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Jeremy Ben-Ami –Common Ground/What’s Right with America
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Jeremy Ben-Ami –Common Ground/What’s Right with America
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George Stephanopoulos's Subject Files
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FOIA Number: 2011-0582-F
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This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the William J. Clinton
Presidential Library Staff.
Collection/Record Group:
Clinton Presidential Records
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Chief of Staff
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George Stephanopoulos
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8035
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Folder Title:
Jeremy Ben-Ami, Common Ground / What's Right with America
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1
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
July 28, 1995
TO:
Distribution List*
From:
Jeremy Ben-Ami
Subject: Common Ground/What's Right with America
The attached memos were submitted to Staff Secretary on Friday
evening. They will hopefully get to the President for his
reaction shortly.
There is an interesting possibility for starting the What's Right
with America effort in Charlotte with the President visiting with
people involved in the Charlotte Observer's civic journalism
project - which has been bringing the community together to solve
common problems. Steve Silverman will be circulating material on
that program on Monday.
Please feel free to contact Steve or me with questions or
comments.
Distribution List*
Leon Panetta
Harold Ickes
Erskine Bowles
George Stephanopolous
Jack Quinn
Don Baer
Rahm Emanuel
Mark Gearan
Alexis Herman
Kitty Higgins
Melanne Verveer
Carol Rasco
Bill Curry
Billy Webster
Steve Silverman
Bruce Reed
Steve Neuwirth
Flo McAfee
Mickey Levitan
Michael Waldman
Anne Walley
Julia Moffett
THE WHITE HOUSE
washington
July 28, 1995
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM:
Alexis Herman
Melanne Verveer
Steve Silverman
Jeremy Ben-Ami
Steve Neuwirth
SUBJECT:
Common Ground Initiative
You have asked us to develop a plan to take the themes of your July 6th speech at
Georgetown -- common ground, responsible citizenship, and community -- and develop a
sustained effort to highlight these themes throughout the country and to provide a vehicle for
citizens to join your efforts to build Common Ground. Specific goals would be threefold:
Substance - to mobilize in communities action that truly makes a difference.
Constituency - to generate collaborative efforts with key groups throughout the country.
Leadership - to demonstrate your capacity to unify Americans around these themes.
This memorandum outlines concrete activities and events for the next 12 months that would
enable you to realize these goals. We request that you:
Review these options, modify where needed, and determine which should be included
in a campaign.
Offer additional options, if any, that have not yet emerged.
We are ready to discuss this with you further.
OPTIONS
The Common Ground Initiative has four main fronts which collectively help meet the goals of
substance, constituency and leadership. The fronts are:
1) Communicating Your Vision
2) Mobilizing Leaders to Action
3) Spotlighting Heros: What's Right with America Campaign
4) Demonstrating Results
1.
Communicating Your Vision
A) Presidential "Challenge" -- Develop a one-page Challenge to Responsible
Citizenship, based on the principles set forth in the Georgetown speech, and circulate
widely to national and community leaders and organizations who are, or could be,
active in working to implement your vision. Use this document (produced as a
Presidential Message) as a recognizable organizing tool at the local level to guide
discussions, for instance, in classrooms or in congregations.
APPROVE
DISAPPROVE
B) Relevant Speeches - Develop innovative distribution channels to distribute copies
of July 6th and other relevant addresses to groups and individuals who can play an
important role in the Initiative. The speeches have been mailed to over 700 people
invited to the speeches or considered as invitees.
C) Video --- Commission a short video that (a) incorporates parts of the July 6th
speech (b) highlights some successful local models, and (c) explains the Challenge in
more detail. The video would be used to help mobilize leaders and communities
trying to act on the Challenge.
APPROVE
DISAPPROVE
D) Opinion Leaders/Editorial Writers -- Generate further coverage around the
heartland by disseminating examples of articles which highlight Responsible
Citizenship to sympathetic writers, columnists, and opinion leaders. Focus
particularly on local/regional opinion leaders.
E) Regular Inclusion of Themes in Speeches -- The themes developed in the July
6th speech will be carried through in other speeches - Religion, Affirmative Action
and on an ongoing basis from here on.
2.
Mobilizing Leaders To Action
A) Sector by Sector Challenges -- We are hard at work developing opportunities for
you to carry your Challenge to the "sectors of influence." Already on the schedule are
the following:
Religious -- The annual Religious Leaders Breakfast on September 8.
Foundations -- The Council on Foundations meets on September 27-29 in Washington.
Business -- A speech to the Business Council is scheduled for October 13.
In addition to these and other sector-focused events that are being considered for your
schedule, you could host meetings with groups of leaders from the sectors at the White
House to discuss steps they could take to build Common Ground.
Several creative ideas have been offered for sector challenges. For example, teachers can
develop pledges for parents which commit them to assisting kids with homework and
limiting hours they watch TV. Businesses can foot the bill for employees to get involved
in classrooms, assisting efforts to enliven school with work. Foundations can review
grants with a screen that assesses contribution to active citizenship.
APPROVE
DISAPPROVE
B) Involving Other Leaders -- You could write to other leaders such as Governors and
Mayors, as well as religious leaders, educators, and heads of non-profits who have not
been reached through other events and channels, to ask them to join this Challenge. We
could send the Challenge document, or even the video with your letter and ask each of
them to hold conferences, give speeches or visit models of Responsible Citizenship in
their communities.
APPROVE
DISAPPROVE
3.
Spotlighting Heroes
What is Right With America - A separate memo is being sent to you suggesting a
campaign to recognize, celebrate, and highlight real people and local initiatives that
represent the best of the American community.
4.
Demonstrating Results
White House Conference
Organize a White House Conference in one year which celebrates the Heroes you have
spotlighted and reports to the American people some of the most innovative and creative
efforts underway throughout the country that rally to your call to build Common Ground.
We recommend deferring a decision on whether and when to hold such a conference until
later in the year.
The Conference could also be billed as a report to the American people on the progress of
Common Ground Initiative in communities, sectors, and government agencies. It would
provide an excellent opportunity to bring together local initiatives you have spotlighted
during the year and others you have met and worked with on these issues.
cc:
The First Lady
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
July 28, 1995
MEMORANDUM TO THE PRESIDENT
FROM:
Don Baer
Alexis Herman
Melanne Verveer
Jeremy Ben-Ami
Steve Silverman
SUBJECT:
What's Right with America Campaign
We are seeking your reaction to and approval of a proposal to begin a campaign to highlight
"What's Right with America." This campaign is intended to sustain the momentum generated
by the Georgetown Common Ground and subsequent speeches which have successfully
developed the themes of common ground and citizen responsibility. We have met with and
consulted a wide range of your advisors, inside and outside the White House, to develop this
plan. This is only one component of our planned follow-up, and we are sending an
accompanying memo sketching more broadly other parts of our thinking.
Purpose
The "What's Right with America" campaign will fulfill your desire, as stated at Georgetown,
to "find the best and celebrate it, and then, relentlessly promote it as a model to be followed."
The Campaign will allow you to demonstrate, as you said in your Inaugural Address and
since, that "there isn't a thing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with
America" and that "you can find somewhere in America, somebody who has solved every
problem you are worried about."
This campaign allows you to use the power of the Presidency to spotlight people throughout
the country who are working together in their communities to solve problems. Examples
might include the LEAP program in New Haven, the Ten Point Coalition in the Boston area,
or NUCOR in South Carolina. Over time, the effort will bring the themes of your speeches
to life in the faces and pictures of the people and communities you highlight. This will help
the American people and the media better understand your message. Ultimately, bringing
together the people you visit over the course of a year will make for a powerful story.
The Plan: Your Activities
At Georgetown, you said that you intend to "do even more than you have done to celebrate
the things that work." Our plan, should you approve, is to build into your travel schedule on
a regular basis, opportunities to drop by and visit "the things that work" and to meet with the
people that make them work. These events would substitute for some of your "OTR" stops
at diners or other local spots. We propose:
- You could meet with individuals, visit programs or places, or even hold roundtables
with groups of community residents;
- Some of the visits could be relatively spontaneous, others might be more planned;
- From a press perspective, your stops could occasionally be open to the pool, but
many could be closed to the press without losing their value. On their own, individual
stops will generate significant local and regional media. Over time, their combined
effect will generate national attention.
Even when you do not travel, we will propose occasional visits to people and places in D.C.
or the surrounding area. We can also invite people to the White House to honor them, or set
up a regular time when you can highlight What's Right with America.
The Plan: Other Components
The campaign should, however, do more than guide your scheduling. It should, as you said,
"relentlessly promote" the things that work as models to be followed. We recommend a
national effort, including, but not limited to, some of the following ideas:
- Setting up a national clearinghouse to share information across communties about
model programs and ideas. The clearinghouse would collect examples of What's Right
with America and find innovative and effective ways to share that information,
including making full use of new Internet capabilities. We are working with
Education, the Corporation for National and Community Service, USIA and NEH to
examine how we can build on their ongoing work;
- Recognizing local efforts beyond those you visit. As you have pointed out, you
kept the Points of Light Foundation, and through it we recognize people every year.
We are looking into building on that process, if appropriate, to support this effort;
- Holding a national conference to bring people together who we recognize as models
from around the country to talk with national leaders about the obstacles faced at the
local level in replicating these models.
Kicking Off the Campaign
We do not necessarily recommend a formal kick-off for this effort. Instead, we should just
start doing what you promised at Georgetown. We are looking at your visit to Charlotte,
North Carolina on August 8th as a possible first stop where we could spotlight the civic
journalism project started by the Charlotte Observer.
Campaign Identity
We do believe this effort needs an identity. A name for the effort -- we recommend "What's
Right With America" -- will help give it shape and meaning. If you approve the name, we
will work to ensure that background materials and press briefings, for instance, are put on
special letterhead or specially labelled each time so that the strength and consistency of our
commitment to the "What's Right with America" effort are readily apparent.
Recommendation
We are seeking your approval to begin the "What's Right With America" effort and to start
scheduling such stops into your travel in August and September. With your approval, we will
also convene a team from the White House and other agencies to flesh this plan out further to
meet the challenge you laid out at Georgetown.
Approve
Disapprove
Let's Discuss
cc:
The First Lady