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    "ocrText": "FOIA Number: 2013-0661-F\nFOIA\nMARKER\nThis is not a textual record. This is used as an\nadministrative marker by the William J. Clinton\nPresidential Library Staff.\nCollection/Record Group:\nClinton Presidential Records\nSubgroup/Office of Origin:\nNational Service\nSeries/Staff Member:\nEli Segal\nSubseries:\nOA/ID Number:\n1295\nFolderID:\nFolder Title:\nFord Hall Forum 1993 Volunteer Fair, Boston 9/11/93\nStack:\nRow:\nSection:\nShelf:\nPosition:\nS\n66\n2\n8\n1\nRick\nDraft #1 9/9/93\nI've hortened it it, bol\notherwise iL look, good.\nEl.\nREMARKS OF ELI SEGAL\nDIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF NATIONAL SERVICE\nFORD HALL FORUM - 1993 VOLUNTEER FAIR\nBOSTON, 9/11/93\nThank you Bill. It is good to be home. Although my wife and I may be temporarily\nliving in Washington, Boston is and will always be our home. And even in D.C., I have the\nFinest. And today, just three days\nchance to surround myself with many of Boston's Ben & Jerry's Mint Oreo\nafter the Senit Passed the Procedents hubric natural service smitest, I --\nCookie ice cream, to our principal sponsor of the President's national service legislation, that proud say that to\nthe Finesh\nworkhorse for national service and for the people of Massachusetts, Senator Edward\nUnited State\nSenator w\nKennedy.\nIt is astounding to come back to Boston on this Saturday and see more people\ngathered here, intent on helping their communities, than are over at Faneuil Hall buying\nMrs. Fields' cookies and Ben Steve's & Jerry's ice cream! Shopping for\nrather\nthen\n: what a perfect metaphor\nas we more fro- the decade of greed to the\nYou represent and reflect a new spirit in our city and in our country. It is\nreinvigorating that old political triangle no, not the one you read in the National Enquirer\namong Elvis, Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise -- I mean the relationships we see service\nweaving among individuals, communities and the federal government.\nBoston has nearly four centuries' experience in creating community. When John\nWinthrop, aboard the Arabella and bound for the New World, told his fellow emigrants that\n\"we must consider that we shall be a city upon a hill, [for] the eyes of all people are upon\nus\", he was exhorting our forbearers to seize their opportunity to create a new community in\nthe wilderness.\nThat community was not easily achieved. Carved from the forest and defended\nrepeatedly by force of arms, it was still a place that in our grandfathers' youth sported signs\nwarning that \"No Irish Need Apply\". And they didn't even bother posting signs to warn off\nmy grandfather and his fellow Jews.\nToday, our desire for community is buffeted by problems of which John Winthrop --\nor even our own parents -- could never have dreamed: illegal drugs and the crimes that\nsurround their use; homelessness and endemic poverty; an environment so befouled that we\ncan not trust the water we drink or the air we breathe.\nAnd while our ancestors muscled their way to the common table, today we see chairs\nat that table being demanded by an astounding new array of immigrants. \"If current trends\ncontinue,\" writes demographer Martha Farnsworth Riche, \"the United States will become a\nnation with no racial or ethnic majority\" within our children's lifetimes indeed, in many of\nour major cities, this is already the case\nWe are hold \" fact that\nwithin our children's lifetimes, America will become -\nnature with no raccal or ethnic myorig\n2\nHow, then, are we to find common interest amongst such diversity? The day after\nMartin Luther King was killed, Robert Kennedy warned us what happens when societies\nfragment: \"We learn at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share\na city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling but not in common\neffort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common impulse to meet disagreement\nwith force.\"\nNo government, no matter how vigorous or well intentioned, can legislate us into\ncommunity. And, unlike our grandparents's time, it is no longer sufficient to expect the\nnon-white, non-Western portion of our population to assimilate into a dominant majority.\nAs\ndemographer Riche has written, \"in the future, the white Western majority will have to do\nsome assimilating of its own.\"\nFundamentally, creating community will require the concerted efforts of all of us.\nYour presence here today is eloquent testimony to the fact that Boston can once again rise to\nthe challenge. Long before there were Mrs. Fields and the other shops there, Faneuil Hall\nwas the spot where a businessman and a lawyer -- John Hancock and Sam Adams -- led the\npublic outcry against the Stamp Act. Those two patriots recognized that leadership consists\nof much more than protesting taxes. They understood that the city's private citizens must\ntake the lead in fostering a sense of community -- here in Boston and throughout the country.\n3\nAnd they knew that their actions would likely end up costing them money - in fact,\ntea?\ncommodities trader Hancock probably lost profit from every barrel of\nhis\nfollowers\nthrew into the Bay. From that time on, Massachusetts has been blessed by a citizenry that\nelevates the community's interest above short-term, personal interests.\nThat tradition is at work within Boston's City Year program which is in many ways\na model for our national efforts. City Year has shown us all how to recognize and utilize the\nprivate sector's community spirit. Lawyers provide pro bono legal assistance. Consultants\nhelp with strategic planning. Computer companies have provided equipment. A clothing\nmanufacturer provided uniforms. Banks provide free checking accounts to volunteers. A\nhost of other firms loan out experienced managers to take on leadership roles within the\norganization. And business sponsorship underwrites the costs of the teams of corpsmembers\nthemselves.\nWhich bring, US to you\n[Similarly Your past service to others, or your willingness to begin serving now,\nprovide the threads holding together the fabric of our neighborhoods, and of our City and of\nour nation. In an era when that fabric sometimes seems worn beyond recognition, service\nreaffirms both that our neighbors need us -- and that we need our neighbors. And service\nshows that our country deserves to be called a civilization, not for its absence of problems,\nbut for its citizens' willingness to be responsible for solutions.\n4\nPresident Clinton holds a broad view of service, recognizing that it is a spirit essential\nto our definition of our country and of ourselves. Through service, we sustain our\ndemocracy and define our citizenship. Service becomes not an obligation to be endured or\navoided, but the greatest right and the ultimate privilege of freedom.\n[we We would hope to sharpen the edge of service.][Some, perhaps not appreciating how\nis more then something\nhard that kind of work can be, describe Service as something the more-fortunate do in their\nspare time, to feel better about themselves. We would argue that service is something each\nof us should do, because each of us can contribute, and recognizing that, as the President\nhas said, service is the American way to change America because our country needs us to\nUnlike the topics that monopolize the Evening news, The three IS not a problem to be\ndo so. OR as the Presedent lots it, service is the American way to a tool to be\nto ckied, but\nused.\nchange America.\nas\nAt the same time we aim to encourage and stimulate citizen involvement in their\ncommunities and in the types of community organizations represented in this Convention\nYOUR Prescdent\nCenter we also hopesto reinvent a new relationship for government with you, and with our\ncommunities and our community organizations. This, too, represents a change. Although\nservice can and must exist independently of the federal government -- and thank heavens it\ndid when that government's attention lapsed in the past -- it has become inescapable that our\ncountry's continued greatness demands that government participate in problem-solving.\nHeal it herry today is will\nlit\nWhich 13 what the newly enacted national service\nlegislature tries to do. Like [nest pape]\n5\nUnlike the topics that usually monopolize the evening news, national service is not a\nproblem to be tackled, but a tool to be used. And government itself is best seen as a tool --\nthe reflected power of the individuals it serves. It can not be seen as the only solution to all\nthat ails us; but if it is airily dismissed as \"the problem\", precious few real problems will\never be solved.\nHow, then, can we reinvent the role of the federal government in service?\nEssentially, the government can fund programs and it can spotlight the work of others. Since\nour national service legislation received its final Congressional approval this past Wednesday,\nlet me begin by outlining that legislative framework.\nLike President Kennedy's Peace Corps legislation, the National and Community\nService Act of 1993 will unleash our nation's greatest natural resource - the idealism and\nenergy of our people. It will enlist substantial commitments from tens of thousands of\nsearly as 1994\nAmericans to improve our communities through their service. They will be tutoring our\nstudents, helping to immunize our babies, cleaning up our streams and parks, joining patrols\nof our streets, and doing the other hard and necessary work each of us would list as needed\nhere in Boston. And participants will be working primarily through local non-profits, not\nsome new Washington bureaucracy.\n6\nAnd like President Roosevelt's G.I. Bill, our Act will reward those who serve their\ncountry with increased educational opportunities. They will receive an educational benefit of\nnearly $5000 after they've finished a full year of service, in addition to minimum wage while\nthey're working.\nAs you can see, this is a new relationship between the government and the service\nparticipant. A central link between responsibility and opportunity has been established. The\nnotion is not that these participants will supplant traditional part-time volunteer service -- the\nkisting\nintention is for the members of this CorpsAmerica to supplement your activities by providing\ntalented resources, available essentially full-time, to leverage the impact of those of us who\nwant to help but cannot make the same commitment of time and focus.\n7\nFurther, the President won't shy away from using this vital resource as effectively as\npossible. We elect a President to help us sort through the mass of challenges our nation\nconfronts -- to set priorities. That is what the President will do with national service: use\nthe tool where it is most needed and most useful. Let me give you an example: all of us are\nhorrified that our country, a land of nearly unimaginable advantages despite its problems, has\na higher rate of infant mortality than many third world countries. Many of those deaths can\nbe prevented. The President has already taken steps to make infant vaccines cheaper and\nmore available. But although most parents know that without those shots, their children\ncan't start first grade, too many American parents wrongly believe that their kids can wait\nwhy houldn't\nuntil then to get immunized. CIt may be that the President decides that many national service\nvolunteers should concentrate on convincing these parents not to wait, All helping them to\n-\nbring their children into the clinics where they can get care setting staffing\nthe clinics ofke normal WOURS, setting 11 800 For dispensing vital\n1n formation on other kinds of preventitive care.\nnew\nThese national priorities and standards will be overseen by a government corporation:\nthe Corporation for National Service. It will operate like a venture capital firm, seeking out\nand funding initiatives that will maximize returns to the public. For the most part, it will\nhelp local non-profit organizations, who will compete for funding based on their business\nplans and track records. To keep decision-making where the rubber meets the road, most\napplications will first be judged by nonpartisan state Commissions. It will be up to states and\nlocalities to determine how best to design programs to achieve the national goals. We know\nBrighter\nthat what works for might not be so effective in Brownsville, Texas -- and vice versa.\n8\nOnce a program has been funded, it will be rigorously evaluated. We will demand\nresults -- not rhetoric. We will demand good performance -- not good intentions. If a\nprogram doesn't work, we will cut our losses. And let me stop there for a minute: When I\nwas in business, we tried many things, and some of them just plain didn't work. I never\nfound that surprising. But for some reason, when it comes to government, the expectation\nat least by some elements of the press) is that any failure is attributable to fraud or\nmismanagement. I hope you can help us communicate to the press that innovation means\ntaking risks -- and that means the risks of mis-steps, not the prospect of an unbroken series\nof triumphs.\nBut when a program does work, we'll help expand it. The new Corporation will be\nrelentless in seeking out the most profitable uses of its scarce resources. We are committed\nto proving that a federal program can be soft-hearted and hard-headed at the same time.\nThis new approach will be seen as a burden by some local organizations -- and as an\nopportunity by others. Competition for resources will force them to think clearly and\ncarefully about their goals and the most efficient way to reach them. Our focus on results\nwill mean that their next year's budget depends upon this year's performance. And any\nprogram seeking federal money must first obtain 25% of their program budget -- and 15% of\ntheir participants' wages -- from other sources. Let me say that again: no federal money will\nbe spent unless the community has committed its own money to the effort. This will ensure\nthat service programs grow locally instead of being transplanted from Washington.\n9\nPerhaps most importantly, this program will be nonpartisan, at all levels. Republican\nCongressman Steve Gunderson recently praised our program as combining \"the idealism of\nthe Democratic Party with the pragmatic realism of the Republican Party.\" I deeply\nappreciated those words -- but I hope that our program will eventually escape even those\nlabels. Ultimately, national service must fuse America's realism with America's idealism.\nAnd it must enlist the efforts of all Americans. In his Inaugural address, the\nPresident first challenged young people to participate, and then noted that \"there is so much\nto be done -- enough, indeed, for millions of others who are still young in spirit to give of\nthemselves in service, too. In serving, we recognize a simple, but powerful truth: We need\neach other, and we must care for one another.\"\nEach of us will experience what the President calls \"seasons of service\". We might\nbegin as toddlers, helping to clean the banks of the Charles -- and we may end as senior\ncitizens, returning as part of the wonderful Older American Volunteer programs, or as a\nVISTA volunteer, and helping make learning a life-long experience for our peers, at the\nCambridge Center for Adult Education. Just as the intensity of involvement will vary with\nour lives' circumstances, so will the federal role vary.\nWe intend to be active assisting with program funding or volunteer support, but even\nmore often, we see the government sharing the spotlight, swapping ideas, and most of all,\nworking as hard as you do on our common goals.\n10\nThe organizations scattered throughout this Convention Center and this City, and most\nof you, have long recognized these central themes. Now you are allied with an activist\nPresident, committed to real change. Together, we will help our nation recapture the\npromise that drew John Winthrop, and all of our foremothers and forefathers, to this city on\na hill. But it will require each of us to do our part.\nThe great civil rights worker Fanny Lou Hamer used to tell the story of the wise old\nman and the two little boys who thought they were very clever. They decided they would\nfool the old man by catching a small bird and cupping it in one boy's hands. They would\nthen bring it to the old man and say: \"old man, we have a bird in our hands. Is it alive or\ndead?\" Their plan was that if he said the bird was dead, they would release it and let it fly\naway. If he said it was alive they would crush it and show him the dead bird. But when the\nboys brought the bird to the old man and asked him their question, he answered \"it's in your\nhands.\"\nIn many ways, the fate of Massachusetts' part of national service is in each of our\nhands. Let us celebrate the opportunity in this responsibility, so that this city and this nation\nfinally discharge our debt to our forbearers -- and our promises to our children.\nI thank you, and I would be happy to take your questions.\n11"
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