children have children, the chance of schooling,
jobs, and good health is reduced for both parent and child. And
our progress as a human family takes another step back.
The Cairo document recognizes "the basic right of all
couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the
number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the
information and means to do so." Women should have the right to
health care that will enable them to go safely through pregnancy
and childbirth and provide them with the best chance of having a
healthy infant.
Women and men must also have the right to make those most
intimate of all decisions free of discrimination, coercion and
violence, particularly any coercive practices that force women
into abortions or sterilizations.
On these issues, the US supports the provisions in the
Beijing Platform for Action that reaffirm consensus language that
was agreed to at the Cairo Conference about a year ago. But I
also want to emphasize what the Cairo document said on a
particularly sensitive issue to many represented here. It
declared that "in no case should abortion be promoted as a method
of family planning" -- and that too should be reaffirmed loudly
and clearly. The Platform asks governments "to strengthen their
commitment to women's health, to deal with the health impact of
unsafe abortion as a major public health concern and to reduce
the recourse to abortion through expanded and improved family
planning services."
As Mrs. Mongella reminded us, violence is also a health
issue. It is about time we recognized it as such and began to
move against it whereever it occurs. Violence against women
remains a leading cause of death among girls and women between
the ages of 14 and 44 -- violence from ethnic and religious
conflicts, crime in the streets and brutality in the home. For
3
women who survive the violence, what often awaits them is a life
of unrelenting physical and emotional pain that destroys their
capacity for mothering, homemaking or working and can lead to
substance abuse, and even suicide.
Violence against girls and women goes beyond the beatings,
rape, killings and forced prostitution that arise from poverty,
wars and domestic conflicts. Every day, more than 5,000 young
girls are forced to endure the brutal practice of genital
mutilation. The procedure is painful and life-threatening. It is
degrading. And it is a violation of the physical integrity of a
woman's body, leaving a lifetime of physical and emotional scars.
HIV, AIDS, and sexually transmitted diseases threaten more
and more women -- and you will hear more about that poignantly
and personally later. Experts predict that by the end of this
decade more than half of the people in the world with HIV will be
women. AIDS, which threatens whole families and regions, demands
the strongest possible response. Governments and the
international community must address head-on the growing number
of women who are being infected -- and that means refusing to
deny the extent of the problem and beginning to deal with it in
order to start solving it and preventing it whereever we can.
More than 700,000 women worldwide face breast cancer each
year -- and over 300,000 die of it. It's the leading cause of
death for women in their prime in the developed world. In the
time I speak to you today, 25 women around the world will die of
breast cancer. In my own country, it is hard to find a family, an
office, or a neighborhood that has not been touched by this
disease. My own mother-in-law struggled against breast cancer for
four years before losing her battle. That is another disease
that all of us must join forces together to combat.
Tobacco use is the number one preventable cause of death.
Some might think that is doesn't rank up there with the other
serious problems that will be discussed, AIDS/HIV -- and of
course it does not have the extraordinarly painful image and
effects that other threats to health do -- but is is a killer and
it causes great anguish among those who are struck down. Ninety
percent of women who smoke began to smoke as adolescents --
leading to high rates of heart disease, cancer, and chronic lung
disease later in life -- that are not only a burden to the
individual and the family -- but to the health care system that
are trying cope with diseases such as AIDS and breast cancer.
As the World Health Organization points out, we also need to
recognize and effectively address the fact that women are far
more likely to be exposed to work-related and environmental
health hazards. Policies to alleviate and eliminate such health
hazards associated with work in the home and in the workplace
also demand action.
4
Research indicates further that certain communicable
diseases affect women in greater numbers. Tuberculosis, for
example, is responsible for the deaths of one million women each
year and those in their early and reproductive years are most
vulnerable.
When health care systems around the world don't work for
women; when our mothers, daughters, sisters, friends and co-
workers are denied access to quality care because they are poor,
do not have health insurance, or simply because they are women,
it is not just their health that is put at risk. It is the health
of their families and communities as well.
Like many nations, the United States brings to this
conference a serious commitment to improving women's health. We
bring with us a series of initiatives which represent the first
steps to carrying out this Conference's Platform for Action.
We are continuing to work for health care reform to ensure
that every citizen has access to affordable, quality care.
We are proposing a comprehensive and coordinated plan to
reduce smoking by children and adolescents by 50 percent.
We are working to address the many factors that contribute
to teenage pregnancy, our most serious social problem, by
encouraging abstinence and personal responsibility on the part of
young men and women; improving access to health care and family
planning services; and supporting health education in our
schools.
We are pursuing a public policy agenda on HIV/AIDS that is
specific to women, adolescents, and children.
We are continuing to fund and conduct contraceptive research
and development.
We are addressing the health needs of women through
initiatives such as:
*
The National Action Plan on Breast Cancer -- a public,
private partnership working with all agencies of government, the
media, scientific organizations, advocacy groups and industry to
advance breast health and eradicate breast cancer as a threat to
the lives of American women.
*
An Expansion of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer
Early Detection Program -- we hope will ensure that women who
need regular screening and detection services have access to
them, and that those services meet quality standards.
*
The inclusion of women in clinical trials for research
and testing of drugs or other interventions that probe specific
differences between men and women in patterns of disease and
reactions to therapy.
5
*
The specific health needs of older women will be
addressed through educational campaigns about osteoporosis,
cancer and other diseases.
*
And the United States is conducting the largest
clinical research study ever undertaken to examine the major
causes of death, disability and frailty in post-menopausal women.
We come prepared to be partners working together on behalf
of women's health security -- which must be a priority of all
people and governments working together. Without good health, a
woman's God-given potential can never be realized. And without
healthy women, the world's potential can never be realized.
So I hope that through this conference we renew our
commitment to join together to ensure that every little boy and
girl that comes into our world is healthy and wanted; that every
young woman has the education and economic opportunity to live a
healthy life; and that every woman has access to the health care
she needs throughout her life to fulfill her potential in her
family, her work, and her community.
If we care about the futures of our daughters, our sons, and
the generations that will follow them, we can do nothing less.
I want to thank so many of you in this room for the work you
do everyday to bring better health to women, men, children, and
families throughout world. Thank you for helping governments and
citizens understand that we cannot talk about equality and social
development without also talking about health care.
Most of all, thank you for being part of this historic and
vital discussion. It holds promise for our future, if we act and
continue to work together. I was pleased to find this
declaration on women's health and health security and to see in
it goals with measurable targets. That is what we must commit
ourselves to. Rhetoric alone, recognition of the problems alone,
will not save another girl child, will not prevent the disease
that cuts down too many women in their prime, will not ease the
passage of women in their older years who have worked so hard all
their lives. It is only by combining the rhetoric and
recognition with a commitment to specific actions that will bring
about the changes we want to see. I commend and thank you for
being part of that effort. Thank you very much.
###
6
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 5, 1995
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS TO THE UNITED NATIONS FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE
ON WOMEN
BEIJING, CHINA
MRS. CLINTON: Thank you very much Gertrude Mongella, for
your dedicated work that has brought us to this point.
Distinguished delegates and guests, I would like to thank
the Secretary General of the United Nations for inviting me to be
part of this important United Nations Fourth World Conference on
Women. This is truly a celebration -- a celebration of the
contributions women make in every aspect of life: in the home, on
the job, in the community, as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters,
learners, workers, citizens and leaders.
It is also a coming together, much the way women come
together every day in every country.
We come together in fields and in factories. In village
markets and supermarkets. In living rooms and board rooms.
Whether it is while playing with our children in the park,
or washing clothes in a river, or taking a break at the office
water cooler, we come together and talk about our aspirations and
concerns. And time and again, our talk turns to our children and
our families.
However different we may appear, there is far more that
unites us than divides us. We share a common future. And we are
here to find common ground so that we may help bring new dignity
and respect to women and girls all over the world -- and in so
doing, bring new strength and stability to families as well.
By gathering in Beijing, we are focusing world attention on
issues that matter most in the lives of women and their families:
access to education, health care, jobs, and credit, the chance to
enjoy basic legal and human rights and to participate fully in
the political life of their countries.
There are some who question the reason for this conference.
1
Let them listen to the voices of women in their homes,
neighborhoods, and workplaces.
There are some who wonder whether the lives of women and
girls matter to economic and political progress around the globe.
Let them look at the women gathered here and at Hairou
the homemakers, nurses, teachers, lawyers, policymakers, and
women who run their own businesses.
It is conferences like this that compel governments and
peoples everywhere to listen, look and face the world's most
pressing problems.
Wasn't it after the women's conference in Nairobi ten years
ago that the world focused for the first time on the crisis of
domestic violence?
Earlier today, I participated in a World Health Organization
forum. In that forum we talked about ways that where government
officials, NGOs, and individual citizens are working on ways to
address the health problems of women and girls.
Tomorrow, I will attend a gathering of the United Nations
Development Fund for Women. There, the discussion will focus on
local -- and highly successful -- programs that give hard-working
women access to credit so they can improve their own lives and
the lives of their families.
What we are learning around the world is that, if women are
healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are
free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a
chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society,
their families will flourish.
And when families flourish, communities and nations will
flourish.
That is why every woman, every man, every child, every
family, and every nation on our planet does have a stake in the
discussion that takes place here.
Over the past 25 years, I have worked persistently on issues
relating to women, children and families. Over the past two-and-
a-half years, I have had the opportunity to learn more about the
challenges facing women in my own country and around the world.
I have met new mothers in Indonesia, who come together
regularly in their village to discuss nutrition, family planning,
and baby care.
I have met working parents in Denmark who talk about the
comfort they feel in knowing that their children can be cared for
2
in creative, safe, and nurturing after-school centers.
I have met women in South Africa who helped lead the
struggle to end apartheid and are now helping build a new
democracy.
I have met with the leading women of my own hemisphere who
are working every day to promote literacy and better health care
for the children in their countries.
I have met women in India and Bangladesh who are taking out
small loans to buy milk cows, rickshaws, thread and other
materials to create a livelihood for themselves and their
families.
I have met doctors and nurses in Belarus and Ukraine who are
trying to keep children alive in the aftermath of Chernobyl.
The great challenge of this conference is to give voice to
women everywhere whose experiences go unnoticed, whose words go
unheard.
Women comprise more than half the world's population. Women
are 70% percent of the world's poor, and two-thirds of those who
are not taught to read and write.
Women are the primary caretakers for most of the world's
children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not valued --
not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not
by government leaders.
At this very moment, as we sit here, women around the world
are giving birth, raising children, cooking meals, washing
clothes, cleaning houses, planting crops, working on assembly
lines, running companies, and running countries.
Women also are dying from diseases that should have been
prevented or treated; they are watching their children succumb to
malnutrition caused by poverty and economic deprivation; they are
being denied the right to go to school by their own fathers and
brothers; they are being forced into prostitution, and they are
being barred from the bank lending office and banned from the
ballot box.
Those of us who have the opportunity to be here have the
responsibility to speak for those who could not.
As an American, I want to speak up for women in my own
country -- women who are raising children on the minimum wage,
women who can't afford health care or child care, women whose
lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their own
homes.
3
I want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good
schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air and clean airwaves
for older women, some of them widows, who have raised
their families and now find that their skills and life
experiences are not valued in the workplace
for women who
are working all night as nurses, hotel clerks, and fast food
chefs so that they can be at home during the day with their kids.
and for women everywhere who simply don't have time to do
everything they are called upon to do each day.
Speaking to you today, I speak for them, just as each of us
speaks for women around the world who are denied the chance to go
to school, or see a doctor, or own property, or have a say about
the direction of their lives, simply because they are women.
The truth is that most women around the world work both
inside and outside the home, usually by necessity.
We need to understand that there is no one formula for how
women should lead their lives.
That is why we must respect the choices that each woman
makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance
to realize her God-given potential.
We also must recognize that women will never gain full
dignity until their human rights are respected and protected.
Our goals for this conference, to strengthen families and
societies by empowering women to take greater control over their
own destinies, cannot be fully achieved unless all governments --
here and around the world -- accept their responsibility to
protect and promote internationally recognized human rights.
The international community has long acknowledged -- and
recently affirmed at Vienna -- that both women and men are
entitled to a range of protections and personal freedoms, from
the right of personal security to the right to determine freely
the number and spacing of the children they bear.
No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of
religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse or torture.
Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights
are violated.
Even in the late 20th century, the rape of women continues
to be used as an instrument of armed conflict. Women and children
make up a large majority of the world's refugees. And when women
are excluded from the political process, they become even more
vulnerable to abuse.
4
I believe that, on the eve of a new millennium, it is time
to break our silence. It is time for us to say here in Beijing,
and the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss
women's rights as separate from human rights.
These abuses have continued because, for too long, the
history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there
are those who are trying to silence our words.
The voices of this conference and of the women at Hairou
must be heard loud and clear:
It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied
food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply
because they are born girls.
It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are
sold into the slavery of prostitution.
It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with
gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage
dowries are deemed too small.
It is a violation of human rights when individual women are
raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are
subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.
It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of
death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they
are subjected to in their own homes by their own relatives.
It is a violation of human rights when young girls are
brutalized by the painful and degrading practice of genital
mutilation.
It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the
right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced
to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.
If there is one message that echoes forth from this
conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights
And women's rights are human rights, once and for all.
Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to
speak freely. And the right to be heard.
Women must enjoy the right to participate fully in the
social and political lives of their countries if we want freedom
and democracy to thrive and endure.
5
It is indefensible that many women in non-governmental
organizations who wished to participate in this conference have
not been able to attend -- or have been prohibited from fully
taking part.
Let me be clear. Freedom means the right of people to
assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means respecting the
views of those who may disagree with the views of their
governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved
ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their
freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their
ideas and opinions.
In my country, we recently celebrated the 75th anniversary
of women's suffrage. It took 150 years after the signing of our
Declaration of Independence for women to win the right to vote.
It took 72 years of organized struggle on the part of many
courageous women and men.
It was one of America's most divisive philosophical wars.
But it was also a bloodless war. Suffrage was achieved without a
shot fired.
We have also been reminded, in V-J Day observances last
weekend, of the good that comes when men and women join together
to combat the forces of tyranny and build a better world.
We have seen peace prevail in most places for a half
century. We have avoided another world war.
But we have not solved older, deeply-rooted problems that
continue to diminish the potential of half the world's
population.
Now it is time to act on behalf of women everywhere.
If we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will
be taking bold steps to better the lives of children and families
too.
Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and
care; families rely on women for labor in the home; and
increasingly, families rely on women for income needed to raise
healthy children and care for other relatives.
As long as discrimination and inequities remain so
commonplace around everywhere in the world -- as long as girls
and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked,
underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of
their homes -- the potential of the human family to create a
6
peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.
Let this conference be our -- and the world's -- call to
action.
Let us heed the call so that we can create a world in which
every woman is treated with respect and dignity, every boy and
girl is loved and cared for equally, and every family has the
hope of a strong and stable future.
That is the work before you, that is the work before all of
us, who have a vision of the world we want to see for our
children and our grandchildren. The time is now. We must move
beyond rhetoric, we must move beyond recognition of problems, to
working together, to have the common efforts to build that common
ground we hope to see.
God's blessings on you, your work and all who will benefit
from it. Godspeed and thank you very much.
###
7
WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 6, 1995
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS TO THE NGO FORUM
HUAIROU, CHINA
MRS. CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you so much. I feel so much
at home and so much a part of this group. I only wish that in
addition to the enthusiasm and interest amongst all of the NGOs
who are gathered here, the weather had been more cooperative this
morning and I greatly regret that we were forced to move this
occasion indoors in order to avoid any of us drowning out there.
But I am very sorry that not everyone who wished to be with us
this morning was able to be in, and I hope all of you will convey
my personal regrets to anyone who was turned away or disappointed
because of the size of this auditorium.
It is a great pleasure for me to be here, and I want to
start by thanking Supatra and Irene for their leadership in this
extraordinary and historic enterprise. But I also want to thank
all of you who are here, because I know from looking at the lists
of people who have come, of knowing personally many of the
Americans who have come, that in this auditorium and at this
Forum, there are thousands and thousands of women and men who
every day work to make lives better in their communities for all
people. And that is the greatest contribution any one of us is
able to make, and that is why the United States and many other
countries so strongly support the efforts of NGOs and have worked
very hard to ensure that NGOs could participate in this Forum.
As many of you know, our government and other governments
recognize the important role that NGOs play in policy and
planning, in development and implementation and monitoring of
programs that advance the progress of women.
I have come here, to Huairou, to salute you for your
dedication to a cause greater than all of us. I know that many
of you went to great efforts to be here. I know many were kept
from attending this Forum. I know that for many of you who did
get here, getting here was far from easy. Many of you did not
even know until the last minute that you would be permitted to
travel here, and others bore great personal expense in order to
come. In addition to the weather, which is not
And I also want to say a special word on behalf of women with
disabilities who have faced particularly challenging (inaudible)
But I mostly want to thank you for your perseverance,
because you did not give up, you did not stay away, you are here,
and the fact that you are, will make a difference in the days and
months and years to come. Because even though you may not be
physically present in Beijing at the Conference during these ten
days, the wisdom that is accumulated here, the experience, the
energy, the ideas are on full display. Thanks to your
resourcefulness, your tenacity, your sense of purpose and your
spirit, you are playing an important role in this Conference, and
you will be the key players in determining whether or not this
Conference goes beyond rhetoric and actually does something to
improve the lives of women and children.
As I said yesterday, the faces of the women who are here
mirror the faces of the millions and millions who are not. It is
our responsibility, those of us who have been able to attend this
Conference and this NGO Forum, to make sure that the voices that
go unheard will be heard. This Conference is about making sure
that women, their children, their families, have the
opportunities for health care and education, for jobs and
political participation, for lives free of violence, for basic
legal protections, and yes, for internationally recognized human
rights no matter where they are or where they live.
Time and time again we have seen that it is NGOs who are
responsible for making progress in any society. Some of us never
knew we were NGOs twenty and twenty-five and thirty years ago.
That was not even a phrase that any of us had ever heard. We
were people working together on behalf of all of those rights
which we care about and hold dear. But when one looks at the
progress that has been made throughout the world, it is clear
that it is the NGOs who have charted real advances for women and
children. It is the NGOs who have pressured governments and have
led governments down the path to economic, social, and political
progress, often in the face of overwhelming hostility. Again,
NGOs have persevered, just as you have by coming here and staying
here and participating in this Forum. What will be important as
we end the Forum and the Conference at the end of this week is
that it will be NGOs who will hold governments to the commitments
that they make. And it is important that the final Platform for
Action that is adopted be distilled down into words that every
woman, no matter where she lives, or how much education she has,
can understand. I think we should want every woman, no matter
where she is, to believe that there are women all over the world
who care about her health, who want her children to be educated,
who want her to have the dignity and respect that she deserves to
have.
2
When I think of the faces that I have seen in my own
country, when I think of the women who did not have health care
because they cannot afford it in the United States of America,
when I think particularly of a woman I met in New Orleans,
Louisiana, who told me that because she did not have enough money
she was told by physicians there in our country, that they would
not do anything about the lump in her breast, but would merely
wait and watch, because if she had insurance she would have been
sent to a surgeon. I think about the woman I met in a village
outside Lahore, Pakistan, who had ten children, five boys and
five girls, and was struggling as hard as she could to make sure
her girls were educated and wanted help to get that job done. I
think of the faces of the beautiful women I met at SEWA, the
Self-Employed Women's Association in India. All of them had
walked miles and miles, some of them for twelve and fifteen hours
to get to our meeting together, and I listened as they stood up
and told me what it had meant that for the first time in their
lives, they were having a little money of their own. They could
buy their own vegetable carts. They could buy their own thread
and materials so that they could make income for themselves and
their families.
I think of the women in the village in Bangladesh, a village
of untouchables, I think of how those women who were Hindus
invited to their village for my visit women from the neighboring
village who were Moslems. I think of how those women sat
together under a lean-to. Hindus and Moslems together in one of
the poorest countries of the world, but so many of those women
telling me what their lives had been changed to become because
they had become borrowers that were now part of the Grameen Bank
micro-enterprise effort. I think particularly of the play that
their children put on for me to see, a play in which the children
acted out the refusal by a family to let a girl child go to
school. And then further down the road from that village, I
stood and watched families coming to receive food supplements in
return for keeping their girl children in school.
Those are the kinds of women and experiences that happen
throughout the world, whether one talks about my country or any
country. Women are looking for the support and encouragement
they need to do what they can for their own lives and the lives
of their children and the lives of their families. The only way
this Conference will make a difference to these women is if the
results of the Conference are taken and distilled down into one
page perhaps, which states basic principles that you and I would
perhaps debate and understand but may not be easily communicated.
If that is done, then to carry that message into every corner of
the world so there can be sharing of experiences. When I came
home from Bangladesh, I visited in Denver, Colorado, a program
that is modeled on the Grameen Bank, helping American women who
are welfare recipients get the dignity and the skills that they
need to take care of themselves and their children.
3
So despite all of the difficulties and frustrations you have
faced in coming here and being here, you are here not only on
behalf of yourselves, but on behalf of millions and millions of
women whose lives can be changed for the better. If you resolve
along with all of us, to leave this place and do what we can
together to make the changes that will give respect and dignity
to every woman.
I know that today at the women's conference there is a
special celebration of girls. The theme is: "Investing in
Today's Girls, Tomorrow's Women, and the Future." We know that
much of what we do, we are doing not for ourselves, but we are
doing for our daughters, our nieces, our granddaughters. We are
doing it because we have the hope that the changes we work for
will take root and flower in their lives. When I was privileged
to be in New Delhi, India, I met a young woman who I think spoke
for many, many women, and someone asked me yesterday at the
Conference if I had a copy of the poem which this young woman
wrote. And I said that I did and she asked if I could read it
today, and I said that I would. Because this was a poem about
breaking the silence, the silence that afflicts too many women's
lives, the silence that keeps women from expressing themselves
freely, from being full participants even in the lives of their
own families. This poem written by a young woman, I think, is
particularly appropriate since we are celebrating today the
future of girls. Let me read it to you:
"Too many women in too many countries speak the same
language of silence. My grandmother was always silent,
always agreed. Only her husband had the positive right, or
so it was said, to speak and to be heard. They say it is
different now.
After all, I am always vocal, and my
grandmother thinks I talk too much. But sometimes I wonder.
When a woman gives her love as must do generously, it is
accepted. When a woman shares her thoughts as some women do
graciously, it is allowed. When a Woman fights for power
as all women would like to, quietly or loudly, it is
questioned. And yet, there must be freedom if we are to
speak. And yes, there must be power if we are to be heard.
And when we have both freedom and power, let us not be
misunderstood. We seek only to give words to those who
cannot speak
---
too
many
women in too many countries.
I seek only to forget my grandmother's silence."
That is the kind of feeling that literally millions and
millions of women feel every day. And much of what we are doing
here at this Forum and at this Conference is to give words to
break the silence and then to act. When I was at Copenhagen for
the Summit on Social Development, I was pleased to announce that
the United States would make an effort to enhance educational
opportunities for girls so that they could attend school in
Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Today that effort, funded with
4
United States' dollars, is being organized in countries
throughout those continents by NGOs.
There are so many ways we can work together. There are so
many things that must be done. And let me just end with a
postcard that I received from a woman who, with many, many
others, wrote me her feelings and thoughts about this Conference.
I don't know this woman, but she wrote to tell me that she wanted
me to carry this card to Beijing. And she went on to say, "Be
assured of many prayers for the success of the Conference, to
better conditions for women and children throughout the world."
She put on this card a prayer and the prayer was written in many
languages. It's a prayer that applies and can be said by many,
if not all of the world's religions. And I want to end with that
because I think that in many respects what we are attempting to
do requires the kind of faith and commitment that this prayer
represents:
"Oh God, creator of the heavens and the earth, we pray for
all who gather in Beijing [and I would add Huairou as well]
bless them, help them and us to see one another through eyes
enlightened by understanding and compassion. Release us
from prejudice so we can receive the stories of our sisters
with respect and attention. Open our ears to the cries of a
suffering world and the healing melodies of peace. Empower
us to be instruments in bringing about your justice and
equality everywhere."
That is my prayer as well, and with my thanks to all of you
I believe we can take the results of this Forum and this
Conference and begin to translate them into actions that will
count, in the lives of girls and women who will have never heard
of what we have done here, by whose lives can be changed because
of what you have done coming here.
Thank you all very much.
###
5
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 6, 1995
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS TO THE UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT FUND FOR WOMEN
"WOMEN'S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT" PANEL
BEIJING, CHINA
MRS. CLINTON: Thank you, Noleen. Thank you very much and I
want to commend all of you who are here because I think that this
is one of the most important panels to hear from the three people
that you will be hearing from in a few minutes, that will take
place at this conference. I want to thank Noleen and also the
United Nations Development Fund for Women, which we all know as
UNIFEM. It is a word that in any language translates into hope
for women who dream of a better life for themselves, their
families, and their nations.
Around the world, UNIFEM has invested in the lives and
aspirations of women and has helped to empower women in ways that
have not been tried before such as what we will be discussing
here this evening. I am pleased to announce that the United
States is releasing its pledge of one million dollars to UNIFEM
for 1995 so that it can continue this work.
We are here today to talk about micro credit, where it's
needed, what it is, what it can do, how it has transformed lives.
It's called micro, but its impact on people is gigantic. It takes
just a few dollars, often as little as $10, to help a woman to
self-employment, lift her and her family out of poverty. It is
not a handout; it's a helping hand.
From the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh or to the Self-Employed
Women's Association in India, or to the work in Ghana that you
will hear about, to banks and programs modeled on these from
Indonesia to the Dominican Republic, to my own country, we have
seen that micro-lending works. Women who have received loans from
the Grameen bank, for example, have a repayment rate of 97
percent, and often within one year. And they invest their money
well. Some buy milk COWS to expand their family's agricultural
livestock, some buy materials to make handicrafts which they
then sell. Others make bricks, or repair bicycles. But the fact
is: give a woman a seed, and she will plant it, she will water
it, nurture it, then reap it, share its fruits, and finally, she
will replant it. In this way, step by step, the world's poorest
women are leading their families, their communities and their
countries to a better future. When we help these women to sow,
1
we all reap.
I met many such woman during my visit to South Asia earlier
this year. I met women in India, I met women in Bangladesh.
Whether it is a milk COW in Bangladesh, or a computer in Chicago,
women need help and encouragement and credit to make that first
investment.
I will never forget a woman I met in my own country at a
program called Mi Casa in Denver that is modeled after these
programs you will hear about this evening. It is a program
designed not only to provide credit, but to do something even
more fundamental: to help build self-respect and self-
sufficiency. The women who came to this program were on welfare,
but they saw a better future for themselves and their children.
And they just needed a little help -- a jump-start -- to realize
their own potential. But often that jump-start is hard to come
by.
As this one woman told me: "Many great ideas die in the
parking lots of banks" -- because women get only so far, they
don't even get in the door, in many cases, before they are turned
away." That kind of discouragement has killed the dreams of
millions and millions of women.
In the United States we are attempting to build up a micro-
enterprise network. It is still very young. But already several
hundred programs have enabled tens of thousands of Americans to
seek and find economic opportunity for themselves.
This conference has identified economic opportunity as a
critical area of concern, and we have to look for positive,
practical ways to implement that concern. Access to credit,
particularly through micro-enterprise, is a key priority. Our
country has accepted the challenge of making the world conference
on women a conference of commitments and I want to announce, this
evening, some of the actions our government will take to further
self-employment and micro enterprise development in our country.
Our Small Business Administration is already making more
loans than ever to women. Through the Community Development
Financial Institutions Fund, we will establish a new Presidential
awards program to honor outstanding microlending organizations.
These awards will provide challenging benchmarks for
microenterprise programs throughout the nation and acquaint the
public with the prevalence of such programs within our own
economy. We believe they will also highlight the important work
of programs that provide microenterprises with key support
structures such as access to credit, markets, technical advice,
and training.
The President also is establishing a mechanism to better
2
coordinate microenterprise programs across a number of our
federal agencies to ensure that those programs are doing the job
they were set out to do. Additionally, the United States will
continue to support microenterprise in developing countries
through USAID.
We know that it will take a lot of education to spread the
good word about micro-credit. Despite a record that is
inspiring, we still meet with skepticism and outright disbelief.
There are very few financial institutions anywhere in the world
that can report a 97 percent lending rate that is returned within
a year. And yet, time and again, at conferences where micro-
enterprise is discussed, bankers and others don't understand how
they could actually do it in our economies around the world. So
we are going in every way possible in our country to spread the
word and to provide such technical assistance as will make more
micro-enterprise programs available.
We are also concerned that capital formation and growth in
some economic sectors often is now accompanying higher
unemployment, longer hours with less pay, and severe restrictions
on access to credit. We can not allow small enterprises to be
marginalized as a result of greater consolidation within the
global economy.
I became a believer in microcredit years ago, when my
husband was the governor of the state of Arkansas. It's a poor
state, and we were looking for ways to help people who didn't
have access to credit. We found our model at the Grameen bank
from Bangladesh and the South Shore Bank from Chicago, Illinois.
That bank helped steer private investments to neighborhoods that
need them, and we worked out a partnership with both Grameen,
thanks to Dr. Eunice, and the South Shore Bank, that created a
development bank, that created a borrowing fund, and began to
make the kinds of investments in that state that we would like to
see made throughout our country.
It's been a priveledge for me to meet leaders such as those
who are on this panel because they have devoted not their lives
to finding ways of ending poverty, they have been successful in
changing the lives of so many people. And they have particularly
focused on changing the lives of women. As Dr. Yin has told me,
one time when he started the Grameen Bank lending idea, he had
the revolutionary concept in mind of providing loans in a fifty
percent, fifty percent ratio, for men and women. He quickly
found out that women were better credit risks, that women would
invest the money more in the family, that women would repay the
loans. And so gradually over time, more and more women became
the focus of the Grameen Bank's lending. That was, ont only
revolutionary, but it set a fire that has gone through the
developing world as a way of telling people that women are able
to become self-sufficient if they are given the tools that enable
3
them to do so on behalf of themselves and their families.
Because of the success of such programs, the World Bank, and
USAID, along with eight other major donors, have joined together
to form the consultative group to aid the poor in order to
finance small loans to the world's poor, the vast majority of
whom are female. This is the kind of joint effort that we need
to support.
I know that when we talk about such issues such as lending
money to women, whether it is in a conference such as this, or
attempting to make the case to financial institutions around the
world, there are often eyes that glaze over. Issues connected to
women, such as poverty, education, health and children or micro-
credit now, are too often called "soft" by people who have us
think that these issues are unimportant. Nothing could be
further from the truth.
If there is any message that this conference could bring
about economic opportunity, it is that we must engage in micro-
credit in order to build micro-enterprises. We must open the
doors of banks and other existing financial institutions to women
who can become self-sufficient and responsible borrowers and we
have to do so while there are people like those on this panel who
are able to demonstrate clearly that this approach works. We
really don't have a lot of time. The globalization of the
economy has meant that many, many people are being marganlized,
are being downsized, are being deprived of economic
opportunities. We have to now, more than ever, make micro-
enterprize a key element of providing economic opportunity for
women and men everywhere in the world.
And I'd like now to introduce you to someone who has done
that, whom I have had the priveledge of visiting and seeing in
action through the Self-Employed Women's Association in India.
And so please join me in welcoming Ela Bhatt.
4
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001
CREATORS SYNDICATE
FAX TRANSMITTAL
TO: Lisa Caputo
FROM: Katherine Searcy
DATE: 9/20/95
TIME:
RE: Hillary Rodham Clinton column
NUMBER OF PAGES (including cover sheet): 3
MESSAGE:
release for September 23-24
5777 W. CENTURY BLVD., SUITE 700 LOS ANGELES, CA 90045 Tel. (310) 337-7003 FAX (310) 337-7625
09/20/95 WED 10:48 FAX
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LISA CAPUTO
002
File Columns
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, SEPTEMBER 23-24, 1995
It's amazing what you miss when you are on vacation or traveling out of the
country. Until recently, I hadn't even heard about the controversy over the new Calvin
Klein ads.
Now that I'm back in Washington, I'm finally tuned in. Friends have sent me
clippings and news stories. I've seen the ads myself, which show young people in
sexually suggestive poses, their underwear in view beneath their shorts and skirts.
From what I can tell, most of the controversy centers on definitions of
pornography, First Amendment rights, and the boundaries of artistic expression.
All of those things are important. But I think we're missing a larger point.
Not every question of morality and taste is a question of the Constitution or the
law.
The Calvin Klein ads are disturbing because they feed on the innocence and
vulnerability of children. And the cynical message delivered to young people is that
their value as human beings depends on looking sexy and acting cool.
It's hard enough for kids these days to grow up feeling confident and secure
about who they are. What we should be doing as a society is helping young people
focus on schooiwork and other positive activities that build self-discipline and
character -- not adding to the confusion and anxiety that are part of growing up.
If you care about your family's values, as 1 do, you have to be concerned about
values in the marketplace. You have to be concerned about the messages conveyed
through the things we buy and sell.
Let's face it: Business decisions affect how people think and behave. In his
recent book, "Selling Out America's Children," David Walsh points out that careful
calculation and billions of dollars go into advertising campaigns in order to shape
opinions and change tastes.
Advertising, he says, is really "adver-teasing."
And "adver-teasing" is usually driven by a yearning for profits more than any
concern for decency, civility, taste or morality.
That is why raising our voices about how a company sells blue jeans can be
just as Important as the values we teach in our own homes.
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003
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 9/23-24/95
Page 2
The Calvin Klein ads are merely the latest proof that some businesses are
willing to push the envelope of gratuitous sex and exploitation of children as far as
possible if it's good for the bottom line.
But they are not the only ads we need to worry about. The pervasive influence
of exploitative advertising touches every aspect of our lives.
We all know what it is like to drive along the highway and see a pile-up of cars.
You slow down. You can't resist looking, even though you know that your own
rubbernecking could cause another accident.
Today, it's as if our society is a highway full of car wrecks. Only worse. Nobody
purposely causes an accident to attract the public's attention. But in the case of
commercial marketing, we are purposely teased and titillated with sex and violence,
simply because they sell.
What modern culture desperately needs are internal values that call on us to
exercise our responsibilities, as well as our rights, as citizens. Instead of trying to justify
inappropriate behavior, people in positions of power must start to behave responsibly
and show restraint.
Sadly, we seem to be a long way from that. This fall, new movies and television
shows that go further than ever before in showing graphic images of sex and violence
will appear in theaters and on prime time. No doubt, they will make lots of money from
the controversies they generate.
We can only hope there is a silver lining here. Maybe - just maybe - we, the
public, finally have had enough of seeing children and women depicted as victims and
sexual objects.
Calvin Klein was forced to pull his ads last month because of public outrage.
And hopefully, in the weeks ahead, those of us who go to movies and watch television
will stay away from the theaters and turn off our sets because we are so offended by
the gratuitous violence, sexual degradation and bad taste we are subjected to on the
screen.
But let's not wait for the marketers of sleaze to wrestle with questions of taste
and morality. As parents and consumers, let's make it clear where we stand.
If you don't like the message, don't buy the product. Don't let your kids buy it.
And remember that even if your own child doesn't fall for the marketing ploys, millions
of other children are being exploited and devalued because adults can't control their
own greed.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
File
Column
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 27, 1995
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. Enjoy!
09/27/95 WED 09:55 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
LISSA MUSCATINE
1
002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, SEPTEMBER 30-OCTOBER 1, 1995
Before my daughter was born, I did everything I could think of to prepare for the
arrival of my new baby.
I asked my doctor hundreds of questions. I read every book I could get my hands on.
And my husband and I went together to childbirth classes.
Even so, I was in for some surprises.
I remember lying in bed a few days after Chelsea's birth, when I was still getting
accustomed to breast-feeding. Suddenly, I noticed foam in her nose. Afraid that she was
convulsing, I pushed every call button within reach.
When the nurse arrived, she assured me that I was simply holding the baby at an
awkward angle, making it difficult for her to swallow the milk she took In.
That wasn't the only time nurses came to my rescue during my stay at the hospital.
They taught me to bathe and feed my daughter, and also gave me a chance to recover from
the emotional and physical toll of a Caesarean section.
Nowadays, experiences like mine are far more common in countries like Australia,
Germany, Japan, Ireland and France than here in the United States.
As insurance companies look for ways to cut costs, new mothers routinely are rushed
out of the hospital 24 hours after an uncomplicated birth and three days after a Caesarean.
I have one friend who was pregnant with twins and began hemorrhaging during
labor. She had to undergo an emergency Caesarean under full anesthesia. After the
delivery, she was severely anemic and was placed in intensive care.
Even so, based on a "checklist" of medical factors, her insurance company said it
would not pay for more than three days in the hospital. In the end, the company did cover a
longer stay, but only because her doctor spent hours on the phone arguing that it was
medically unsafe to send her home.
Unfortunately, some doctors won't take on such battles because they fear being
dropped by the managed care companies with which they do business.
Another friend's wife was covered for seven days in the hospital after a complicated
childbirth. But the insurance company wouldn't cover the child after three days, making it
Impossible for the mother to nurse the baby and much more difficult for mother and child to
bond.
When my friend was told the child was considered independent of its mother, he
asked, "Do you expect the baby to walk down to the parking lot and drive himself home?"
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 9/30-10/1/95
Page 2
Insurance companies insist that limiting a baby's time in the hospital is not only a
money-saver, but it also reduces exposure to hospital germs.
Most experts agree there is little medical risk to the majority of new mothers and
babies discharged in the first 24 hours. But what happens if the baby develops an infection
or other complication like jaundice that only becomes apparent on the second or third day
after birth? What if the new mother has difficulty learning to breast-feed properly, which
could result in dehydration or other serious problems for her baby?
Insurance companies say most new mothers are entitled to home visits by a nurse
who can help spot problems after they leave the hospital.
But the reality is that many insurance companies only cover one home visit per
patient; others simply provide for a phone consultation with a nurse in the days after
childbirth. And cases have been reported in which the nurse or home visitor simply didn't
have time to show up or didn't even know the baby had been born.
A retired transit worker in New Jersey, Dominick A. Ruggiero Jr., told this story to the
New Jersey legislature earlier this year:
His niece had an uneventful pregnancy and childbirth and was discharged after 28
hours. At home, however, her baby, Michelina, suddenly took a turn for the worse. A nurse
was supposed to visit the home on the second day but never came. When the family called,
they were told the visiting nurse wasn't aware the baby had been born.
Several times, the family called the pediatrician, who said the baby had a mild case
of jaundice and did not need to be examined.
The baby died from a treatable infection when she was 2 days old.
Thanks in part to Ruggiero's testimony, New Jersey now has a law that will make
sure that insurance covers mothers for a minimum of 48 hours in the hospital after
uncomplicated deliveries and 96 hours following Caesarean deliveries. Maryland passed
similar legislation last spring, and Congress is now considering a bill.
Although a handful of critics has suggested that this is another example of
government Intrusion into the health care system, I think that protecting the health of new
mothers and infants is a clear case of where government safeguards are needed.
No government employee should ever decide whether an infant has jaundice or a
new mother is anemic. But at the same time, no insurance company accountant should
make the final judgment about what is medically best for newborns and their mothers.
That decision should be left to doctors, nurses and mothers themselves.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
File
Column
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
COLUMN # 11 -- SEPTEMBER 31, 1995
TALKING IT OVER/CREATORS SYNDICATE
Before my daughter was born, I did everything I could think
of to prepare for the arrival of a new baby.
I asked my doctor hundreds of questions. I read every book I
could get my hands on. And my husband and I went together to
childbirth classes.
Even so, I was in for some surprises.
I remember lying in bed a few days after Chelsea's birth,
when I was still learning to breastfeed. Suddenly I noticed foam
in her nose. Afraid that she was convulsing, I pushed every call
button within reach.
When the nurse arrived, she assured me that I was simply
holding the baby at an awkward angle, making it difficult for her
to swallow the milk she took in.
That wasn't the only time nurses came to my rescue during
the four days I was in the hospital. They taught me to bathe and
feed my daughter, and also gave me a chance to recover from the
1
emotional and physical toll of a Caesarean section.
Nowadays, experiences like mine are far more common in
countries like Australia, Germany, Japan, Ireland, and France
than here in the United States.
As insurance companies look for new ways to cut costs, new
mothers routinely are rushed out of the hospital 24 hours after
an uncomplicated birth and three days after a caesarean.
I have one friend who was pregnant with twins and began
hemorrhaging during labor. She had to undergo an emergency
caesarean under full anesthesia. After the delivery, she was
severely anemic and was placed in intensive care.
Even so, her insurance company decided (based on a
"checklist" of medical factors) that she should leave the
hospital after three days. In the end, she was allowed to stay
longer, but only because her doctor spent hours on the phone
arguing with insurers that it was medically unsafe to send her
home.
Unfortunately, many doctors won't take on such battles
because they fear being dropped by the managed care companies
with whom they do business.
2
The irony is that, while pressuring doctors to limit
hospital stays to save money, some of these companies are
spending millions of dollars on bonuses for their top executives.
And in some instances, their administrative costs run higher than
those of publicly financed programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
Insurance companies insist that limiting a baby's time in
the hospital is not only a money-saver, but it also limits
exposure to hospital germs. And there is little health risk to
most new mothers and babies who are discharged in the first 24
hours, they say, because they are usually provided with follow-up
visits by a nurse in the home.
But what happens if the baby develops an infection or other
complication like jaundice that only becomes apparent on the
second or third day after birth? What if the new mother has
difficulty learning to breastfeed properly, which could result in
dehydration and other serious problems for her baby?
The reality is that many insurance companies only allow one
home visit per patient; others simply provide for a phone
consultation with a nurse in the days after childbirth. And cases
have been reported in which the nurse or home visitor simply
didn't have time to show up or didn't even know the baby was
born.
3
A retired transit worker in New Jersey, Dominick A.
Ruggiero, Jr, told this story to the New Jersey legislature
earlier this year:
His niece had an uneventful pregnancy and childbirth and was
discharged after 28 hours. At home, however, her baby, Michelina,
suddenly took a turn for the worse. A nurse was supposed to visit
the home on the second day but never came. When the family
called, they were told the visiting nurse wasn't aware the baby
had been born.
The family also called the pediatrician several times, who
said the baby's condition was normal.
The baby died from a treatable infection at two days old.
Thanks in part to Mr. Ruggiero's testimony, New Jersey now
has a law that allows women to stay in the hospital a minimum of
48 hours after uncomplicated deliveries and 96 hours following
caesarean deliveries. Maryland passed similar legislation last
spring, and Congress and others states are expected to follow
soon.
Although a handful of critics have suggested that this is
another example of government intrusion into the health care
system, I think that protecting the health of new mothers and
4
infants is a clear case of where government regulation is needed.
No government employee should ever decide whether an infant
has jaundice or a new mother is anemic. But at the same time, no
insurance company accountant should make the final judgements
about what is medically best for newborns and their mothers.
That decision should be left to doctors, nurses, and the
women themselves.
###
5
Column
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
October 4, 1995
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. Enjoy!
10/04/95 WED 08:32 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
+++ LISA CAPUTO
4
002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, OCTOBER 7-8, 1995
On Oct. 11, my husband and I will celebrate our 20th wedding
anniversary. I know it sounds comy, but we love each other more now than
when we married. Like any couple that has been together a long time, we have
worked hard and endured our share of pain to make our marriage grow
stronger and deeper. We have encouraged and motivated each other, and
we've had a lot of fun, too. And of course, most important, we've had Chelsea.
It nearly didn't happen at all. Making the decision to get married took time
for me. Bill and I had begun dating in law school, but even after things got
serious, I just could not bring myself to take the leap that marriage requires.
He actually proposed more than once. I never doubted my love for him,
but I knew he was going to build his life in Arkansas. I couldn't envision what my
life would be like in a place where 1 had no family or friends.
After we finished law school, we carried on a long-distance romance
between Massachusetts and Arkansas that made money for the telephone
companies but wasn't very satisfying for US.
Then, a year later, I took a deep breath and moved to Arkansas to teach
law. It wasn't long before I found myself enjoying my work, new friends and a
beautiful place to live.
One day in the summer of 1975, I had to go out of town for a few weeks,
and Bill drove me to the airport. On the way, we passed a tiny brick house with a
"for sale" sign out front, and I remarked in passing how pretty it was.
When I returned from the trip, he said, "Do you remember that house you
liked? Well, I bought it, so now you'd better marry me because I can't live in it by
myself."
That's when I finally said yes.
The house was only 1,000 square feet and had no air conditioning, but it
did have a big attic fan, a screened-in porch, a living room with a bearned
cathedral ceiling, a fireplace and a big bay window.
Bill had started furnishing it with some old furniture and a cast-iron bed
he found in an antique store. He had gone to Wal-Mart and bought sheets with
green and yellow flowers. To this day, he still jokes that he doesn't know what
he would have done with that house if I had said no. We got married in the living
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LISA CAPUTO
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HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 10/7-8/95
Page 2
room of that pretty little house on a glorious fall afternoon and started on the
adventure our life together has been.
What I've learned over the years is that there is real glory in marriage. It is
a feeling that comes from knowing that no matter what trials and tribulations you
have been through, you look at your spouse after all this time and still love what
you see.
My husband and I rejected long ago the idea that marriage was a 50-50
proposition: We see it instead as 100-100, where both partners have to give
their all and persevere through the crises and challenges that inevitably arise in
any couple's lives.
I'm sometimes asked, "What's it like being married to the President?" I
reply that I didn't marry an office but a man and it's great being married to him.
Of course, being married to a public figure especially a President has
its own challenges. For one thing, people assume they know everything about
your relationship, when in reality, every marriage, including ours, is made up of
moments that no one else can ever see.
There are practical concerns, too. How do you ever get any privacy as a
couple? How can romance thrive when you live above the office with a 'round-
the-clock staff?
Well, you improvise.
One night last summer, for example, when it was extremely hot and
humid, we thought it would be nice to go for a dip in the White House swimming
pool.
It was very late. Chelsea was away at camp. So we grabbed our towels,
left the mansion, tiptoed through the Oval Office, and snuck through some
bushes in pitch black. Without anybody around, we went for a midnight swim.
It will be a little too cold this week to celebrate our 20th anniversary with a
dip in the pool. But 1 think I've come up with an equally romantic way to mark the
day.
You might be able to guess what it is.
But sorry, I'm not telling.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
File
Columns
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 8, 1995
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. Enjoy!
11/08/95 WED 10:50 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
LISA CAPUTO
002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, NOVEMBER 11-12, 1995
I am writing this aboard Air Force One, traveling home with my husband after
attending funeral services for Yitzhak Rabin, the assassinated prime minister of Israel.
This is not the column I had intended for today; that will have to wait until next week.
1 want to share some of the feelings and questions this awful experience raised for
me. I was in the White House when my husband and I learned that Rabin had been shot
at a nationwide rally for peace. Together, we prayed that the assassin had failed. Soon,
we learned he had succeeded.
The grief and outrage the President and I felt was deeply personal. Prime Minister
Rabin and my husband had developed a warm friendship built around their shared
commitment to a Middle East peace. I am very fond of Leah Rabin and always treasured
the time I spent with her and the Prime Minister, even when he kidded me for not letting
him smoke in the White House.
At the funeral service, one could not escape the enormity of loss suffered by the
Rabin family. This was captured best by his 18-year-old granddaughter's brave and
eloquent tribute to her grandfather. She halled him as her hero and the pillar of fire in her
family's camp.
The loss for Israel was evident in the moving words of the Prime Minister's aides.
One held the blood-stained copy of the peace song that Rabin had sung at the rally and
was carrying in his pocket when he was shot. The loss for the cause of peace in the
Middle East was manifest in the dignified tribute by Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak and
the moving eulogy by King Hussein, who had come to consider Rabin as his brother in
the struggle for a new future in the Holy Land.
But the assassination was more than a personal loss and more than a loss for the
peace process. It was an attack on democracy. In the midst of Israel's grief, there are still
those who share the gunman's extremism and applaud the murder.
What have we come to in America, Israel or any democracy if those who disagree
with an elected leader's political position choose bullets over ballots as the way to bring
about change? When the electronic media carry hate-filled messages of extremism, they
give these zealots far more prominence than their numbers justify. How, then, can
legitimate political differences be expressed without encouraging those who might be
moved to violence in Tel Aviv or in Oklahoma City?
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HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 11/11-12/95
Page 2
Under Rabin's leadership, Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan and
agreements with the Palestinians. When he was criticized for dealing with these former
enemies, he said forthrightly that you don't make peace with your friends.
Every step in the peace process was ratified by a majority of parliament, although
sometimes by only one or two votes. In a democracy, that is enough. In our own country,
the President's deficit-reduction plan in 1993 passed by only one vote in the U.S.
Senate, and a ban on assault weapons in the anti-crime bill became law last year with
only two votes to spare. The recent separatist vote in Quebec lost by less than 1 percent.
Everywhere I travel in the world, I hear the same concern in democracies - hard
decisions are dividing people right down the middle. In difficult times like these,
extremists often find a larger audience than they should because they simplify the
solutions to the problems we face. If, as they claim, God or Holy Scriptures from the Bible
or the Koran tell them to do something. who can argue?
Democracy flourishes when individuals are free to express differing and
controversial positions. Democracy flounders when any one person or group proclaims
there Is only one right answer to complex issues. Democracy fails when extremists
believe violence aimed at elected officials is a legitimate means for resolving
disagreements.
Each of us who values democracy knows it is a messy and imperfect process. As
Winston Churchill once said, "Democracy is the worst form of government except all other
forms that have been tried from time to time." We should treat our elected leaders with
respect -- even when we disagree with them. Here in America, churches pray every
Sunday for those who lead us. More of us should reflect that spirit during the other six
days of the week.
And we all should speak out against hateful speech and actions directed at our
leaders. In Israel, the extremists who opposed Rabin distributed posters of him dressed in
a Nazi uniform and called him a traitor. Those fanatics should have been condemned by
all reasonable people whether or not they liked Rabin or agreed with his policies. Hate
begets more hate and can create a climate of violence in which extremists may get
pushed over the edge to bomb buildings or assassinate prime ministers.
How do we express our strongest views without resorting to violence in word or
deed? That is a question for all of us to answer.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Fill
THE WHITE HOUSE
column
WASHINGTON
November 22, 1995
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. Enjoy!
11/21/95 TUE 17:27 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
+++ LISA CAPUTO
002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, NOVEMBER 25-26, 1995
This Thanksgiving, my family and I had a lot to give thanks for as we sat around
our dinner table. The past year has given us personal blessings, like Zachary, my
brother's newborn son, and our continued good health. We also are grateful for the
opportunities we've had to work and travel on behalf of America. Seeing other people in
other places always adds a new perspective to our vision of our own country and our
own lives.
In particular, Chelsea and I were moved by the trip we took together through South
Asia last spring. As the mother of a teen-ager, I felt very lucky indeed that my 15-year-old
was willing to spend 10 days with me. We had an unforgettable time everywhere we
went.
We wore "shalwar kameez," the native dress of Pakistan, to an exotic dinner in an
ancient fort illuminated by candles, where we were entertained by dancing camels. When
we visited the Taj Mahal in India, Chelsea wanted our guide to tell us every story about
its construction and tragic past. We rode elephants in Nepal, visited a village of Hindu
untouchables in Bangladesh and watched a colorful parade at a Buddhist temple in Sri
Lanka.
We were impressed by the progress each of the five countries we visited is making
against overwhelming poverty and internal political strife. We saw evidence of this at
Mother Teresa's orphanage in New Delhi and when we talked with women college
students who were pursuing business careers in Lahore.
We saw it at a rural bank founded and run by poor women in Ahmedabad and
when we made our own pilgrimage to the birthplace of Gandhi, the father of Indian
independence.
Throughout our visit, we saw grass-roots efforts to bring basic health care to
pregnant women and their babies and expand economic and political opportunities for
women and the poor.
During our travels, I thought about what it means to be an American and about the
many blessings we take for granted. In each country, "we met democratically elected
leaders who had suffered imprisonment, torture or exile under prior governments and
survived the assassinations of husbands, fathers, sons, mothers and daughters.
Many people told us how much they admired our country. Some quoted leaders
like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincolniand Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Others
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HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 11/25-26/95
Page 2
expressed appreciation for their education in our universities, their association with our
businesses and the assistance they received from our churches and private foundations.
The comment I remember most, however, came from a young Peace Corps
volunteer I met in Katmandu.
She had walked 10 hours to catch a bus from the remote village where she lived
in a house without running water or electricity. She described her work at a school where
nearly all the students were boys, since most girls were still denied schooling and were
often married by the age of 12 or 13.
She loved her experience In Nepal but missed her family and all the parts of daily
life in America that she had taken for granted. She missed safe drinking water that came
from a faucet, baths anytime she wanted and electricity available around the clock. She
also missed being able to eat meats and vegetables without worrying they would make
her sick, paved roads and working cars, and especially free public schools that taught
both boys and girls.
I was glad Chelsea was with me so she could see for herself how other people live
and work around the world. In fact, I wish I could have taken every American teen-ager
on that trip. We have so many blessings here in the United States - mostly because
millions of other people paid the price for the life we enjoy today and because we have a
stable democratic government that provides public services which benefit us all.
I realize how easy it is for Americans to overlook what we have achieved through
government and what our government does for us every day. Few among us remember
the time when many Americans didn't have electricity, roads or enough food. We don't
worry about the dangers of unsafe water unless we hear about a temporary problem
somewhere that we assume government will soon remedy. We take for granted the
cleaner air we breathe and the lakes and rivers we can swim and fish in today that were
polluted a few years ago. We forget the positive ways our lives have been improved
during this century because we have a government willing to solve problems people face
in their daily lives.
Every time I complain -- or hear someone criticize our government - I think about
the places I've visited and the people I have met in other countries who only dream of the
freedoms and privileges we enjoy. And I try to remember how blessed America is, not just
at Thanksgiving but throughout the year.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Christmas Lasts Nearly Year-Round at White House
T
White
begins dreaming up menus for the dozens
the ingredients of a White House Christ-
second floor and, thanks to some cat-loving
House
of receptions, buffets and dinners held
mas. Some even come and play music for
volunteers, a special Socks tree on the
Christmas
here during the few weeks before Christ-
visitors during the holiday season.
third floor.)
tree arrived from
mas.
We also depend on an army of volun-
Under the direction of White House
Ashe County, N.C.,
And pastry chef Roland Messnier starts
teers who spend several weeks opening
florist Nancy Clark, 80 volunteer florists
last week. It's an
drawing blueprints for his annual ginger-
boxes of ornaments that are then sorted by
and decorators broke open boxes of green-
18 1/2-foot Fraser fir
bread masterpiece. This year, he is baking
color, photographed and cataloged in a
ery-about 1,200 feet worth-and molded
that was delivered
an 80-pound house made of gingerbread,
computer.
them into 5-foot-tall wreaths for each of
to the South Lawn
chocolate, marzipan and sugar. It will be
This year, as always, there are some
the White House's 147 windows. They
on a horse-drawn
wired with a working chandelier and
wonderful creations. Architects and archi-
spent four days in a warehouse outside
cart. Now, it's
adorned with scenes of children dreaming
tecture students from all 50 states de-
Washington getting the wreaths and gar-
standing in the
of sugarplums and Santa landing on the
signed 500 ornaments that ranged from
lands ready for hanging. Teams of volun-
HILLARY
Blue Room, deco-
roof. (Knowing Roland, it will probably
miniature models of the White House to a
teers then transferred the wreaths and
CLINTON
rated with drna-
have a few other surprises, too.)
Florida beach house complete with palm
ornaments to the White House and started
ments from all over
trees decorated for Christmas to a spiral
decorating.
One of the first things we do when we
staircase with children climbing upstairs to
The house is transformed into a Christ-
the country.
start planning is choose a theme for the
bed.
mas wonderland and opened to the public
The presentation of the tree marks the
year's celebrations. In 1993, we used an-
We received stocking ornaments from
for the first reception of the season-a
beginning of the holiday season at the
gels, and last year, the theme came from
members of the American Needlepoint
tribute to the artists and entertainers
White House, but planning for Christmas
one of my family's favorite carols, "The
Guild and the Embroiderer's Guild of
selected as the year's recipients of the
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3, 1995
actually gets under way months before.
Twelve Days of Christmas." This year, we
America, who didn't shy away from adding
Kennedy Center Honors. Two nights later,
In 1993, our first year in the White
are choosing another of our personal favor-
local touches, like a Texas flag motif and
the president and I host the annual Con-
House, head usher Gary Walters told me
ites: Bill, Chelsea and I have made a
cowboy boots warming by a fireplace.
gressional Ball for all the members and
we had to start planning in May. Being the
Christmas Eve tradition of reading the
Elementary school students from across
their spouses. There will be events every
type who's relieved if my own tree is up
poem by Clement C. Moore, "A Visit From
the country also sent in decorations, many
day, and in all, we are expecting about
and decorated by Christmas Eve, I was
St. Nicholas." We thought it would be fun
of which offered reminders of childhood
150,000 people over the next few weeks-
shocked to hear this. But, with his help
to borrow the poem's first line, "Twas the
Christmases spent making colorful paper
some for candlelight tours, others for par-
and the creative leadership of our social
night before Christmas and all through the
chains and other homemade ornaments.
ties, still more for special Christmas cele-
secretary, Ann Stock, we began meeting
house
as the official theme.
None of the holiday celebrations would
brations.
about mistletoe and holly just after Wash-
Once we settle on a theme, we rely on
be possible without the volunteers who
It is one of the prettiest and most festive
ington's cherry blossoms had started to
the creativity of thousands of Americans
come from as far away as California to help
times of the year to come to the White
fade.
from across the country, including quilters,
tie burgundy and gold hows, make wreaths,
House. I hope you will have a chance to
Ann and her staff help me figure out the
needlepointers, embroiderers, architects,
string lights and garlands and hang orna-
visit, if not this year, then some other
kinds of events we will have, draw up guest
crafts people and students, to help make it
ments for the 30 trees scattered through-
holiday season. But, whether you do or not,
lists, prepare and send invitations and plan
come to life. They make wreaths,' orna-
out the White House complex. (We have
I hope your own holiday is filled with
the entertainment. Chef Walter Scheib
ments, bows, stockings and tree skirts-all
our own tree in the private quarters on the
peace and happiness.
Colimn
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
December 20, 1995
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. Enjoy!
12/20/95 WED 12:23 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
+++ LISA CAPUIO
C.I.) 002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, DECEMBER 23-24, 1995
It's hard to believe Christmas is here again, with a new year right around the
corner. I love the holiday traditions I grew up with and am always swamped by nostalgia
every time 1 hear a familiar carol or unpack an ornament.
In my home, we waited until close to Christmas Eve to put up our tree and usually
didn't finish decorating until late that night. We made ornaments out of papier mache, tin
foil, pipe cleaners and anything else we could imagine. My mother would praise our
creations, and my father would ask which side was up.
Over the years, I played most of the parts in our church nativity pageant. And one
night, I even suffered the indignity of having my halo fall off as I fainted in an overheated
sanctuary.
When Bill and I married, we melded our traditions, and then after Chelsea was
born, we created new ones for her. We put up our tree a little earlier and make special
Christmas cookies together. It seems like every year we watch Chelsea perform in "The
Nutcracker" and church pageants. We still talk about the bitterly cold night the pipes froze
in our church. The fire department arrived right before one little angel's hair caught fire
from the candle she was holding, causing her father to vault over his seat to smother the
flames with his hands.
Bill and I are happy to be over midnight hunts on Christmas Eve for toy batteries
we'd forgotten. But we still wait too long to buy and wrap our presents, and as we get
older, we spend more time searching for the stocking stuffers we cleverly hid away in
July.
We've always been blessed at Christmas, but we know that's not the case for
many children whose families have fallen on hard times. Instead of feeling excited about
Santa coming, they are worried he will never find them.
These children can only hope that somebody - anybody - will remember them
during the holidays.
This year, there is a soaring demand for clothing, shelter, food and toys, according
to nearly every major charitable organization in the United States. Here in Washington,
one church even had to turn away hungry families over Thanksgiving after running out of
food.
Those seeking help are not just the poor and homeless. Increasingly, they are
working families beset by medical catastrophes, lay-offs and economic factors beyond
their control.
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HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 12/23-24/95
Page 2
"There are simply more needy people," says Robert A. Watson, the national
commander of the Salvation Army. "We're frantically trying to make the available
resources go as far as possible."
Americans are responding to needs here and around the world.
Mary Damron of Ikes Fork, W.Va., began collecting toys, medical supplies and
candy and putting them in shoe boxes after watching pictures of the war in Bosnia on
television one night. After two weeks, she and members of her community had filled
1,200 boxes, which were delivered to children in Bosnia last Christmas. This year, she
collected over 6,000 boxes. When Mary came to the White House to tell us about her
work, she gave me a shoe box to fill.
In St. Louis, Catholic Charities has started a Secret Santa program with kids in
shelters, day care and community centers writing letters to Santa Claus asking for
specific gifts for Christmas. "I live in a shelter, so I know my mom cannot give me what I
am asking you for," an 8-year-old boy wrote. "I want a remote control car. Thank you."
One little girl asked for a Barbie doll to share with her twin. A girl named Adrienne wrote,
"I love you, Santa Claus, and say a prayer for my family." A 10-year-old named Anthony
asked for a football, and a 12-year-old boy wrote, "Santa, I want you and Mrs. Claus to
have a merry, merry Christmas."
The letters are sent to members of the community who agree to buy a gift along
with something practical. like mittens, a hat or a scarf.
When we lived in Arkansas, we bought presents for families who had written
letters as part of a similar Secret Santa program. On Christmas Eve, we drove to their
houses and delivered the gifts of food, clothes and toys in person.
We saw the desperation of mothers who were recently widowed or whose
husbands had deserted them. We found couples struggling to provide for their children
on minimum-wage jobs. Once, we ended up in a tiny room over a honky-tonk bar where
a 55-year-old woman lived all alone. Someone who knew of her difficult situation had
written a letter on her behalf. She never dreamed that anyone would care enough to visit
her on Christmas Eve.
Celebrating Christmas can create wonderful traditions for our own children as well
as for boys and girls who might otherwise be left out. But if the season is to have any
lasting meaning after the wrapping paper is picked up and the tree is taken down, its
spirit should live in our hearts throughout the year.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
File Column
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
An extraordinary woman is coming to the White House next week: Mary
Robinson, the President of Ireland. She is also a mother, a human rights lawyer, a law
professor, a force for reconciliation between Protestants and Catholics, and a voice for
women all over the world.
I met President Robinson last year when Bill and I were in Dublin. I admire her
efforts to legalize contraception and to help women win the right to sit on juries when
she was a young legislator in the Irish Senate. In outlining her philosophy, she has
quoted the early feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, who said 200 years ago: "I do not
wish women to have power over men but over themselves."
President Robinson's message about women's empowerment echoes the
thoughts and words of many other women I have spoken with around the world during
the past three and a half years.
Whether they are scholars, poets, historians, journalists, political activists or
stay-at-home mothers, women have much to teach each other about the choices and
challenges we face as we try to lead integrated lives.
As the writer Deborah Tannen has pointed out in her books about
communication and gender, women need to talk, and often they need to talk to each
other. It is that need for conversation and direct communication that distinguishes most
women from most men.
As women, talking can be our greatest friend. That's why I'm so excited that
President Robinson will be in the United States, spreading her message of humanity
and opportunity for the people of Ireland and for women everywhere.
It's also why I feel so fortunate to have had face-to-face discussions about
women's lives with everyone from the Prime Minister of Norway, to the Empress of
Japan, to a destitute mother of 10 children in a dusty village in rural Pakistan.
When the best-selling author Mary Pipher visited me recently at the White
House, we talked about our lives and the pressures confronting teen-age girls today.
The poet Maya Angelou teaches me about literature and life, particularly from
the perspective of an African-American woman who grew up in Arkansas and is now a
citizen of the world.
06/05/96 WED 10:43. FAX
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TALKING IT OVER 6/4/96
Page 2
Rose Styron, the writer and human rights activist, always provokes my thinking
about the obligations we owe to men and women whose names are unknown, yet who
are suffering for the cause of freedom and democracy.
Historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Blanche Wiesen Cook both have shared
their thoughts about Eleanor Roosevelt, someone I wish I could have talked to in
person about the role of First Lady. In fact, I occasionally have imaginary
conversations with Mrs. Roosevelt to try to figure out what she would do in my shoes.
She usually responds by telling me to buck up or at least to grow skin as thick as a
rhinoceros.
Mary Catherine Bateson, an anthropologist and the daughter of Margaret Mead,
has written many books, including one called "Composing a Life." She and I have
spent hours discussing the ways in which women in different societies attempt to fulfill
their responsibilities to their families, jobs and communities.
Jean Houston, an expert on philosophy and mythology, has shared her views
with me on everything from the ancient Greeks to the lives of women and children in
Bangladesh.
I've even had the pleasure of sitting across the dinner table from Ann Landers,
asking advice on matters both trivial and not-so-trivial.
But of all the women I've had the chance to meet, I've probably learned the most
from those you've never heard of women who have never written a book, appeared
on television or been the subject of a newspaper article. From a poor barrio in
Managua, Nicaragua, to a grassy field in Indonesia, I've met women who find comfort
and unity in telling each other about their children, jobs, families, health, education
and all the issues that touch their lives.
I don't always agree with what I hear. What's important is to have the chance to
listen to women whose perspectives and ideas may differ from my own so that I can
broaden my understanding of women's lives and roles today.
Whoever is doing the talking, the stories we share contribute to our history as
women and our understanding of our own time.
I hope we will all make time to talk things over with each other.
COPYRIGHT 1996 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
June 4, 1996
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
February 21, 1993
REMARKS BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
AT FIRST LADIES OF SONG EVENT
New York City, New York
10:51 P.M. EST
MRS. CLINTON: Thank you so much, and thank everyone
from Frankie and James Roosevelt and the extended Roosevelt family
and -- Stone, and all of the first women of song and theater who were
here tonight, for making us all feel so good about our country and
about someone who, on a continuing basis, inspires us and prods us.
Thanks aslo to the first ladies of New York City and New York,
Matilda Cuomo and Joyce Dinkens who were here with us tonight, and
all of us who try in whatever way we can to do what these days should
be done.
As I was sitting here this evening I thought about all
of the conversations that I have had and might have with Mrs.
Roosevelt this year. (Laughter.) It's one of the saving graces that
I have hung on to for dear life. (Laughter.) The early
conversations were I'm sure not very satisfactory to her because,
early on as the campaign would go and things would happen, I would
shake my head and I would say, "Why me?" (Laughter.) And I wouldn't
get any answer at all.
A little while later, after some more time had passed
and I had read even more and more -- actually devoured more and more
about Mrs. Roosevelt, I realized that that was not a question that
she would ever give an answer to. One did what one was expected and
did it in in the best way possible.
So my conversations turned to really requests for
information -- how did you put up with this? (Laughter.) How could
you go on from day to day with all that would happen and the kind of
attacks and criticism that would be hurled your way? Again, I have
to confess, it was not a very satisfactory conversation, because as
you can see by looking at this wonderful, wonderful monument that
will be erected, she listened calmly and looked at me very serenely,
in my mind, but didn't say very much.
And then one day I had a wonderful revelation. And that
was when I learned that even before President Roosevelt was
inaugurated, newspapers were editorializing against Mrs. Roosevelt.
They were saying she should keep her opinions to herself, that her
husband had been elected President and no one in America wanted to
hear a thing that she had to say. Actually, one of the most
incredible editorials to that effect happened right here in this
city, if I recall.
And SO it struck me that what was really happening to me
wasn't anything very new at all. That it was an ongoing story of
what happens often as we relive history because we failed to learn
from it, and that what we all must do in the best way we can -- take
those lessons to heart.
So I began having much better and more satisfactory
conversations with Mrs. Roosevelt. (Laughter.) Because I began to
talk with her about what she was really interested in and how she
could help me. And now the conversations that I've had for the past
MORE
month have been especially gratifying to me. Because she has said on
several occasions as I have shaken my head over some problem or
another, or as I watch my husband work very hard on the economic plan
or some other important issue -- she's probably shaking her head, I
said in my mind, "I thought that would have been solved by now."
(Laughter.) "Since it's not, then you are just going to have to get
out there and do it and don't make any excuses about it."
So from my perspective, what Mrs. Roosevelt has done is
what she is still doing -- she says far better than I what I feel. I
was struck tonight that perhaps what I should do is just take all
these wonderful quotes we heard, write them down on notecards, and
when I'm ever asked a question, shuffle through them and just hand
them over. (Applause.)
But mostly I'm grateful because you will have this
monument. I will, I hope, someday have a small replica of it and
will -- because I hope that's one of the things which come from this.
-- that I can put on my desk or in the window of my study; and when I
feel a little discouraged or a little down, think about this woman
who, although born to privilege, did not have much of what I have
taken for granted -- a warm and loving and supportive family, an
education that went on beyond my 17th year, an opportunity to see
many things and have many experiences. But I don't feel that I was
as well prepared in many ways as she was, pursuing these
responsibilities. And I only hope that as the years go by, my heart
and my mind will expand and grow, so that some day I will feel worthy
of being mentioned in the same sentence with her.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END
10:58 A.M. EST
Maggie
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
January 10, 1996
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. Enjoy!
01/10/98 WED 09:05 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
LISA CAPUTO
002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, JANUARY 13-14; 1996
I was 14 years old the first time I saw Martin Luther King Jr. It was 1962,
and my church youth group went to hear him speak at Orchestra Hall in
Chicago. When he finished, we waited in the auditorium until everyone was
gone, just so we could shake his hand.
We were teen-agers living in a secure middle-class neighborhood that
was virtually all-white. But even from that suburban cocoon, 1 could not mistake
his passion and conviction. Here was a man who had weathered persecution
and harassment to stand up for what he believed was right: racial tolerance,
social justice and non-violent change.
On every continent, ordinary people are heeding Dr. King's message that
"injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Whether they are
residents of a Moslem town in Central Bosnia who have pledged to share their
harvest with their Croat neighbors or mothers in northern Ireland who have
organized their neighborhoods to help end a quarter-century of sectarian
violence, they are refusing to give in to ancient grudges and traditions of hate.
Take a look at Billings, Mont., where citizens closed ranks against
purveyors of bigotry when a series of hate crimes scarred their community.
It started when headstones at a Jewish cemetery were desecrated in the
fall of 1993. Then, parishioners at a black church were harassed by three white
men during a service. A few weeks later, a Native American woman found
swastikas and epithets spray-painted on her house. Soon afterward, a beer
bottle smashed through a glass door at the house of the local symphony
director, who had immigrated from Israel.
One incident in particular struck a nerve. A cinder block was hurled
through the bedroom window of a 5-year-old boy, where a menorah had been
placed to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. The boy was not hurt. His
bed was covered with shattered glass.
The community of Billings mobilized as if every citizen's rights had been
violated. Members of the painters union volunteered their time to paint over the
graffiti. Some local churchgoers wore Stars of David, and a group of concerned
citizens held a vigil across the street from the local synagogue.
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Page 2
The Billings Gazette printed a full-page picture of a menorah, which
thousands of non-Jewish residents clipped out and pasted in their windows in a
show of solidarity for their Jewish neighbors. A Catholic high school put up a
sign saying "Happy Hanukkah to our Jewish Friends." And a local sporting
goods store displayed a message that said: "Not in Our Town."
Like Dr. King, the people of Billings had the power to Imagine what it is
like to be in someone else's shoes.
For children today, who are growing up at a time of new cultural tensions
and divisions, the King message of compassion, unity and tolerance Is
especially urgent.
The power of imagination shines most brightly in children and young
people. Without the idealism of youth, we would never have had a civil rights
movement. Inspired civil rights workers were often in their teens and early 20s.
Martin Luther King himself was a young man when called to a life of service.
One way we can spark imagination in our children is to read stories to
them about people who stand up for their convictions. In hearing accounts of
other people's lives, children learn that each of us can make a difference in our
world.
In "A Call to Character," Colin Greer and-Herbert Kohl have pulled
together a collection of stories, including one by Ossie Davis called "Just Like
Martin," in which a 14-year-old not only commits himself to the non-violent civil
rights struggle but wins his father's reluctant admiration and support for doing it.
In the end, they march together, Daddy coming to respect his son's sense of
responsibility and his courage against the billy clubs he will face.
There is also a story by the renowned scholar and theologian Rabbi A.J.
Heschel, an ally of Dr. King during the civil rights movement. He remembers
how, as a 7-year-old boy, he heard the Old Testament tale of Isaac's narrow
escape from sacrifice.
"Supposing the angel had come too late?" he cried.
"An angel cannot come late," his teacher comforted him.
How many times in our own lives do we put off helping others, either out
of a lack of empathy or a failure to understand their situation?
Martin Luther King was right, if only we would hear his message. "I've
decided to stick with love," he once said. "Hate is too great a burden to bear."
COPYRIGHT 1996 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Maggie
THE WHITE HOUSE
Column January 24, 1996
WASHINGTON
MEMORANDAUM FOR FIRST LADY STAFF
FROM: LISA CAPUTO
RE: HRC COLUMN
Attached is HRC's column for the upcoming week. Enjoy!
01/24/96 WED 09:41 FAX
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LISA CAPUTO
1
002
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, JANUARY 27-28, 1996
While I was traveling recently to promote my new book about children, a lot of
people asked me about the Whitewater controversy, which I wrote about last week. But
many more men and women were interested in discussing the issues of real life. They
wanted to talk about family concerns from affordable health care to job lay-offs to
how we can raise standards in our schools.
In particular, my position on one subject -- divorce - seems to have taken
people by surprise. As I say in my book, I think getting a divorce should be much
harder when children are involved.
For much of the 1970s and 1980s, many believed that a bad marriage was
worse than a good divorce. Now, however, we know that children bear the brunt of
failed marriages.
Children living with one parent or in stepfamilies, for example, are more likely to
have emotional and behavioral problems. Kids who grow up in single-parent families
are also more likely to drop out of high school, become pregnant as teen-agers, abuse
drugs, behave violently and become entangled with the law. Even if a parent marries
again, it doesn't necessarily improve a child's odds.
Apart from the emotional trauma that divorce inflicts on children, there are also
financial considerations. Usually, children live with their mother after divorce, and
women tend to make lower wages, particularly if they are also caring for children.
Child support contributions often can be woefully insufficient, and as we saw recently
in the case of the New York investment adviser who owed more than $500,000 in child
support, even some wealthy fathers fail to support their children after getting divorced.
As a lawyer, 1 handled more than my share of divorce cases. I witnessed
otherwise rational men and women, overwhelmed by jealousy and an urge for
revenge, force their own children to choose sides. Many times, I saw children used as
bargaining chips to obtain better divorce settlements.
Most married couples know that living happily ever after is not always an easy,
or painless, proposition. My own marriage has become stronger, I believe, because
Bill and I have worked hard at it, even when times were rough. As I told Barbara
Walters in a recent interview, we have learned to compromise and bite our tongues
when we need to. And like many other couples, we've learned to confront problems
before they reach irreparable proportions.
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CREATORS SYNDICATE
LISA CAPUTO
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HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 1/27-28/96
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I'm not saying that divorce should never happen. I know of cases, as I'm sure
you do, where divorce was the best option for all family members involved. No one
should have to endure the physical and emotional abuse that my own late mother-in-
law, Virginia Kelley, recounted in her witty and touching autobiography, "Leading With
the Heart."
Virginia was married to an alcoholic who sometimes became abusive during
drinking binges. She finally divorced him but re-married him three months later --
against Bill's advice because she felt sorry for him and believed he would change
his ways. In later years, she told me she regretted not having stuck to her decision for
the sake of her children.
Most marriages dissolve because of far less desperate circumstances. Divorce
has become too easy because of our permissive laws and attitudes. Just look at our
culture today: Good marriages are seldom celebrated, while every tiff or spat in a
celebrity marriage becomes tabloid fodder.
For too many people, "Till death do us part" means "Till the going gets rough."
With so many marriages failing nearly half end in divorce in our country - we need
to do more to encourage parents to work out their problems, stay together and
strengthen their families. In cases where problems can't be reconciled, parents ought
to put the needs of their children first in working out the terms of divorce. They must
understand that their parental responsibilities continue even after a marriage splits up.
The good news is that attitudes about marriage and divorce seem to be
changing. Some states are beginning to examine whether their divorce laws are too
lax. Grass-roots campaigns to help preserve marriage are flourishing around the
country.
More churches are offering marital counseling, and ministers are using sermons
to educate parents about the responsibilities of marriage and family life. Some courts
now require that divorcing parents attend classes to learn about the potential effects of
divorce on their children. These and other efforts are welcome braking mechanisms
that can slow down the process of divorce when children are involved.
Children are the Issue here, as a 15-year-old boy from Louisiana noted in a
letter he wrote me not long ago. "It is not fair to me or my mom that she has to be both
mother and father to me and my little brother," said the boy. who went on to describe
how his parents' divorce had affected his whole family. "It makes no sense to me."
It should make no sense to any of us.
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