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Ford Hall Forum 1993 Volunteer Fair, Boston 9/11/93
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Ford Hall Forum 1993 Volunteer Fair, Boston 9/11/93
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FOIA Number: 2013-0661-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
Subgroup/Office of Origin:
National Service
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Eli Segal
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1295
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Ford Hall Forum 1993 Volunteer Fair, Boston 9/11/93
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66
2
8
1
Rick
Draft #1 9/9/93
I've hortened it it, bol
otherwise iL look, good.
El.
REMARKS OF ELI SEGAL
DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF NATIONAL SERVICE
FORD HALL FORUM - 1993 VOLUNTEER FAIR
BOSTON, 9/11/93
Thank you Bill. It is good to be home. Although my wife and I may be temporarily
living in Washington, Boston is and will always be our home. And even in D.C., I have the
Finest. And today, just three days
chance to surround myself with many of Boston's Ben & Jerry's Mint Oreo
after the Senit Passed the Procedents hubric natural service smitest, I --
Cookie ice cream, to our principal sponsor of the President's national service legislation, that proud say that to
the Finesh
workhorse for national service and for the people of Massachusetts, Senator Edward
United State
Senator w
Kennedy.
It is astounding to come back to Boston on this Saturday and see more people
gathered here, intent on helping their communities, than are over at Faneuil Hall buying
Mrs. Fields' cookies and Ben Steve's & Jerry's ice cream! Shopping for
rather
then
: what a perfect metaphor
as we more fro- the decade of greed to the
You represent and reflect a new spirit in our city and in our country. It is
reinvigorating that old political triangle no, not the one you read in the National Enquirer
among Elvis, Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise -- I mean the relationships we see service
weaving among individuals, communities and the federal government.
Boston has nearly four centuries' experience in creating community. When John
Winthrop, aboard the Arabella and bound for the New World, told his fellow emigrants that
"we must consider that we shall be a city upon a hill, [for] the eyes of all people are upon
us", he was exhorting our forbearers to seize their opportunity to create a new community in
the wilderness.
That community was not easily achieved. Carved from the forest and defended
repeatedly by force of arms, it was still a place that in our grandfathers' youth sported signs
warning that "No Irish Need Apply". And they didn't even bother posting signs to warn off
my grandfather and his fellow Jews.
Today, our desire for community is buffeted by problems of which John Winthrop --
or even our own parents -- could never have dreamed: illegal drugs and the crimes that
surround their use; homelessness and endemic poverty; an environment so befouled that we
can not trust the water we drink or the air we breathe.
And while our ancestors muscled their way to the common table, today we see chairs
at that table being demanded by an astounding new array of immigrants. "If current trends
continue," writes demographer Martha Farnsworth Riche, "the United States will become a
nation with no racial or ethnic majority" within our children's lifetimes indeed, in many of
our major cities, this is already the case
We are hold " fact that
within our children's lifetimes, America will become -
nature with no raccal or ethnic myorig
2
How, then, are we to find common interest amongst such diversity? The day after
Martin Luther King was killed, Robert Kennedy warned us what happens when societies
fragment: "We learn at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share
a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling but not in common
effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common impulse to meet disagreement
with force."
No government, no matter how vigorous or well intentioned, can legislate us into
community. And, unlike our grandparents's time, it is no longer sufficient to expect the
non-white, non-Western portion of our population to assimilate into a dominant majority.
As
demographer Riche has written, "in the future, the white Western majority will have to do
some assimilating of its own."
Fundamentally, creating community will require the concerted efforts of all of us.
Your presence here today is eloquent testimony to the fact that Boston can once again rise to
the challenge. Long before there were Mrs. Fields and the other shops there, Faneuil Hall
was the spot where a businessman and a lawyer -- John Hancock and Sam Adams -- led the
public outcry against the Stamp Act. Those two patriots recognized that leadership consists
of much more than protesting taxes. They understood that the city's private citizens must
take the lead in fostering a sense of community -- here in Boston and throughout the country.
3
And they knew that their actions would likely end up costing them money - in fact,
tea?
commodities trader Hancock probably lost profit from every barrel of
his
followers
threw into the Bay. From that time on, Massachusetts has been blessed by a citizenry that
elevates the community's interest above short-term, personal interests.
That tradition is at work within Boston's City Year program which is in many ways
a model for our national efforts. City Year has shown us all how to recognize and utilize the
private sector's community spirit. Lawyers provide pro bono legal assistance. Consultants
help with strategic planning. Computer companies have provided equipment. A clothing
manufacturer provided uniforms. Banks provide free checking accounts to volunteers. A
host of other firms loan out experienced managers to take on leadership roles within the
organization. And business sponsorship underwrites the costs of the teams of corpsmembers
themselves.
Which bring, US to you
[Similarly Your past service to others, or your willingness to begin serving now,
provide the threads holding together the fabric of our neighborhoods, and of our City and of
our nation. In an era when that fabric sometimes seems worn beyond recognition, service
reaffirms both that our neighbors need us -- and that we need our neighbors. And service
shows that our country deserves to be called a civilization, not for its absence of problems,
but for its citizens' willingness to be responsible for solutions.
4
President Clinton holds a broad view of service, recognizing that it is a spirit essential
to our definition of our country and of ourselves. Through service, we sustain our
democracy and define our citizenship. Service becomes not an obligation to be endured or
avoided, but the greatest right and the ultimate privilege of freedom.
[we We would hope to sharpen the edge of service.][Some, perhaps not appreciating how
is more then something
hard that kind of work can be, describe Service as something the more-fortunate do in their
spare time, to feel better about themselves. We would argue that service is something each
of us should do, because each of us can contribute, and recognizing that, as the President
has said, service is the American way to change America because our country needs us to
Unlike the topics that monopolize the Evening news, The three IS not a problem to be
do so. OR as the Presedent lots it, service is the American way to a tool to be
to ckied, but
used.
change America.
as
At the same time we aim to encourage and stimulate citizen involvement in their
communities and in the types of community organizations represented in this Convention
YOUR Prescdent
Center we also hopesto reinvent a new relationship for government with you, and with our
communities and our community organizations. This, too, represents a change. Although
service can and must exist independently of the federal government -- and thank heavens it
did when that government's attention lapsed in the past -- it has become inescapable that our
country's continued greatness demands that government participate in problem-solving.
Heal it herry today is will
lit
Which 13 what the newly enacted national service
legislature tries to do. Like [nest pape]
5
Unlike the topics that usually monopolize the evening news, national service is not a
problem to be tackled, but a tool to be used. And government itself is best seen as a tool --
the reflected power of the individuals it serves. It can not be seen as the only solution to all
that ails us; but if it is airily dismissed as "the problem", precious few real problems will
ever be solved.
How, then, can we reinvent the role of the federal government in service?
Essentially, the government can fund programs and it can spotlight the work of others. Since
our national service legislation received its final Congressional approval this past Wednesday,
let me begin by outlining that legislative framework.
Like President Kennedy's Peace Corps legislation, the National and Community
Service Act of 1993 will unleash our nation's greatest natural resource - the idealism and
energy of our people. It will enlist substantial commitments from tens of thousands of
searly as 1994
Americans to improve our communities through their service. They will be tutoring our
students, helping to immunize our babies, cleaning up our streams and parks, joining patrols
of our streets, and doing the other hard and necessary work each of us would list as needed
here in Boston. And participants will be working primarily through local non-profits, not
some new Washington bureaucracy.
6
And like President Roosevelt's G.I. Bill, our Act will reward those who serve their
country with increased educational opportunities. They will receive an educational benefit of
nearly $5000 after they've finished a full year of service, in addition to minimum wage while
they're working.
As you can see, this is a new relationship between the government and the service
participant. A central link between responsibility and opportunity has been established. The
notion is not that these participants will supplant traditional part-time volunteer service -- the
kisting
intention is for the members of this CorpsAmerica to supplement your activities by providing
talented resources, available essentially full-time, to leverage the impact of those of us who
want to help but cannot make the same commitment of time and focus.
7
Further, the President won't shy away from using this vital resource as effectively as
possible. We elect a President to help us sort through the mass of challenges our nation
confronts -- to set priorities. That is what the President will do with national service: use
the tool where it is most needed and most useful. Let me give you an example: all of us are
horrified that our country, a land of nearly unimaginable advantages despite its problems, has
a higher rate of infant mortality than many third world countries. Many of those deaths can
be prevented. The President has already taken steps to make infant vaccines cheaper and
more available. But although most parents know that without those shots, their children
can't start first grade, too many American parents wrongly believe that their kids can wait
why houldn't
until then to get immunized. CIt may be that the President decides that many national service
volunteers should concentrate on convincing these parents not to wait, All helping them to
-
bring their children into the clinics where they can get care setting staffing
the clinics ofke normal WOURS, setting 11 800 For dispensing vital
1n formation on other kinds of preventitive care.
new
These national priorities and standards will be overseen by a government corporation:
the Corporation for National Service. It will operate like a venture capital firm, seeking out
and funding initiatives that will maximize returns to the public. For the most part, it will
help local non-profit organizations, who will compete for funding based on their business
plans and track records. To keep decision-making where the rubber meets the road, most
applications will first be judged by nonpartisan state Commissions. It will be up to states and
localities to determine how best to design programs to achieve the national goals. We know
Brighter
that what works for might not be so effective in Brownsville, Texas -- and vice versa.
8
Once a program has been funded, it will be rigorously evaluated. We will demand
results -- not rhetoric. We will demand good performance -- not good intentions. If a
program doesn't work, we will cut our losses. And let me stop there for a minute: When I
was in business, we tried many things, and some of them just plain didn't work. I never
found that surprising. But for some reason, when it comes to government, the expectation
at least by some elements of the press) is that any failure is attributable to fraud or
mismanagement. I hope you can help us communicate to the press that innovation means
taking risks -- and that means the risks of mis-steps, not the prospect of an unbroken series
of triumphs.
But when a program does work, we'll help expand it. The new Corporation will be
relentless in seeking out the most profitable uses of its scarce resources. We are committed
to proving that a federal program can be soft-hearted and hard-headed at the same time.
This new approach will be seen as a burden by some local organizations -- and as an
opportunity by others. Competition for resources will force them to think clearly and
carefully about their goals and the most efficient way to reach them. Our focus on results
will mean that their next year's budget depends upon this year's performance. And any
program seeking federal money must first obtain 25% of their program budget -- and 15% of
their participants' wages -- from other sources. Let me say that again: no federal money will
be spent unless the community has committed its own money to the effort. This will ensure
that service programs grow locally instead of being transplanted from Washington.
9
Perhaps most importantly, this program will be nonpartisan, at all levels. Republican
Congressman Steve Gunderson recently praised our program as combining "the idealism of
the Democratic Party with the pragmatic realism of the Republican Party." I deeply
appreciated those words -- but I hope that our program will eventually escape even those
labels. Ultimately, national service must fuse America's realism with America's idealism.
And it must enlist the efforts of all Americans. In his Inaugural address, the
President first challenged young people to participate, and then noted that "there is so much
to be done -- enough, indeed, for millions of others who are still young in spirit to give of
themselves in service, too. In serving, we recognize a simple, but powerful truth: We need
each other, and we must care for one another."
Each of us will experience what the President calls "seasons of service". We might
begin as toddlers, helping to clean the banks of the Charles -- and we may end as senior
citizens, returning as part of the wonderful Older American Volunteer programs, or as a
VISTA volunteer, and helping make learning a life-long experience for our peers, at the
Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Just as the intensity of involvement will vary with
our lives' circumstances, so will the federal role vary.
We intend to be active assisting with program funding or volunteer support, but even
more often, we see the government sharing the spotlight, swapping ideas, and most of all,
working as hard as you do on our common goals.
10
The organizations scattered throughout this Convention Center and this City, and most
of you, have long recognized these central themes. Now you are allied with an activist
President, committed to real change. Together, we will help our nation recapture the
promise that drew John Winthrop, and all of our foremothers and forefathers, to this city on
a hill. But it will require each of us to do our part.
The great civil rights worker Fanny Lou Hamer used to tell the story of the wise old
man and the two little boys who thought they were very clever. They decided they would
fool the old man by catching a small bird and cupping it in one boy's hands. They would
then bring it to the old man and say: "old man, we have a bird in our hands. Is it alive or
dead?" Their plan was that if he said the bird was dead, they would release it and let it fly
away. If he said it was alive they would crush it and show him the dead bird. But when the
boys brought the bird to the old man and asked him their question, he answered "it's in your
hands."
In many ways, the fate of Massachusetts' part of national service is in each of our
hands. Let us celebrate the opportunity in this responsibility, so that this city and this nation
finally discharge our debt to our forbearers -- and our promises to our children.
I thank you, and I would be happy to take your questions.
11