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Clinton Library
DOCUMENT NO.
SUBJECT/TITLE
DATE
RESTRICTION
AND TYPE
001. speech
re: political (3 pages)
04/19/1999
Personal Misfile
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
First Lady's Office
Lissa Muscatine
OA/Box Number: 21402
FOLDER TITLE:
Speeches to Edit
2015-0275-S
rc2050
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act |44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act ⑉ [5 U.S.C. 552(b)]
PI National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
b(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office |(a)(2) of the PRA]
b(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of
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an agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA]
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financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA]
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information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRAJ
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P6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy |(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy [(a)(6) of the PRA]
b(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed
b(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
of gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
PRM. Personal record misfile defined in accordance with 44 U.S.C.
b(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
2201(3).
concerning wells |(b)(9) of the FOIA]
RR. Document will be reviewed upon request.
- 1 -
TRANSCRIPT FINISHED - NEEDS TO BE EDITED
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Commencement
Address by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Washington, D.C.
June 3, 1999
Thank you, Jared. I am especially delighted to be here at this celebration and
your graduation, and more than that,I see a celebration of young people, of energy, and
power and commitment.
Madrigals
As you were listening to the Madrigles(?) and the jazz ensemble, I was poked on
the back by one of the people sitting behind me who said, "You know, you must get to
travel around our country and see an awful lot of talented young people," and that is one
of the greater privileges I've had. To see the kind of dynamism and energy. the power,
the hard work, and the perseverance of American young people. So for me this is a great
privilege and pleasure to join you.
I want to thank the three young men who invited me to be here, Micah, Jonathon,
and Carter. I learned after I received a very well written and well reasoned letter as to
why I should come today, that the administration new nothing about the invitation, but I
apparently accepted before that could become an issue. The invitation was extended and
I obviously accepted.
I want to thank also everyone associated with this school and the school system of
which it is a part. I thank Mrs. Haven. I want to thank the school board and other
members of the administration. I thank the faculty, the teachers, the staff. I particularly
want to commend the parents and the citizens that support this school for understanding
how important investing in education is today. It is an honor not only to be here to
congratulate you, but to commend the community. the village if you will, that
supported this high school and made it possible for you to have the opportunities to
pursue your own dreams and aspirations.
Now I've been told that this particular class is something special, not that's not
just because I know some of your parents and they're pretty high to me. But I've been
told that over and over again they pushed the academic curve up, and save that they
might have let it slip just a little bit this last semester. Perfectly understandable. That
you have led championship sports teams. Eleven of you are members of the record-
breaking girls' field hockey championship team. And soccer, and swimming, and track,
and tennis, you also excelled, led again by members of this class. I think it's kind of
unheard of to have three All-Met students from a school as small as B-CC. And so I
commend all of you who have made your mark on the athletic field. You've also helped
to stage first-rate dramatic performances, from "Death Takes a Holiday" to "Happy
Birthday Wanda June." You've managed to squeeze in National Honor Society activities
alongside other extracurriculars, like Chips, and Tattler, and Pine Tree, and Horizons,
NOW, and Baron Buddies.
I have seen and heard with my own ears the talented musicians and singers that
you have in this class as well. In addition, you have performed thousands of hours of
community service -- participated in foreign exchange programs with students from
- 2 -
Russia, Israel, France, Guatemala, and China. And, I know, that each of you who has
contributed to this class have a lot to look back on with satisfaction and a lot to be proud
of. I'd like to ask that all of those who performed for us today really, gave us the spirit
and the feeling of this class stand, so that we can thank them and Mr. Riley for the hard
work that went in to preparing for today.
You know, it was 62 years ago that one of my favorite predecessors broke
tradition at a B-CC graduation. Up until then, only B-CC seniors had participated as
speakers at the ceremony. But on that day, June 15, 1937, Eleanor Roosevelt spoke to the
graduates. She urged them to participate in their communities and reminded them that
"young people who think," with the emphasize on think, are needed today to help
solve the problems of the nation." Well, I've learned from my years in the White House
that everywhere I go, Mrs. Roosevelt has been there first. If I am visiting a factory or a
social service project, or some far away celebrate(?), on this continent or elsewhere, I'm
likely to be greeted by the welcome, "Well you are the second First Lady to have come to
see us." And this year I cannot deny copying Mrs. Roosevelt and I told her I'd be here
today. She encouraged me merely to reread her speech, because the timeless words of
congratulations, and encouragements, and challenge that she set forth are just as timely
today as they were then because there is something about commencement ceremonies. I
know that sometimes that they are looked down as circumstance because people like me,
or your acting principle, or student speakers come before the event and an (sounds like
epicouth) the myriad of feelings that must be racing through each of you, your parents,
your family, and friends. I'm trying to put into words the very difficult moments, and I
know that sometimes in retrospect it is totally forgetable hard to remember who said
what, when did it happen at your graduation I don't have a clue who spoke at my
graduation in high school. I can remember the building being filled to capacity, I can
not
remember what began, I can remember that the (??) of the shoes I bought were to high
and that I tried to trip on my way down the aisle. Those were the memorable moments
but I was mostly concerned with what I could do after it was all over with my friends.
But there is a ritual to this, which is a product of time, a passing of generational advice,
of hope, that I understand that I have been out on both sides of it. And there are so many
people sitting in this great hall who have watched you grow to maturity who are
wondering how fast it could have gone in just a blink of an eye that this young child, this
great boy or girl that is now this young man and this young woman, and Annie Page from
(?) said, "You know, now I'm ready to go out on my own." I felt a catch in my throat
and I think I heard a (?) in the hall, because it is a daunting responsibility that you pay as
you move out of high school, but that we also pay as we look back in wonder how well-
prepared, how ready you are. Mrs. Roosevelt in her remarks recognized the
awesomeness and the talent of the B-CC graduates of 1937 and I feel that as well.
Because I am privileged to travel around our country and listen to young people in all
kinds of settings. And for years now I've been saying to any audience that I could reach
that we have the best young men and women, right here on America that I have ever
seen. Now that's not sometimes the way that you are portrayed because of stereotypes
and the sensational images of the one's that broke off and pushed away. And so if we
miss all of the triads of heroism, and hard work, of courage, of resilience that make us
more biased.
- 3 -
In the aftermath of the tragic shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton,
Colorado, many people asked me, themselves, and all of us should be what is it we
owe our young people? You are about to cross into a new stage in your lives, where
deaths will still be done, but you too will be seeking answers to some of these questions
about how to live a life of satisfaction for yourself, how to make commitments to work
many opportunities.
above the evil to terrorize your community. m That there should be and continue to be so
When my husband and I were at Littleton, sitting seeking in a gymnasium of a
neighboring high school, the students of Littleton and Humblebear(??) fellow high
school students from a nearby school. I looked out at all this and I saw faces very much
like yours.
I know that you talked about what happened there in some of your classes, and I
assume you talked about it with your friends, I hope you talked about it with a few of
your parents, and others as well. You did send letters of condolence and planted columbines
in memory of the dead. I was particularly impressed when I learned that a group of ninth-grade
girls went to Mrs. Haven to ask permission to form a club that would reach out to kids who might
feel alienated and alone. Those girls asked themselves the same hard question we all have to ask
- -"What can we do?" But they didn't stop with a question. They looked deep into their own
hearts for an answer.
There are many ways you can respond. On the national level, the President and I,
reached out to people of a cross-section of Americans, asking them to come to the White House
to talk about what happened and what new possibilities the press(???) would make. There were
gun manufacturers and hunters with sports gears. There were media representatives from TV
networks, cable stations, video games and the Internet. There were parents' groups like the PTA
and community groups like the Boys' and Girls' Clubs. There were experts and researchers,
elected officials, police officers, educators and students. There was no acrimony, or personal
attack, or insult because the aftermath of this latest tragedy, we wanted to avoid getting
blamed(??), instead, to speak plainly, to bring people together on behalf of the young citizens of
America.
We all acknowledge that we might never truly know what motivated those two young
men - or indeed any other young people who turn weapons on themselves or others. But even if
we cannot fully understand, that does not absolve us of concern or responsibility. We are neither
helpless nor hopeless.
Each of you has demonstrated your own commitment to endorsing this, and I am
delighted that one of these students ended up back being at the White House, a senior at a local
high school, and a peer mediation counselor like many of you have been. She told us, "You
know, I'll probably get in trouble with some of my friends for saying this, but I think that kids do
really want parents to pay attention to them, to ask them questions about who their friends are,
where they are going and what they are doing. Even if we act like we really don't like it, we
really do want it." For a lot of us who are parents, that is an important reminder. On the one
hand, we must take more time with our children and listen to them. I recently learned that in
today's world, because of the pressures of work and commuting and other stresses on families,
whether it's a two parent family or a one parent family, parents are spending on average 22 fewer
hours with their children than they did 20 years ago. That is something we have to address, and
has to be addressed in a way that is organized, works, how we try to strike a better balance
between work and family and what our priorities are. There are, and we must never forget,
necessary limits and safegaurds that are important for adults to create and impose, so that young
people are better able to navigate that all forgotten course to adulthood safely.
4
When I met with the families that lost loved ones at Littleton, I went from family
group to family group, I was so struck, not by the grief which was evident, but their
capacity to reach out through hugs and stories, but their will to congregation, that they
would commit themselves to do what they could to make sure to avoid tragedies like this
to commit ourselves to be open and faithful, realistic and helpful to young people
everywhere. We cannot roll back the clock and undo the tragic events not only of
(sounds like) Bradstate and Columby but in other school shootings, and other violent
activities that take the lives of our young people too soon. But we can involve ourselves
to fight the cynicism and apathy that keeps us from being active participants in our own
communities. We can reach out, teaching children to care about one another, empathize
with people in different situations than themselves, to avoid hate as an excuse for
working for some better resolution. We can also do those simple things that sometimes
are easy to forget, but minimize. you know, we can offer a kind word, we can offer to
bridge the differences that come tooften between us, We can look for the small ways to
change if possible.
^
You've certainly established a tradition of service to your school and community
- that not only helps others, but, I would hope, serves to reduce that necessary human
condition that strikes all of us from time to time -- feeling alone or disconnected. You
have performed at least 60 hours of community service and I commend the state of
Maryland for the service learning requirements that you had to fulfill. But, many of you
have done much more, working with Amnesty International, or Youth Ending Hunger
and the Cancer Awareness Club. You have collected food and clothing for the victims of
Hurricane Mitch and the Kosovar refugees. You have worked in nursing homes and day
care centers. You have coached soccer teams and baseball teams of younger kids. And
with every hour of service, the thread tying you to, not only your community and your
school, but to your fellow human beings, has made you stronger. I hope, as you leave B-
CC and go on to college or job, or whatever your future holds, that you don't give up that
sense of service because it's no longer required. I hope it is a habit you don't want to
kick, because it is a way, especially in America today, of making sure we come together,
that we work towards community and inclusion as opposed to divisiveness and extreme.
This is not a new problem for America. I went to a very large public high school
and there were corridors I was afraid to walk down. There were SO many different
groups, there were, in those days, the greasers and preppy and the hoods, and all kinds of
other people labeled by themselves or labeled by others. The things we called each
other might have been different and the music we listened to might have been different,
although I am absolutely sure that, from my own experience, my college disliked the
music I listened to as much as maybe some of your parents dislike what you listen to.
But despite those superficial differences, every problem that we had to address then as
well. I remember very well that the administration of my school decided the fights, the
pushes, the throws, the active civil confrontations, couldn't go on and created something
that was then called a Cultural Values Committee, like the Welcoming Diversity
Committee. Our job was to listen to people we considered different and it was a real eye-
opening experience for me. I was on that committee, sitting with people whom I'd never
exchanged a word with, whom I'd never come anywhere near before was forced to be
around the table with them. And I was so surprised to learn that they were just as worried
and put off by me as I was by them. And as I listened to them and we broke down the
- 5
barriers between us and my feelings of fear and alienation began to melt away. And I
recognized there was a lot we all had in common. (.... for high school but for all
Americans.) Yours is the last class of this century. And you maybe must feel really
special you're the last class of the millennium. And much of the rest of the country is
preparing to celebrate the transition from 1999 to 2000, and you're here in the B-CC
community pondering the move from an old building to a 2 1rst century school. But as
the last school to graduate from this excellent school, I know you'll carry with you a lot
of the questions, the values, and the traditions, not just outdoors, but, I hope, far into the
future.
I'll be traveling to Boston this weekend for my 30th college reunion. Reunions are a time
for people to come together to think about what we've done, to honor the past but also
imagine the future. There's a lot to imagine, we have so many blessings in America
today. We need people who will think hard about how to make those blessings continue
for all Americans and deepen our commitment to what makes us such a unique
experiment for the history of the human race. You'll play your part in that. There are
many values and traditions that make B-CC a strong community and I would hope to see
them as the same kind of strong values,traditions,that America needs for you now. I kept
in touch with my high school friends. In fact, they've been a great source of support and
friendship for me over the last few years, particularly the high school group. Sometimes
when the headlines are not so happy or positive, I'll be proud to be somewhere and I'll be
met by a group of my friends from high school who are carrying comfort with my deep
dish pizza. And we'll sit around and we'll talk about everything else, but what's in the
headlines. But I was sent here for a reason, and when I was back in Chicago, and it was
around the time of my birthday and a bunch of my friends had rented out the place we
used to go to with the incredibly politically incorrect name of Boobies. So there we all
were, at Boobies, eating my (????) with about 30 of my high school friends, eating the
same fat-laden, wonderful food we used to eat when we could afford to do so. And a
man whom I hadn't seen much of in the years since I had graduated from high school,
named "Teeny," and he had been one of those greasers. He had been a really big, hulky
guy, who, kinda put the fear of whatever in his heart. And I struck up an acquaintance
with him, and I had began talking with him, oh in the halls and maybe I'd seen him in the
cafeteria. He was a wrestler and I ran into him one time and he said he was wrestling that
day and I went to see him - nobody would ever go to see him; they had their family or
their sports (???). But I had lost touch with him I knew that he had been drafted and he
would serve in Vietnam had trouble with his life and finally got himself together
married; now the father of children he is very proud of. He came to see me in (???) and
he said, "You know, years and years when I was back at Horace High, one of my
teachers, and I was a teacher, took me aside and gave me this book, and it was a
collection of memories of your brother." An unlikely gift from a young man, I would
have thought, but this teaches that there can, there is a lot here that will help you pave the
path for the new millennium When he came to see me, he had this dog-eared (....).
And he said, "You know, in those years a long time ago,when I stopped and talked with
you (....) and I want you to have this book now. Take it back to the White House and
share it with the President (....). I guess, not that he'll ever show up in transcripts, not ]
anybody even left any notes or remarks about his graduation. But it was those human
connections that mutually cross those lines that too often divide us, whether its race, or
- 6 ⑉
ethnicity, or religious ties, or class, or any other difference. (Last sentence
unintelligible). Thank you all very much!
- 1-
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS AT CHILDREN AND VIOLENCE
EVENT
TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1999
- 2 -
Good morning and welcome to the White House.
What you will see here today is the product of an exciting
joint effort, led by the Ad Council, the Kaiser Family
Foundation and Children NOW. It couldn't have happened
without the advice and participation of many other
advocacy groups and experts, entertainment industry
association leaders and network executives. I'd like to
acknowledge Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture
Association of America; Richard Masur [MAY-zur],
president of the Screen Actors Guild; and Eddie Fritts,
President and CEO of the National Association of
Broadcasters, who are here this morning. Many of the
television executives who have supported the public service
announcement are also here and I'd like to ask them to
stand so that we can give them all a round of applause.
- 3 -
Yesterday, the students and teachers of Columbine
High School returned to class, just 17 weeks after the tragic
shooting that killed 12 classmates and a beloved teacher.
One month later, on the very day that the President and I
traveled to Colorado to meet with members of the Littleton
community, a 15-year-old opened fire at his high school in
Conyers, Georgia. And, last week, the nation was stunned
yet again, when a man murdered a post office employee
and then, apparently wielding a submachine gun, turned his
hatred on three children, a teenaged camp counselor and a
receptionist at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles.
Each time a child is the victim of gun violence, it
shocks our national conscience and shakes our national
confidence. for, we have no more profound
responsibility and no more important challenge - - than the
safety of our children. I can only hope that our outrage will
strengthen our resolve to address the twin scourges of gun
violence and hate crimes, for there is no place for
intolerance either in this country.
4
As I've traveled across the nation in the weeks since
the Littleton tragedy, talking with students and their
parents, it's not helplessness or hopelessness that I've heard
in their voices. It's a clear and forceful determination to
move past the finger pointing; to take concrete steps to end
the violence, not only in our schools, but also in our
broader community.
Regenia Johnson, a seventh grader from Buffalo, sent
Park
met
P
me this letter just a week after the Littleton shootings:
"Violence is all around me. There are gangs in my
neighborhood. Because of this, I am not free to ride my
bike around the block. My mother fears for my life every
time I leave the house. I have gotten used to it, because
violence has been a part of my life since I was a child.
After the shooting, I decided to speak my mind and stop
holding back on my thoughts."
- 5 -
Anyone who listens to children like Regenia, has to
wonder: What will it take for our country to say, "Enough."
What will it take for Congress to pass common-sense gun
laws to keep handguns and assault weapons out of the
hands of juveniles and criminals?
After the shootings in Littleton, many members of
Congress said, "Enough," and the Senate passed tough new
provisions proposed by the President that would have
strengthened this country's gun safety laws. But even these
most common-sense of measures - measures e that in no way
would have restricted the activities of honest and legitimate
gun owners - were blocked by a majority in the House
who, apparently, were and more interested in the approval of
the National Rifle Association than in the safety of our
children.
- 6 -
We know, of course, that guns alone are not the
answer. That is why this administration has worked
tirelessly, and on many fronts, to meet the challenge of
keeping our children safe by giving parents the tools and
the time they need - - tools like the V-chip, and a new
agreement that requires movie theater owners to request
photo I-D's from young people who want to see R-rated
movies; by giving schools the resources they need, and by
hosting the first-ever White House Conference on School
course
Safety; and, by passing the Brady Law and the assault
weapons ban.
-7- -
no two ppt # My Rew but part
This past May, less than a month after the shootings at
Columbine, the President and I welcomed a distinguished
and diverse group of Americans to the White House,
where, at the end of the day, we united behind the idea of a
national campaign against youth violence.
the
a erant
Much has been accomplished, but much remains to be
done. And, although there is no question that responsibility
for our children's safety begins at home, we all have a
powerful role to play - especially those of you in this room
today.
quest Y
1
next A who her to w on e wa w -
- 8 -
Just as we know that children are impressed by the
negative images they see on television, in movies and on
their computer screens, we know that these same media
offer many positive and educational lessons to our children
as well. The public service announcement you will see in
few minutes sends just the kind of message we want our
children to hear. And, it provides even stronger evidence
of just how far we can go when we work together to take
responsibility for keeping our children safe.
Before I turn the program over to Peggy, I want to
thank the other people here who have worked so hard to
make this ad a reality: former Colorado Governor Roy
Romer, who is a member of the Ad Council's Board; Drew
Altman, the President of the Kaiser Family Foundation; and
Lois Salisbury [SAHLS-bury], President of Children NOW.
Now let me introduce the new President and Chief
Executive Officer of the Advertising Council, Peggy
Conlon.
###
MEMORANDUM
OF CALL
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DOCUMENT NO.
SUBJECT/TITLE
DATE
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AND TYPE
001. speech
re: political (3 pages)
04/19/1999
Personal Misfile
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
First Lady's Office
Lissa Muscatine
OA/Box Number: 21402
FOLDER TITLE:
Speeches to Edit
2015-0275-S
rc2050
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - |44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - 15 U.S.C. 552(b)]
P1 National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
b(1) National security classified information |(b)(1) of the FOIA]
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financial information [(a)(4) of the PRAJ
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information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRA]
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personal privacy |(b)(6) of the foia]
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purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
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of gift.
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PRM. Personal record misfile defined in accordance with 44 U.S.C.
b(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
2201(3).
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RR. Document will be reviewed upon request.
TRANSCRIPT DONE-NEEDS EDITING
Listed
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
to tape
PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BLDG.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
APRIL 28, 1999
Dianne Freinstein
Thank you. It is a great honor and pleasure for me to join you here and to be
part of not only this very important recognition of the Senator's work and
commitment. but the work of all of you who are gathered here, who are on the [tast
name]
front lines, speaking out on behalf of human rights. I want to thank Len, for that Rubenstein
kind introduction, but more than that, for his leadership on behalf of the work of
Dir, PHR
the Physicians for Human Rights. And he could not of picked a more important
subject, nor anyone more deserving than Senator Dianne Feinstein who celebrate
?
what she has done but to please ?? remind ourselves of needs to be done. Holly I
want to thank you for your work in making sure the conditions ?? continue the
public agenda. I am pleased that ??? is here on behalf of the Feminist ??? and all
of you who are apart of this effort to bring to world attention, particularly
America's attention- the situation that confronts women in Afghanistan. I am also
pleased that Theresa Loar, senior coordinator for international women's issues at
the State Department/here/along with Bennett Freeman, deputy / assistant secretary
for democracy, human rights and labor in all states. And I know that members of
Congress and ??? have also focused on here. But Dianne has enlisted their
assistance as well so that they are raising their bills, on behalf of this important
concern.
The Physicians for Human Rights has ??? told us its working all over the
world and I am very grateful for the work that you do. Not only being the eyes and
the ears often in very dangerous situations but then returning and reporting to the
rest of us what you have seen and using that information whether it is in a war
crimes tribunal or in a public media opportunity to educate the rest of us.
1
I am very grateful for anyone who is associated with the Board and I
especially want to single out the Board of Directors led by Dr. Robert Lawrence
And to urge you to continue to ?? as many fellow physicians and other concerned
citizens to this cause as you possibly can.
Senator Feinstein deserves this recognition for many reasons. Because she
has a lot of credibility when it comes to speaking out on behalf of human rights
and women's issues. And the kind of civilization that we want to help create in our
world for the 21 century. As she said this yesterday we were again in the White
House particularly to crusade the chief of and then the leaders of to try to bring
sensible gun control legislations to the forefront of the American political agenda.
As a freshman Senator she fought valliantly - and sucessfully c to ban
assault weapons thereby making the streets and communities safer. And on
many important issues, particularly as a human rights advocate she has helped
to educate the public about international human rights violations such as the use of
rape as a weapon and strategy of war, and the trafficking of women and girls.
And today, we honor, especially, what she has done to bring the public attention to
work towards the end of the widespread violation of women's rights in
Afghanistan. She's organized Congressional hearings and briefings; she has
spoken out many times on the issue; she has called for an international tribunal to
investigate claims of rape as a tool of terror and oppression against women in
Afghanistan and she has spearheaded the passage of a Senate resolution calling
for an end to the systematic abuse of women and girls in Afghanistan.
I want to applaud her again and I want you to join me in thanking her for the
work that she has done on behalf of women throughout the world
I also want you to help the Senator and many of us in this room continue to
work for another effort that she has spearheaded and that is the Passage and
ratification of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW). It is hard to understand how 163 countries have ratified that
human rights convention and we are the only democracy in the world that has
failed to do so. So I join Senator Feinstein - and the President - - in calling on
Congress again to pass CEDAW and to put America on the right side of the human
rights of women around the world.
2
I also want to ask for your assistance in enlisting more of your fellow
citizens on behalf of human rights issues. You know I am reminded as Len
mentioned that one of my favorite predessesors, Eleanor Roosevelt, who ?said
that "the destiny of human rights is in the hands of all of our citizens, in all of our
communities." You are putting your hands in that ?? but we need more hands
involved in bringing to the forefront the issue of human rights around the world.
We are making progess. Today, more women and girls are learning to read
and write, as nations — often for the very first time - - invest in their education.
Women are living longer and healthier lives, more are surviving childbirth, they are
gain greater access to health care and reproductive services. They are discovering
a new level of economic independence, and contributing more to their families and
their communities, as they gain access to jobs and credit. As a result of these hard-
won changes in laws and social attitudes woman are holding positions with
respect, power, and authority more than ever before.
Yet we know I that the women of Afghanistan while other women are
moving forward, are being pushed brutally backward in time. The opportunities
they once enjoyed are being trampled by the iron rule of the Taliban - creating
one of the clearest examples of the systematic violation of women's rights in any
nation in the world, anywhere today.
I
want to thank ?? as well for the report that she has spearheaded with the
help of many of you. Because it is one thing for us here in this room to stand and
talk about the rights that are being denied, the oppression that is being ?? on these
women. We need to hear from those that are ??? And because of ??? very
courageous work and those people who work with her, we now have those voices
that we can turn to and hear.
We know that our work has a long way to go and the women of Afghanistan
who used to make up half the country's teachers are prohibited from teaching
their daughters barred from school. We know that in a very short space of time, a
lot of the opportunities and advantages that they once enjoyed can be eliminated.
We know than when thousands of war widows, the senator referred to, who are the
sole support of their families who are prohibited from earning any living to
3
support those families that we are not only oppressing them economically but we
destroying their very ability to take care of their own children. And when women
are savagely beaten by so called "religious police" for not being fully covered by
the burqa, or for making noise while they walk, you know that it is not just the
physically ?? it is the ?? it is the destruction of the spirit of those women as well.
a
Women continue be turned away from hospitals because the doctors
cannot treat women and girls. And male doctors are not permitted to do so ???
we know that women are not even given the basic information they need on the
protecting themselves from land-mines and that is another serious problem that we
have seen with increasing injury to the ??? explosion.
?
The terrifying stories that have recently been brought out of Afghanistan by
Zora ????I want everyone to listen to. My husband and I had met Zora last
December at the White House for International Human Rights Day. She has
literally risked her life -- and shown uncommon personal courage -- to interview
women in Kabul and in the refugee camps in Pakistan. Her story is about a woman
who refused to obey Taliban orders to close a home school for women and girls.
She was shot in the head and stomach -- in front of her 40 students, her
husband, and her 18-month-old daughter when Taliban militia burst into her
house demanding she close the school. When she refused and instead
denounced the Taliban for its repression of women - this brave women was
murdered on the spot.
We can honor her memory, as Zora does, by not forgetting her story and her
willingness to stand against the forces of violence ???? These are terrible crimes
being committed against women and girls of Afghanistan believe they are also
crimes against humanity. But that is the bad news.
But there is some hopeful news as well. If these events in Afghanistan were
taking place ten years ago many nations - and many individuals - would be
looking the other way. It would be business as usual. But today, the international
community refuses ??. We are saying in a united voice we will not tolerate such
widespread violations of women rights and human rights. We will not turn away
when half the population of a nation is either being persecuted, and robbed of their
most fundamental freedoms or stand in danger of that dream.
4
So I am very pleased that many countries and non-governmental
organizations including our own administration are standing up to spotlight the
human rights abuses. The President has been willing to speak out on this and I
know recently when he met the Feminist Majority, he made it clear that we need to
stand united on behalf of the women in Afghanistan. The President has
condemned these violations in the strongest possible way to other heads of state
including Prime Minister Sharif of Pakistan. And they are attempting to work
together with human rights and women's rights groups here in the US to make sure
that that message is heard loudly and clearly in the business community, in the
diplomatic community and in the international community,
Our Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has herself traveled to the refugee
camps along the border of Afghanistan, meeting with women there-and she has
vowed public and privately that she will never forget their suffering. And she has
not. Last year, our country provided almost $4 million for health and education
projects in place for Afghan women and girls through the State Department and
USAID. And we remain committed as a nation and as citizens to support
these activities on behalf of these women and girls.
So I wanted to come for many reasons. To honor Senator Feinstein along
with all of you for her work, to thank the Physicians for Human Rights, for your
work, not only in Afghanistan, but around the world, to remind ourselves that
there are things that we can do in the face of such blunt violations of human rights
and women's rights. We wish we could do more, but until we are able to help see
that an opportunity for making choices ??? unto that nation we will continue to
stand against their international ?? for recognition and for business opportunities.
As a ??? of solidarity with the women of Afghanistan, but equally important, are
the statement of our own values and what we stand for as a nation and as
individuals.
Thank you for what you've done and thank you for not giving in to
indifference. Just a few weeks ago, Eli Weisel, the noble prize winner was at the
White House speaking about the lessons of this century and the subject was the
Perils of Indifference and of course because of what is going on in Kosovo, he
was very much focused on the lessons that you have to learn from this violent and
5
bloody century and how you have to stand up when you can for the human rights
of all people. And expand ??? by so many times the ???? human rights to all
people. I think as we are considering the incredible refugee crisis in the Balkans as
we remember the terrible catastrophe in Rowanda- as we 09 to stand against these
human right's violations and violence used on the behalf of those who oppress
another people for their own advantage will also have stand against the oppression
in Afghanistan being practiced by the Taliban.
It is at the same time, the motivation of putting others down on gender,
religion, ethnic background, bible origin-and we cannot go to the 21st century
??? within our power to finally stand against such human rights' violations and
?
against the perils of indifference.
Thank you for being here.
I want to take a moment to commend the work of Physicians for Human
Rights, which does such a remarkable job of documenting human rights abuses and
crimes against humanity -- and holding them up to the cold light of public scrutiny.
Today we will be focusing on the pervasive violation of women's rights taking
place under the iron heel of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
But I know that your members are also active in many other regions of the
world including some who are now interviewing the refugees streaming out of
Kosovo, and documenting the terrible stories of mass killings, rape, and other
crimes being reported there.
So I want to applaud Dr. Robert Lawrence, [president of the Board of
directors] Len Rubenstein [executive director] and Holly Burkhalter - who I know
had a great deal to do with bringing everyone together today -- and everyone at
Physicians for Human Rights, for the important work that you do every day here
and across the globe.
Today, we honor someone who has worked tirelessly to end the violence in
America's communities -- and improve human rights around the world: Senator
6
Dianne Feinstein.
7
Listento
tape
TRANSCRIPT DONE-NEEDS EDITING
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
JEWISH CHILD CARE ASSOCIATION
APRIL 19, 1999
Thank you very much. You could not have said anything that means more to me than
"you save one child you save the world." A belief that I think all of us this evening here
together share. I'm delighted to join all of you to celebrate the 175th anniversary of this pioneer
child welfare organization. It is an extraordinary honor for me to be able to speak before all of
you who support an organization that has served the needs of children and families in New York
for SO many generations. And I know that there are many Jewish Child Care Association
lumni of all ages, two of whom we have just seen. These men and women and boys and girls
are living proof that with the care, attention, love, and dedication provided by an organization
like yours, children can indeed live to fulfill their own god-given potential.
I want to thank Joyce Kramer, the President of the Board of JCCA, Steven ???? one of
the honorees, and Alan ???? also an honoree. And both of these gentlemen are being honored
for their many contributions and support of the work and the cause that JCCA represents. I also
want to recognize and thank the chairs of this event Barbara Mann and Arthur Maslow and I
want to recognize Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney? who is here with us
Mosely- Brance or M.
I also saw an old friend of mine who made the decision to return home to New York after
having lived in Washington for many years, who reminded me that he too is an alumnus of
JCCA and that is the ??inenidable?? Art Bookwald who is here this evening.
inimitable
You know JCCA's history parallels the history of child welfare in America. It is
sometimes hard to remember that 200 years or so ago, we didn't have much of a sense of
organized child welfare. And it wasn't until there were pioneers like JCCA who demonstrated
that indeed we as members of the community of adults and caring people, had an obligation and
an opportunity to help pick up where families were broken or destroyed by death or separation,
disease or any of the other problems that were particularly prevalent back at the beginning of the
last century.
In the 1820s, the JCCA's parent organizations provided private, sectarian services for
New York's needy Jewish population. And over time, the mission of JCCA has expanded to
meet the needs of the larger community Caring for children and supporting families through
child care, foster care and adoption. Today, as you well know, this organization is a
comprehensive child and family service agency that provides a wide array of services. And I
have noticed as I've followed your work, as I've read reports of what you've accomplished
that you've been on the cutting edge of many of the changes and reforms in the OK caring for
children that we have seen occur in the last several decades. With philanthropic assistance,
you've developed a superb record of strengthening families and finding permanent homes for
children, who otherwise would languish in foster care. I particularly want to thank you for that.
It has been one of the causes nearest and dearest to my heart, and that my husband has worked
on to change the rules and regulations governing the placement of children in foster care to make
it easier for children to be released for adoption into a permanent loving home or returned to the
home from which they came.
We've made a lot of progress in the last few years providing a tax credit for families that
adopt, working to eliminate discrimination and delays in adoption based on race and ethnicity.
And in 1997, thanks to the JCCA, and other involved organizations and individuals we were able
to see the President sign into law, the Adoption and Safe Families Act a land mark piece of
legislation that holds out the promise that we can make the foster care system work better for the
children it serves and secure those permanent homes for so many more children. Achieving the
goal, the President said, of doubling the number of adoptions by the year 2002 will really take
everyone's efforts. And that's why you are SO important and what you are doing to see that
children do have permanent homes is making such a difference.
JCCA boasts an adoption record that exceeds New York City's goals for moving children
from foster care to permanent homes. And I want to congratulate the staff, and the volunteers,
and the contributors to JCCA for doing so much to give children the love and permanence they
deserve.
The traditions of service and goodwill and love for children are obvious when one looks
at the record of the JCCA. I thank you for what you have done for children and families for 175
years, thank you for what you are doing now and will do in the future. Our children need as
many champions as they can have. Luckily for most of us, those champions are mothers or
fathers or grandparents or family members who we are connected to by birth and blood and
environment and circumstance. But when that is not possible for a child, then I believe it does
take the community. It does take other caring adults who will step in, hold out their arms, and
give that child a chance. You've be doing it and I know you will continue and ao you will begin,
once again, to change, reform, and transform, the child welfare system as you have So that it
meet the needs of children in the century to come.
S
Congratulations and thank you for what you have done for our children.
Thank you all very much.
Neeva
Diana Sciocchatti
21
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Remarks at Mentoring Event
The East Room, White House
February 2, 1999
(First few remarks cut off) commence the last few weeks that we find very important
and try to bring to public attention the work that so many of you gathered here this afternoon are
doing every day on behalf of the young people in our country.
We have many special guests here. I am delighted that the Attorney General, who has a
long-standing interest in communities supporting young people, is with us this afternoon. And
Senator Lautenberg. You will be hearing from both of them shortly.
We have other members of Congress as well. And the list I've been given, which I hope
get
is complete, includes Congressman Cardin, and Congressman Collins, and Congresswoman
from Neela
(inaudible), and Congresswoman (inaudible), and Congressman Payne, and Congresswoman
OF
Pellitano and former Senator Post, I think, that is it who is here today. So thank you for being
with us. And we appreciate your support of mentoring and your strong support of young people.
Pelosi-
Probably
Harris Wofford
Foundation
We also have Ferris Wolford the president of the National Service Corporation, Bob
Libwith of the Points of Light; and two special friends of young people and certainly of
mentoring, Candace Bergen and Matilda Cuomo. And Mrs. Cuomo's book on mentoring will be
coming out -- I'm going to plug it just a little -- coming out in May or June, I guess, at the latest.
And I had the first conversation with Matilda Cuomo about mentoring more than 10 years ago.
And this is something that she has worked on diligently all those years since.
And the reason she and all of us are gathered here is because we know that (inaudible)
image of our young people is that very uncertain reality that we know and understand. If we pick
up a newspaper or turn on the evening news, not only (inaudible) about what is
wrong (inaudible) with our children, we see or hear about the violence, the gangs, the drug
abuse, the teen pregnancy, the dropping out -- all of the real challenges that young people face.
But we know that that is by no means representative of the great number of young people.
I think it is much harder to be a young person today than it was certainly when I was
younger. And I think that the challenges of navigating that passageway to adulthood are
particularly difficult in today's world. And what I find most impressive is how well the vast
majority of our children are doing, often against great odds that I'm not sure I would be able to
survive. And so today we're here to celebrate what works to keep young people on the right
track, to give them the support and the tools they need to make the most out of their own lives.
We know that what works is preventing problems before they become crises or even tragedies.
We know what works to putting parents and other responsible adults into all of our children's
lives.
1
Every one of us, particularly every young person, needs someone to pick us up when we
fall, or congratulate us when we succeed, to tell us to keep going, to give us that combination of
love, attention, and discipline that every human being needs. And every one of us in this room, I
would bet, at one time could stand and tell a story of when they need a parent or a grandparent or
an aunt or an uncle, but also they need a teacher or a coach or a minister somebody in our lives
who really made a difference. And so all of us know how important it is to be part of a child's
life. And what we're doing this afternoon is celebrating that relationship.
You'll hear in a few minutes from a remarkable young woman who will share her story of
mentoring. Fannie is already, I just warrant in my short acquaintance with her, someone who
could be a great old force behind spreading the word about how mentoring changes lives.
learned?
We're also pleased that we have a number of organizations represented here that have
made a commitment to children and particularly to mentoring. Organizations such as Save the
Children, the Harvard Mentoring Project, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, America's Promise, the
National Mentoring Partnership, the Corporation for National Service, the Points of Light
Foundation, the Amelior Foundation, and the MCJ Foundation. These individuals and groups
have been the heart, and really are the soul, of our efforts to put caring adults into children's
lives. I would like to ask all of us to thank by a round of applause for the individuals that I
mentioned and all the organizations for the example and the work that they are doing.
(Applause)
And now it is my pleasure to start the program by introducing a leader who has worked
tirelessly in the halls of Congress to make sure that all children in America do have mentors. I
was kidding the Attorney General and the Senator when we were walking in that I was going to
say that the Attorney General and the Senator are mentor/mentee, and I leave that up to you
(laughter). But they quickly set me straight by saying that they are mutually learning from each
other, and certainly we are learning a lot from the example of Senator Lautenberg, who really has
put mentoring on the nation's agenda and given it the kind of support in Congress that it needs
that organizations like yours and many others throughout our country, and communities this week
honoring the grants. to be announced later in the program, are provided the support they require
to be able to be a very positive role model for children's lives. Please join me in welcoming
Senator Frank Lautenberg.
[Senator Frank Lautenberg, Attorney General Janet Reno, and Fannie Cyanique speak.]
Well, thank you so much, Fannie. You know, your commitment and your courage was a
part of that magic combination that you and Robin have created in the mentoring relationship.
And as I've listened to Fannie, I just thought to myself, as I'm sure many of you did, how
fortunate, indeed, she has been. And how I wish that every child had someone like Robin in their
lives. Imagine if all children had someone to tutor them in school, take them for a Broadway
play, buck them up during the hard times of adolescence, help them out with family issues, put
them on the right track, and give them the chance, as Fannie had, it's going to take for college.
S
2
Well, we know that mentoring makes a very big difference. We've had a lot of research
over the last four decades pointing in that direction. I remember very well years ago when I was
beginning work on children's issues and reading the results of the longitudinal study that
(inaudible) And they followed a group of young people who were in very similar
circumstances over a number of years, and even children of the same family. They charted what
happened to those children, how children faced the inevitable ups and downs of life: the loss of a
parent, the divorce of a family, the personal, physical, other kind of setbacks, the
disappointments in school. And at the end of the day, they concluded that the most important
factor that set apart those children who were in their first (inaudible) to get up every day and
keep going, and those who were overwhelmed by whatever life handed them was the difference
between those who had some caring adult who was there for them, and those who did not.
You heard the Attorney General refer to what we know about how this kind of
relationship helps prevent crime. But it does so much more than that. It has been one of the
Attorney General's great contributions to the efforts we've made against crime in the last six
years. I keep reminding everyone that, yes, we have to do what's needed on the punitive side and
on the law enforcement side. But as the chief of the Justice Department and someone who works
with law enforcement officials, she knows very well that we have to do more in terms of
prevention. And one of the single best strategies and the single best investments a person, a
family, a community or a nation can make is in the mentoring relationship.
Today, I am pleased to release a new Justice Department report, "Juvenile Mentoring
Programs 1998 Report to Congress." This report confirms what we have already known and
talked about this afternoon: that one caring adult can make all the difference in a child's life. It
shows that mentoring programs work to help young people stay away from crime and stay in
school and even go on to college.
In one study, young people with mentors were 46 percent less likely to start using drugs
and 33 percent less likely to hit someone. They were far more likely to attend class, improve
their grades, and strengthen their relationships with family and friends.
Now, I'm sure there will be some who will say, "Well, yes, but that's what a parent's
supposed to do; that's what families are for." And you will get no argument from any of us.
That is indeed what parents and families are for. But I have lived long enough, and everybody in
this room has lived long enough, to know that's not the way it always works. And I know I've
told this story many times, but one of the reasons that I'm so committed to children and what
needs to be done to get children the tools and support they need is because my mother did not
have that. She came from a very disruptive family situation, and at the age of 13 or 14 went to
work for somebody who in effect became a mentor. Along her young life's way, there were
people who held out a helping hand. But the woman she worked for became a real example of
love that she never had in her life before.
3
We know that sometimes parents can't be there physically, emotionally, psychologically.
We know that every parent needs help, especially in today's world where they're working so
hard. We know that there is absolutely no way that most parents particularly single parents --
can do without the help, as (inaudible name) said, of the village and the help of a supportive
community around them.
? Senator hautenbers?
I've seen firsthand what does happen when children are given the support that Fannie was
talking about. I've seen it all over our country. I've seen it at the Harriet Tubman School in
Harlem. I've seen it at the Little White House in Anacostia. I've seen it from one coast to the
other. Each of us knows what difference it can make. And that is why today we are really
holding up these examples of mentoring and looking for new ways to encourage the
organizations here and the communities represented here to provide more opportunities like the
one we see before us between Robin and Fannie.
The President's budget has a very specific agenda when it comes to mentoring. Literally
it has an agenda when it comes to working families and children, but within that the President
wants to double funding for the new Gear Up program to help low-income children get into and
get ready for college. And he also wants to dedicate $95 million for our "At Risk Youth
Initiative," which supports mentoring programs like JUMP [Juvenile Mentoring Program pf the
Department of Justice]. And I hope that the Congress, from both sides of the aisle, come
in which
together this year and recognize that helping to create the conditions that these relationships can
be started and thrive is one of the best ways we can make a commitment to our children.
Use
I'm also pleased that Newsweek has been willing to put out a publication about how to be
a great mentor. And, in fact, the mentor/mentee here on the cover are with us, and I'd like to ask
the mentor, Calvin Dobbs (sp.) to stand, and your mentee, Calvin (inaudible), if you could stand.
get
(Applause) Calvin told me earlier that he had gotten involved in the mentoring project through
lames
the U.S. Postal Service, and that they had encouraged him through his employment to be
from
involved (inaudible).
Neera
Well the (inaudible) roles of more Calvins, more. (inaudible). and more success stories
like Paul, I am pleased to announce $14 million in JUMP grants to 73 communities, including
Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and here in the District of Columbia. Now, in addition to
those large cities, other cities that are smaller communities are also receiving the grants. And I
would like to ask everyone who is associated with any cities receiving grants to please stand.
(Applause) These grants will reach more than 7,500 young people in 37 states with one-on-one
mentoring to help them stay in school, stay away from drugs, gangs and crime, and stay involved
in positive activities.
also
I'm also pleased to announce two new ways that private and nonprofit organizations/will
also be working to make it clear that when someone hears about this and they decide they want to
be a mentor, they know what to do. We need to give guidance and support. It's not enough just
to decide you want to be a mentor, but you need the kind of support that comes from Big
4
Brothers/Big Sisters and other organizations. So I'm pleased to announce that there is going to
be some real concerted effort to try and make sure that when people think they want to be a
mentor, they are given the support that they need to be the best possible mentor they can be.
First, Kaplan Educational Centers, Newsweek and the National Mentoring Project have
teamed up to produce the first comprehensive guide and website for mentors. That's what you'll
find if you open up this special edition of Newsweek. You'll find information about how to do
the match that you're looking for. You know, we're all human beings, maybe the person
(inaudible) if one doesn't quite take, but if you stay with it and you get good advice and help,
you will find somebody that really relates to you, and that you feel very connected with. We
hope that thousands of adults will pick up this guide and also log onto the website if they're
interested in becoming mentors. That is www.mentoring.org. And we hope that that will
happen. You know, as many kids as you can imagine in the next couple of weeks.
Second, I am pleased to announce two new PSAs that are part of the new national media
campaign involving the major networks and studios. One is spearheaded by the Harvard
Mentoring Project, again, and features Quincy Jones. The other was created by Save the
Children, in partnership with the Ad Council. They both ask us to become mentors. And they
feature a toll-free number that will direct us to local mentoring organizations that need our help.
I'd like to show you both of these new PSAs now.
[PSAs shown.]
I hope every single American gets to see and hear these messages, especially about not
having to be perfect. (Laughter) That's a very good message to send out and receive. And I
think that the kind of partnership that you've seen put together around this with the Federal
Government, through appropriating funds for these programs; the kind of leadership Senator
Lautenberg and the Attorney General have given, providing local communities throughout 37
states; and working with not-for-profits to really understand how you do this work of mentoring -
- will, I hope, really make a big difference.
In this mentoring guide that I hope you will all pick a copy up of, it explains how the
word "mentor" was first used in Homer's The Odyssey. And how the character "Mentor" in that
classic was described as "a wise and trusted friend," and was relied upon to watch over the
kingdom and to watch over Odysseus' son.
Well, it is no different today. Each one of us needs a guardian angel. And our children
certainly do. That's why we've got the halo as one of the logos for the mentoring relationship.
And I hope that all of us will not just preach to the choir. Most of us in this room already believe
in mentoring, we're committed to mentoring, we've been mentored or done mentoring. And I
hope we can go forth from here and reach as many Americans as possible, because there are so
many children who are just looking for the chance to be taken in hand and given the kind of
support that we've heard about today.
5
I want to thank all of you for what you've done to make mentoring really come alive in
America's consciousness. And I want to ask you to keep doing all you can so that we really
enlist the thousands and thousands of mentors for the thousands and thousands of young people
who need them. And I also want to ask you to make sure that you use this example of how we
build human relationships as a way of demonstrating for your fellow Americans in every walk of
life that we have a (inaudible). We are so blessed. If you will take the time, make the
investments, and spread those lessons, we will be even more blessed in the years to come.
Thank you very much.
6
Speeches to Trauscribe
Rawadau (Eid event
clear 1/21
Project Children 2/3
Business Sume it 3/5
Speeches to Finish
Socks /Buddy 2/3
(type in) - saved
as 03 buddy. wpd
in Trans99 - Feb.,
.
Foster Care -
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to
ONLY Po NOT COPY LOSE Dear
Need clear
Socks, Dear Buddy Book Party and
National Park Foundation Ceremony
Remarks by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
The White House
February 3, 1999
Thank you very much, and welcome to the White House.
I am delighted to have all of you here as part of this event to celebrate the publication of
Dear Socks, Dear Buddy, and to honor the organization that will benefit from its proceeds, the
National Park Foundation.
We have many, many distinguished visitors with us today, and I want to acknowledge
J
some of them. I am delighted that the Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and his wife (inaudible)
are here with us, National Park Service Director Bob Stanton (inaudible); I am also pleased to
welcome Associate Director of park services Kate Stevenson: and I want to welcome
board members, and staff of the National Park Foundation.
particularly, President Jim Maddy, Executive Vice President Jill Nicoll le ; and other officers,
Because I know that all of you who are here with us this evening, that every American
who has ever hiked even one mile of the more than 250,000 miles of National Park trails or
every child whose imagination has been sparked by many, many educational programs that the
Park Service provides. For every family that has ever stood in silence or been surrounded by the
beauty of any of our 376 National Parks owes the management of the park services and those
who are supportive of the park foundation a great debt of gratitude (inaudible)
Wallace Stegner once said, that the "national parks are the best idea we ever had," well I
think that may very well be true and certainly to the people of the United States the creation of
the National Park Foundation may well be the second best idea we've ever had and the
foundation supports part of that on-site. For more than 30 years, it has enabled thousands of
organizations, corporations, and concerned citizens to contribute to our Parks, to make them
living monuments that teach us about our past and inspire us about the future.
And that is the purpose of the Save America's Treasures campaign that is part of the
White House Millennium Program. My husband and I started the White House Millennium
program and thinking about the Millennium long time ago without knowing anything about it but
what we saw was as an opportunity to bring our country together and to have a moment in time
(inaudible) and celebrate our common past (inaudible) while planning for the future.
We knew that one of the best ways we can imagine the future is to preserve what we value from
our past. And in small towns and big cities across this country, there are historic sites,
monuments, documents and art that tell the story of who we are as a nation -- a story that must be
passed down to every generation.
I was pleased that the Millennium Fund to "Save America's Treasures Campaign" was
looked on favorably by the Congress in the 1999 budget. Congress established a $30 million
grant program to be used for the most urgent preservation projects of national significance. The
president in his budget, the year 2000 budget is asking for an additional appropriation that
doesn't come anywhere near the great need that exists. I have been told by (inaudible) that it is
probably about $5 million a year for maintenance and other important work that needs to be done
for our national parks.
On behalf of (inaudible) and "Save America's Treasures" will help to highlight some of
those needs and make the case that "Save America's Treasures" is not just the responsibility of
the government. It is a public-private partnership and we have very significant private sector
partners; The National Trust for Historic Preservation is raising awareness about the preservation
needs in every community across America -Heritage Preservation, which has for decades been a
leading advocate for the preservation of America's historic legacy (inaudible). And of course,
the National Park Foundation is an essential part of this effort.
We asked the Congress to budget 30 million last year. (Inaudible) certainly be very well
properly spent but we would use it to leverage private sector support, and I am pleased to
announce that we have raised, in less than a year, over $30 million on behalf of "Save
America's" foundation. Those donations have come from individuals, they come from
corporations, they come from foundations. I have seen, first hand, the results of this public-
private partnership.
I've had the opportunity over the past year to see about a dozen of the Park Service sites.
And we will be preparing for (inaudible) I stood, for example, in the African Meeting House
in Boston--America's oldest standing black church--and just to feel the vibrations of the room,
imagining the conversations and the services that went on there.. (inaudible). I walked through
the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York, where the first
Women's Rights convention was held 150 years ago for the commemoration that the Park
Service planned.
And, of course, today, we are standing in another site that is cared for by the National
Park Service The White House itself. When I look out my window, upstairs, I often see the
grounds keepers working very hard to keep The White House as beautiful as it is. Sometimes
they even stop long enough to throw a ball to Buddy or to stop and pet Socks. And so it seemed
to me as we were working on this project that it would be very fitting that the proceeds from this
new book, the author proceeds, would be given to the National Park Foundation, the men and
women who for
(inaudible).
This book was inspired by the hundreds of thousands of children and some adults who
have written to our cat and dog since we moved into the White House. Now if you had asked me
when we were getting ready to move to Washington, who would be second to the President as
the most popular person in The White House to receive correspondence, I don't know what I
would have said, but I certainly don't think I would have guessed it would be initially Socks and
now Socks and Buddy. I was amazed by the outpouring of letters. For comparison purposes, as
I mentioned in the book Thomas Jefferson received an average of 137 letters a month when he
was President well I didn't even know, with respect to President Jefferson, that Socks passed
that. And I think that this was the first effort for many of the writers to communicate with any
government office let alone the White House.
The children ask wonderful questions for example, To Buddy: "I've heard that you're
the first dog. Does this mean you have authority over the other dogs of the United States? What
about other nations' dogs?" As I am getting to know more about Buddy's personality as he
slowly, very slowly sort of transforms from a puppy into an adult dog, he would adore being the
master of other dogs in other parts of the world. Now Socks is not quite as outgoing and he gets
questions like: "Do you get paid for being the first cat?" and "What is the White House like? Of
course it's big, but is it spooky or nice or too fancy? Or just right?"
Now I share some of these letters in the book along with some of our favorite pictures
and I really felt compelled to do this in large measure because I know how disappointed children
are when they write off to someone that doesn't write back and I think that we could not have
had a greater source of support for this effort to return every child's letter and try to answer
children's questions than the volunteers who came to our assistance when we realized that
(inaudible) Sock back in 1993. That's why I am so grateful to the retired servicemen and women
who live at the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home in Washington, D.C. They volunteered to
pitch in and make sure that Socks and Buddy can answer all their mail. Now they organized it
like a military operation and I never had any doubt once they took charge that it was going to be
all right. And these volunteers have served our country in World War II, (inaudible) Korea, or
Vietnam. In large number, not completely, they are here with us today. And I would like to
stand and I would like to ask all these volunteers to stand so that we could thank them for their
tour of duty as volunteers on behalf of the children of America and around the world--for
answering letters for Socks and Buddy.
Now Socks has been out to visit--Buddy is not yet ready. But he'll get there. He will.
He'll be out. But Socks has been out there, I've been out there, and as soon as I think it's
something it's something we can all (inaudible) we are not going to bring Buddy as well. You
know I did a video interview about the book a few weeks ago and Socks was typically Socks--sat
there and looked around (Inaudible) and thought go away, you know, what's happening and
everything was going just fine and Buddy was going to be brought in later, and Buddy was sort
of straining at the leash and I had Socks in my lap and Buddy finally broke loose, came over and
tried to get in my lap and he is somebody who just still needs a little more attention.. (inaudible).
Dear Socks, Dear Buddy would not have been possible without many, many of the people
here today. I'd like to single out just a few. The people from Simon and Schuster are with us
and have been so supportive and helpful. Sydny Minor, the editor, has been a wise and patient
partner. Carolyn Reidy[Reed-ee], and Barbara Marks, and the production staff who worked so
hard to create this book on a tight schedule, have done an historically good job. And I would like
to thank everyone from Simon and Schuster and tell you how grateful I am for your help on this
project.
Linda Kulman was also an invaluable contributor to the book-- and I want to thank her
for all she did to make the life of Socks and Buddy come alive. And the wonderful pictures of
Socks and Buddy are those of the talented team of White House photographers, with one
exception, and that is the picture of Socks outside of the Governor's Mansion of a lot of the
photographers, maybe some are here today, taking pictures of Socks. That is one of my favorite
pictures. The kind of work that goes into a project like this is really hard to describe. It has been
a labor of love and work of many, many people.
But I hope the book does several things. I hope it does inspire children to write letters,
not only to The White House but to others as well and we even include a chapter in the book
about how to encourage children to write and we consulted literacy experts from around the
country including some of the teachers who had used Socks and Buddy as an exercise for their
students to write to them.
Two of these teachers are with us today Ms. Chrissy Free, from the Chinoon [chin-
noon] Elementary School in Vancouver, Washington, and Ms. Anne House, from Barry
Elementary School in Yuba City, California. I want to thank both of them and would like them
to stand so that I can acknowledge them
And we do a lot of work to emphasize the importance of reading, but writing is really the
other side of the whole idea on how we enhance literacy, so I am very grateful to teachers such as
Chrissy and Anne because they encourage their students and others like them, teachers around
the country, have thought of using Socks and Buddy as a way of encouraging letter writing.
We've also included in the book a history of animals in the White House there are some
wonderful photographs out in the hallway. One of my favorites is President Wilson's sheep
grazing on the lawn during World War I so that gardeners could serve their country. And then
later the sheep were shorn and their wool drew $100,000 at an auction in 1918 to raise money for
the American Red Cross. Also, Caroline Kennedy rode her pony Macaroni around the South
Lawn And that became a rather famous animal and there is a picture of him pulling the
Kennedy children.
I want to thank the White Historic Association for making the book available, they get about a
million and a half visitors every year. Their store (inaudible) as well as those about Buddy and
Socks. I hope they will inspire children and adults to learn more about the White House and to
think about the historic periods that the animals lived in. And I want to thank Neil Horstman and
Bob Breeden for their leadership in this effort, and the entire crew over at the White House
Historical Association-which has been a wonderful partner of mine in all of our efforts over the
past years.
I hope that all of you will follow what happens with the book and its proceeds because I
am very hopeful that I am going to see very clearly some changes and some of that with be to
keep urging this book and no one has worked harder to accomplish the effort of any financial
park foundation, an integral partner in the park service and our speaker. For over 20 years, he
has been a champion of conservation and preservation. And to every challenge, he has brought
great vision, commitment, and ability to get things done. I am very honored he is the President
of the National Park Foundation -- Jim Maddy.
[Maddy speaks]
I guess of I should make clear that some of (inaudible)
We honor two special guests that would like to join us this afternoon and I am very please
that they could come. Because of course without them
We will now return to the State Dining Room for refreshments and I am happy to meet any of
you in the Blue Room for (inaudible)
TRANSCRIPT IN PROGRESS
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
EDUCATION EVENT
THE WHITE HOUSE
JANUARY 21, 1999
GOOD MORNING, AND WELCOME TO THE WHITE HOUSE. IT IS A GREAT
PLEASURE FOR THE PRESIDENT AND I TO HAVE YOU HERE THIS MORNING FOR
THIS IMPORTANT SUBJECT AND THESE ANNOUNCEMENTS AND TO BE JOINED BY
SECRETARY RILEY AND ALSO TO HAVE SO MANY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WITH
US. I WANT TO MENTION THE MEMBERS WHO ARE HERE AND SAY THAT OUR
TWO SENATORS, SENATOR KENNEDY AND SENATOR INOUYE, WILL HAVE TO
EXCUSE THEMSELVES SHORTLY, BUT I AM VERY PLEASED THAT THEY BOTH
COULD BE HERE. THEY'VE BEEN LONG TIME SUPPORTERS AND ADVOCATES
FOR QUALITY EDUCATION. WE'RE ALSO PLEASED THAT WE COULD HAVE
JOINING WITH US FROM THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, REPRESENTATIVES
CUMMINGS, EDWARDS, HOLT, KILDE, MINK, SANCHEZ, AND STEPANOW. AND I
AM VERY GRATEFUL THAT THEY COULD BE HERE.
I ALSO KNOW, PACKING THIS ROOM, LITERALLY MAKING IT STANDING
ROOM ONLY, THERE ARE MANY OTHER ELECTED OFFICIALS, TEACHERS,
EDUCATION LEADERS, AND PUBLIC SCHOOL ADVOCATES WHO HAVE TAKEN
THE TIME TO BE HERE. I WANT TO GIVE A SPECIAL WORD OF WELCOME TO
ARTHUR MOORE, WHO YOU WILL HEAR FROM IN A FEW MINUTES. A FORMER
SOLDIER WHO IS NOW TEACHING IN AN INNER CITY SCHOOL IN BALTIMORE,
AND KNOWS FIRST HAND THE CHALLENGES AND REWARDS OF BEING A
TEACHER TODAY.
WE'RE ALL HERE BECAUSE, AS THE PRESIDENT SO CLEARLY STATED IN
THE STATE OF THE UNION, WE KNOW THAT EDUCATION IS NOT ONLY THE KEY
TO OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURES, BUT TO THE KEY THAT WILL UNLOCK THE
FUTURE OF OUR NATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY. WE KNOW THAT TO CREATE
WORLD CLASS SCHOOLS IN EVERY COMMUNITY - WE NEED QUALIFIED
TEACHERS IN EVERY CLASSROOM.
IN THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS THE PRESIDENT SPOKE ABOUT THE
URGENT NEED TO RAISE EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS - - NOT ONLY FOR OUR
SCHOOLS - BUT FOR THOSE WHO TEACH IN THEM. AND I THINK ALL OF US
ARE HERE BECAUSE WE WANT TO UNDERSCORE HOW CRITICAL HIS PROPOSALS
ARE TO OUR CHILDREN - AND THEREFORE TO OUR FUTURE.
1
I CAN REMEMBER BACK IT SEEMS NOW MANY, MANY YEARS AGO, BUT
ABOUT 16 YEARS AGO, WHEN MY MY HUSBAND FIRST ASKED ME TO CHAIR THE
EDUCATION STANDARDS COMMITTEE IN ARKANSAS BACK IN 1983. I TRAVELED
TO SCHOOLS IN EVERY CORNER OF THAT STATE, TALKING TO PARENTS,
TEACHERS, ADMINISTRATORS, BUSINESS LEADERS, CONCERNED CITIZENS
ABOUT WHAT WE NEEDED TO DO TO TRY TO IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL
OPPORTUNITIES.
AND IN THE PAST YEARS, SINCE BEING HERE IN THE WHITE HOUSE, I
HAVE VISITED SCHOOLS ACROSS OUR COUNTRY--IN BOTH WEALTHY AND
DISTRESSED NEIGHBORHOODS, IN RURAL AREAS AND INNER CITIES. AND I
HAVE LEARNED, AS I THINK NONE OF US NEEDS TO KEEP LEARNING, BUT WE
ALWAYS SEE IT IN VERY BOLD RELIEF WHEN WE'RE IN SCHOOLS, AND THAT IS
THAT THE MOST ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT IN ANY SCHOOL ARE THE TEACHERS.
QUALITY TEACHERS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A CHILD
ACHIEVING HIS OR HER DREAM SCORE OR REACHING A DEAD END. AND WHEN
WE TALK ABOUT TEACHERS, WE KNOW FROM OUR OWN LIVES THOSE
TEACHERS WHO INSPIRED US, PUSHED US FARTHER THAN WE THOUGHT WE
COULD GO AND CERTAINLY ASKED EVERYONE IN THE COMMUNITY TO JOIN
WITH THEM IN BEING PARTNERS IN EDUCATING CHILDREN. NOW NOBODY I
THINK CAN GAINSAY THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHERS, BUT TOO OFTEN IN THE
LAST SEVERAL YEARS WE HAVEN'T SHOWN THE RESPECT AND ACCORDED THE
HONOR TO OUR TEACHERS THAT THEY DESERVE. AND ONE OF THE REASONS
WHY WE ARE GATHERED TODAY IS THAT WE WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE AND
RECOGNIZE THAT OUR TEACHERS HERE IN OUR COUNTRY ARE DEDICATED AND
HARD-WORKING AND COMMITTED.
YET IN TOO MANY SCHOOLS THEY DON'T HAVE THE ACADEMIC
BACKGROUND OR TRAINING THAT SHOULD PREPARE THEM FOR THE SUBJECTS
THEY TEACH OR THE CLASSROOMS OF CHILDREN THEY FACE EVERYDAY. THEY
ARE NOT GIVEN THE HELP THEY NEED AND THE TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT THAT WILL NOT ONLY HELP THEM BE THE BEST TEACHERS
THEY CAN BE, BUT WILL IMPROVE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND INCREASE
EXPECTATIONS AND OUTCOMES.
STUDIES CONFIRM WHAT EVERY PARENT INSTINCTIVELY KNOWS AND
WHAT ALL OF US I THINK WOULD AGREE: THAT QUALIFIED, EFFECTIVE
TEACHERS PRODUCE STUDENTS WHO EXCEL AND WANT TO LEARN AND WHO
HAVE A LASTING IMPACT ON INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS ON SCHOOLS AND EVEN
WHOLE COMMUNITIES. NOW IN EVERY OTHER FIELD OF PROFESSIONAL
ENDEAVOR, WE DO REQUIRE PROPER TRAINING TO DO THE JOB THAT WE
EXPECT THAT PROFESSIONAL TO DO--AND CERTAINLY WHEN IT COMES TO
2
TEACHING, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL PROFESSIONS, THEN WE
HAVE TO DO MORE TO SUPPORT TEACHERS. THAT'S WHY IMPROVING TEACHER
QUALITY AND EXPANDING THE POOL OF QUALIFIED TEACHERS -- IS SUCH AN
INTEGRAL PART OF THE PRESIDENT'S EDUCATION AGENDA. AND WE ALSO
HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ELSE, AND THAT IS TO ENCOURAGE THOSE WHO ARE
NOT TEACHING NOW BUT WHO HAVE THE GIFTS AND THE MOTIVATION TO DO
SO, LIKE MR. MOORE TO ENTER THE TEACHING PROFESSION.
THROUGH EFFORTS LIKE RECRUITING OUTSTANDING NEW TEACHERS
FOR POOR NEIGHBORHOODS IN RURAL AREAS, LOWERING CLASS SIZE, HELPING
OUR TEACHERS MEET HIGH STANDARDS, THE PRESIDENT'S PLAN IS MOVING
OUR SCHOOLS AND OUR NATION -- FORWARD.
NOW HE IS JOINED IN THAT GREAT EFFORT BY SOMEONE WITH WHOM HE
AND I HAVE WORKED FOR MANY YEARS, WHO HAS BEEN PASSIONATELY
DEVOTED TO EDUCATION, CHILDREN, TEACHERS, AND HAS PUT INTO ACTION
THE PRINCIPLES THAT WE BELIEVE AND HAVE EVIDENCE TO PROVE WILL
DEMONSTRATE THAT THE PROVING OF THE QUALITY OF THE TEACHERS WILL
ENABLE ALL OF US TO ENJOY BETTER EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES.
IT IS NOW MY GREAT HONOR AND MY PERSONAL PLEASURE TO
INTRODUCE THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION-- RICHARD RILEY.
3
TRANSCRIPT IN PROGRESS
Dear Socks, Dear Buddy Book Party and
National Park Foundation Ceremony
Remarks by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
The White House
February 3, 1999
Thank you very much, and welcome to the White House. I am delighted to have all of
you here as part of this event to celebrate the publication of Dear Socks, Dear Buddy, and to
honor the organization that will benefit from its proceeds, the National Park Foundation.
We have many, many distinguished visitors with us today, and I want to acknowledge
some of them. I am delighted that the Interior Secretary, Bruce Babbitt, and his wife,
(inaudible), are here with us. National Park Service Director Bob Stanton is also with us. I am
also pleased to welcome Associate Director of Park Services Kate Stevenson. And I want to
welcome, particularly, President Jim Maddy, Executive Vice President Jill Nicholl, and other
officers, board members and staff of the National Park Foundation.
Because I know that all of you who are here with us this evening, that every American
who has ever hiked even one mile of the more than 250,000 mile of National Park trails or
every child whose imagination has been sparked by many, many educational programs that the
Park Service provides for every family that has ever stood in silence or been surrounded by the
beauty of any of our 376 National Parks owes the management of the Park Service and those
war are supportive of the park foundation a great debt of gratitude (inaudible)
Wallace Stegner once said, that the "national parks are the best idea we ever had, --well I
think that may very well be true and certainly to the people of the United States the creation of
the National Park Foundation may well be the second best idea we've ever had and the
foundation supports part of that on-site. For more than 30 years, it has enabled thousands of
organizations, corporations, and concerned citizens to contribute to our parks, to make them
living monuments that teach us about our past and inspire us about the future.
And that is the purpose of the "Save America's Treasures" campaign that is part of the
White House Millennium Program. My husband and I started the White House Millennium
Program and thinking about the Millennium a long time ago without knowing anything about it,
but what we saw was an opportunity to bring our country together and to have a moment in time
(inaudible) and celebrate our common past (inaudible) while planning for the future.
We knew that one of the best ways we can imagine the future is to preserve what we
value from our past. And in small towns and big cities across this country, there are historic
sites, monuments, documents and art that tell the story of who we are as a nation--as story that
must be passed down to every generation.
I was pleased that the Millennium Fund to "Save America's Treasures" campaign was
look on favorably by the congress in the 1999 budget. Congress established a $20 million grant
program to be used for the most urgent preservation projects of national significance. The
President, in his budget, the year 2000 budget is asking for an additional appropriation that
doesn't come anywhere near the great need that exists. I have been told by (inaudible) that it is
probably about $5 million a year for maintenance and other important work that needs to be
done for our national parks.
On behalf of (inaudible) and "Save America's Treasures" will help to highlight some of
those needs and make the case that "Save America's Treasures" is not just the responsibility of
the government. It is a public-private partnership and we have very significant private sector
partners; The National Trust for Historic Preservation is raising awareness about the preservation
needs in every community across America; The Heritage Preservation, which has for decades
been a leading advocate for the preservation of America's historic legacy (inaudible). And of
course, the National Park foundation is an essential part of this effort.
We asked the Congress to budget $30 million last year. (Inaudible) certainly be very
well properly spent but we would use it to leverage private sector support, and I am pleased to
announce that we have raised, in less than a year, over $30 million on behalf of "Save America's
Treasures" foundation. Those donations have come from individuals, they come from
corporations, they come from foundations. I have seen, first hand, the results of this public-
private partnership.
I've had the opportunity over the past year to see about a dozen of the Park Service sites.
And we will be preparing for (inaudible) I stood, for example, in the African Meeting House in
Boston--America's oldest standing black church--and just to feel the vibrations of the room,
imagining the conversations and the services that went on there (inaudible) I walked through
the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York, where the first
Women's rights convention was held 150 years ago for the commemoration that the Park
Service planned.
And, of course, today, we are standing in another site that is cared for by the National
Park Service--the White House itself. When I look out my window, upstairs, I often see the
grounds keepers working very hard to keep the White House as beautiful as it is. Sometimes
they even stop long enough to throw a ball to Buddy of to stop and pet Socks. And SO it seemed
to me as we were working on this project that it would be very unfitting that the proceeds from
this new book, the author proceeds, would be given to the National Park Foundation, the men
and women who for (inaudible)
This book was inspired by the hundreds of thousands of children and some adults who
have written to our cat and dog since we moved into the White House. Now if you had asked
me when we were getting ready to move to Washington, who would be second to the President
as the most popular person in the White House to receive correspondence, I don't know what I
would have said--but I certainly don't think I would have guessed it would be initially Socks and
now Socks and Buddy. I was amazed by the outpouring of letters. For comparison purposes, as
I mentioned in the book, Thomas Jefferson received an average of 137 letters a month when he
was President--well I didn't even know, with respect to President Jefferson, that Socks passed
that. And I think that this was the first effort for many of the writers to communicate with nay
government office let alone the White House.
The children ask wonderful questions, for example, To Buddy: "I've heard that you're
the first god. Does that mean you have authority over the other dogs of the United States? What
about other nations' dogs?" As I am getting to know more about Buddy's personality as he
slowly, very slowly sort of transforms from a puppy into an adult dog, he would adore being the
master of other dogs in other parts of the world. Now Socks is not quite as outgoing and he gets
questions like: "Do you get paid for being the first cat?" and "What is the White House like? Of
course, it's big, but is it spooky or nice or too fancy? Or just right?"
Now I share some of these letters in the book along with some of our favorite pictures
and I really felt compelled to do this in large measure because I know how disappointed children
are when they write off to someone that doesn't write back and I think that we could not have
had a greater source of support for this effort to return every child's letter and try to answer
children's question than the volunteers who came to our assistance when we realized that
(inaudible) Sock back in 1993. That's why I am so grateful to the retired servicemen and
women who live at the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home in Washington, D.C.--they
volunteered to pitch in and make sure that Socks and Buddy can answer all their mail. Now they
organized it like a military operation and I never had any doubt once they took charge that it was
going to be all right. And these volunteers have served our country in World War II, (inaudible)
Korea, or Vietnam. In large number, not completely, they are here with us today. And I would
like to stand and I would like to ask all these volunteers to stand so that we could thank them for
their tour of duty as volunteers on behalf of the children of America and around the world for
answering letters for Socks and Buddy.
Now Socks has been our to visit--buddy is not yet ready. But he'll get there. He will.
He'll be out. But Socks has been out there, I've been out there, and as soon as I think it's
something we can all (inaudible) we are not going to bring Buddy as well. You know I did a
video interview about the book a few weeks ago and Socks was typically Socks--sat there and
looked around--(inaudible) and thought go away, you know, what's happening and everything
was going just fine and Buddy was going to be brought in later, and Buddy sort of straining at
the leash and I had Socks in my lap and Buddy finally broke loose, came over and tried to get in
my lap and he is somebody who just needs a little more attention (inaudible)
Dear Socks, Dear Buddy would not have been possible without many, many of the
people here today. I'd like to single out just a few. Sydny Minor, the editor, has been a wise
and patient partner. Carolyn Reidy [Reed-ee], and Barbara marks, and the production staff who
worked so hard to create this book on a tight schedule, have done an historically good job. And
I would like to thank everyone form Simon and Schuster and tell you how grateful I am for your
help on this project.
Linda Kulman was also an invaluable contributor to the book--and I want to thank her
for all she did to make life of Socks and Buddy come alive. And the wonderful pictures of
Socks and Buddy are those of the talented team of White House photographers, with one
exception, and this the picture of Socks outside of the Governor's Mansion of a lot of the
photographers, maybe some are here today taking pictures of Socks. That is one of my favorites
pictures. The kind of work that goes into a project like this is really hard to describe. It has
been a labor of love and work of many, many people.
But I hope the book does several things. I hope it does inspire children to write letters,
not only to the White House, but to others as well. And we even include a chapter in the book
about how to encourage children to write and we consulted literacy experts from around the
country including some teachers who had used Socks and Buddy as an exercise for their students
to write to them.
Two of these teachers are with us today Ms. Chrissy Free, from the Chinoon [chin-
noon] Elementary School in Vancouver, Washington, and Ms. Anne House, from Barry
Elementary School in Yuba City, California. I want to thank both of them and would like them
to stand so that I can acknowledge them.
And we do a lot of work to emphasize the importance of reading, but writing is really the
other side of the whole idea on how we enhance literacy--so I am very grateful to teachers such
as Chrissy and Anne because they encourage their students and others like them, teachers around
the country, have thought of using Socks and Buddy as a way of encouraging letter writing.
We've also included tin the book a history of animals in the White House. There are
some wonderful photographs out in the hallway. One of my favorites is President Wilson's
sheep grazing on the law during World War I so that gardeners could serve their country. And
then later the sheep were shorn their wool and drew $100,000 at an auction in 1918, to raise
money for the American Red Cross. Also, Caroline Kennedy rode her pony Macaroni around
the South Law--and that became a rather famous animal and there is a picture of him pulling the
Kennedy children.
I want to thank the White House Historic Association for making the book available,
they got about a million and a half visitors every year. Their store (inaudible) as well as those
about Buddy and Socks. I hope they will inspire children and adults to learn more about the
White House and to think about the historic periods that animals lived in. And I want to thank
Neil Horstman and Bob Breeden for their leadership in this effort, and the entire crew over at the
White House Historical Association--which has been a wonderful partner of mine in all of our
efforts over the past years.
I hope that all of you will follow what happens with the book and its proceeds because I
am very hopeful that I am going to see very clearly some changes and some of that will be to
keep urging this book and no one has worked hard to accomplish the effort of any financial
park foundation, an integral partner in the park service and our speaker. For over 20 years, he
has been a champion of conservation and preservation. And to every challenge, he has brought
great vision, commitment, and ability to get things done. I am very honored he is the President
of the National Park Foundation--Jim Maddy.
[Maddy speaks]
I guess of I should make clear that some of (inaudible)
We honor two special guests that would like to join us this afternoon and I am very
pleased that they could come. Because, of course, without them
We will now return to the State Dining Room for refreshments and I am happy to meet
any of you in the Blue Room for (inaudible)
TRANSCRIPT IN PROGRESS
go tran other
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Remarks at Mentoring Event
The East Room, White House
February 2, 1999
1
[first part ofspeech cut off) events of the last two weeks that we find very
important and try to bring to public attention--the work that so many of you who gather here this
afternoon are doing everyday on behalf of the young people in our country. We have many
specialguests here--I am delighted that The Attorney General who has a long standing interest in
the community supporting young people is with us this afternoon. As an athour iwll be
appearing shortly
We have othermembers of Congress as welland the list I have been given which I hope is
complete includes Congressman, Congressman, Congressman, Congressman, Congressman, and
Congressman, and former senator (inaudible) And so thank you for being with us--and we
appreciate your support mentoring and working broadly to support young people.
We also have here (inaudible) The President of the National Service Corporation,
(inaudible) the head of Points of Light, and two special friends of young people and certainly of
mentoring: Candice Bergen and Matilda Cuomo and Mrs. Cuomo's book on mentoring will be
coming out--I'm going to plug it just a little--coming out in May or June I guess is the latest and
I had the first conversation with Mrs. Cuomo on mentoring about ten years ago and this is
something that she has worked on diligently all those years since. And the reason she and all of
us are gathered here is because we know that all too often the image of our young people in
areas of reality that we know and understand we pick up the newspaper, turn on the evening
news, and often we only hear about what's wrong with our children. What you see and what
you hear about violence, gangs, and drug abuse, teen pregnancy is (inaudible)--All of the real
challenges young people face--but we know that is by no means representative of a great number
of young people. I think it is much harder to meet a young person today then certainly when I
was younger and I think that the challenges that gate that passage way through are particularly
difficult in today's world.
What I find most impressive is how wellthe vast majority of our children (inaudible) are
often against great oddsthat I'm not sure I would be able to surmount So today we're here to
celebrate what works to get young people on the right track, to give them support and the tools
they need to make the best out of their own lives. We know that what works is preventing
problems before they become (inaudible) or tragedies. We know what works is putting parents
and other responsible adults into all our children's lives everyone of us, particularly a young
person needs someone to pick us up when we fall or congratulate us when we succeed. To tell
us to keep going to give us that combination of love, attention, and discipline that everyone
needs and everyone of us in this room I bet if we had time can stand to tell a story--maybe a
parent or grand parent or aunt or uncle but also maybe a teacher or a coach or a minister--
somebody in our lives that really made a differnece. So all of us know how important it is to be
there in a child's life. And what we're doing (inaudible) is celebrating that relationshi.
You'll hear in a few minutes a remarkable young woman who will share her story of
mentoring. Fannie is already (inaudible) my short acquatince with her someone who could be a
(inaudible)
We're also please that we havea number of organizations represented here that to
children and particularly organizations such as Save the Children, the Harvard Mentoring
Project, Big Brothers and Big Sisters; America's Promise; The National Mentoring Partnership;
the Corporation for National Service; the Points of Light Foundation; the Amelior Foundation;
2
and the MCJ Foundation. These individuals and groups have been the heart and really are the
soul of our efforts to put caring adults into children's lives. I would like to ask all of us to thank
by round of applause all the individuals that I mentioned and all the organizations (inaudible)
And now it is my pleasure to start the program by introducing a leader who has worked
tirelessly in the halls of Congress to make sure that all children in America do have mentors
was kidding the Attorney General and the Senators as I was walking in that I was going to say
that the Attorney General/Senator are mentor/mentee and I leave it up to you (inaudible)but they
quickly set me straight by saying that they are usually learning from each other and certainly we
are learning a lot for example Senator Lautenberg really has put mentoring on the nation's
agenda and has given it the kind of support that Congress needs so that organizations like your
and many others throughout our countryand the (inaudible) to honor the grants(inaudible) are
provided to support (inaudible) a very positive role model in children's lives. Please join me in
welcoming Senator Frank Lautenberg
[Lautenberg, Reno, Cyanique speak]
Thank you Thank you so much, Fannie, You know you commitment and courage is a
part of that magic combination that you and Robin had created in a mentoring relationship, and
as I listened to that I just thought to myself as I'm sure many of you did how forutnate she has
been and how I wish taht every child had someone like Robin in their lives. Imagine if all
children have someone to tutor them in school, take them to a broadway play (inaudible) them
up during the hard times, bad lessons, help them out with family issues--put them on the right
track. And give them a chance as Fannie had is going to take (inaudible) But we know that
mentoring makes a fair amount of difference. We've had a lot of research in the last four
decades pointing in taht direction--and I remeber very well years ago when I was beginning to
work on children's issuesand reading the results of (indaudible) study thatcarriend out and they
followe a group of young people born in very similar cricumstancesfor a number of years and
even children in the same family and they charted what happened to those children, how children
face the inevitable ups and downs of life, loss of a parent, divorce in the family, a personal
,physical or other kind of set back, dissappointment in school. And at the end of the day they
concluded that the most important factor that set apart those children who were most resilient
and could get up everyday and keep going and those who were overwhelmed by whatever life
handed them--was the difference between those who had some caring adult who was there for
them and those who did not.
The Attorney General referred to what we know about how this kind of relationship
helps prevent crime but it does so much more than that. It has been one of the Attorney
General's great contributions to the effort we've made against crime in the last six years--to keep
reminding everyone that yes we have to do what's needed on the punitive sideon the law
enforcement side but as the Chief of the Justice Department and some of the law enforcement
officials--she knew ver well that we had to do more in terms of prevention and one of the single
3
best strategies, one of the single best investments a person, a family, a community, or a nation
can make is a mentoring relationship.
Today, I am pleased to release a new Justice Department report [hold up] Juvenile Entry
Program 1998 report to Congress. This report confirms what we have already known and talked
about htis afternoon: that one caring adult can make all the difference in a child's life. It shows
that mentoring programs work to help young people stay away from crime and to stay in school
and go on to college.
In one study, young people with mentors were 46 percent less likely to start using drugs
and 33 percent less likely to hit someone. They were far more likely to attend class, improve
their grades, and strengthen their relationships with their family and friends.
Now, I assure you there will be some will no doubt say "that's a parent's job." Which it
is. There is no more important person in a child's life than a parent. But, some parents can't be
there. And all parents need help. When many of us were growing up, there was a simple
unwritten rule about what happened when our parents had to leave the house for a few hours.
Our neighbors looked out for us. We can do no less for children today -- in our own
communities and in our national community.
I have seen firsthand what can happen when we come together to give children this kind
of support. I visited the Harriet Tubman School in Harlem, where parents and other members of
the community had come together to create after-school programs that are boosting the grades
and confidence of young people. And I saw the excitement in the eyes of children in Anacostia,
who at a warm, nurturing place called the Little White House, learn new skills and to believe
in themselves. I was told that, after learning how to use a computer, one little girls said to her
mentor, "Whatever you teach me, I'll get really good at it."
Each of us comes here today with our own stories about the people who taught us to be
good at something the teachers, coaches, and religious leaders who supported and challenged
us. I think of Reverend Donald James, my church's youth minister when I was growing up in
Park Ridge, Illinois. He arranged for us to worship and participate in community service
projects with black and Hispanic teenagers from Chicago. He exposed us to Picasso, e.e.
cummings and other works of art and poetry long before school did. And back in 1961, he took
us to hear Dr. Luther King speak about non-violence and the rights of all Americans to live with
dignity. And I knew my world would never be the same.
And I think of all the people who have continued to guide me, even as an adult. I met
Marian Wright Edelman during my first year of law school. And it was in part, her powerful
example as a civil rights lawyer and children's advocate that inspired my own commitment to
justice. She, of course, had her own experiences with mentoring. Growing up in South Carolina
before the civil rights era, she once described how she and her sisters "were wrapped up and
rocked in the cradle of faith, song, prayer, ritual and worship, which immunized our spirits
against some of the meanness and unfairness of the segregated south."
4
If we want all children to be cradled in times of sorrow, pain or confusion. If we want
all children to have opportunities they once seemed unimaginable, dreams they never dared
before, then it is up to all of us to give every child a champion.
The President's budget will help us do just that. He wants to double funding for the new
Gear-Up program to help low-income children get into and get ready for college. And he wants
to dedicate $95 million for our "At Risk Youth Initiative," which supports mentoring programs
like JUMP. And I hope that the Congress comes together this year and makes a strong
commitment to put more responsible adults in the lives of children.
To help meet that goal, today I am pleased to announce $14 million in Jump grants to 73
communities, including Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and right here in the district.
These grants will reach more than 7,500 at risk young people in 37 states with one-on-one
mentoring to help them stay in school, stay away from drugs and crime and stay involved in
activities they can say "yes" to.
Now, if you ask people about mentoring, they'll often say that they want to get involved,
but they have no idea where to sign up or how to do it. And so I'm pleased to announce two
new ways that private and non profit organizations many which are here today are working
to remedy that.
First, Kaplan Educational Centers, Newsweek and the National Mentoring Project have
teamed up to produce the first comprehensive guide and website for mentors. We hope that
thousands of adults will pick up this guide [hold up] and type in www.mentoring.org and be
inspired to become mentors - and succeed as mentors.
Second, I am pleased to announce two new PSAs that are part of a new National Media
Campaign involving the major networks and studios. One is spearheaded by the Harvard
Mentoring Project and features Quincy Jones. The other was created by Save the Children, in
partnership with the Ad Council. They both ask us to become mentors. And they feature a toll-
free numbers that will direct us to local mentoring organizations that need our help. And now
let's show them both.
[show tape]
I hope every single American hears these messages. Because while government has an
important role to play...we will only ultimately succeed if individuals take it upon themselves to
carve out space in their schedules and their hearts for a child.
5
In the new mentoring guide I referred to, it explains how the word "Mentor" was first
used in Homer's The Odyssey. And how the character "Mentor" in that classic was described as
"a wise and trusted friend" and was relied upon to watch over the kingdom and Odysseus' son.
It is no different today. Each one of us can be that trusted guardian angel to watch over a
young person. We can offer hope where there is only despair, open doors that were once shut.
We can teach our children that they can go as far as their dreams and abilities will take them.
And then, together, we can stand beside them, believe in them, and help guide them, until they
get there.
Thank you very much.
6
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Remarks at Mentoring Event
The East Room, White House
February 2, 1999
(First few remarks cut off) commence the last few weeks that we find very important
and try to bring to public attention the work that so many of you gathered here this afternoon are
doing every day on behalf of the young people in our country.
We have many special guests here. I am delighted that the Attorney General, who has a
long-standing interest in communities supporting young people, is with us this afternoon. And
Senator Lautenberg. You will be hearing from both of them shortly.
We have other members of Congress as well. And the list I've been given, which I hope
is complete, includes Congressman Cardin, and Congressman Collins, and Congresswoman
(inaudible), and Congresswoman (inaudible), and Congressman Payne, and Congresswoman
Pellitano, and former Senator Post. I think, that is it who is here today. So thank you for being
with us. And we appreciate your support of mentoring and your strong support of young people.
We also have Ferris Wolford, the president of the National Service Corporation, Bob
Libwith of the Points of Light, and two special friends of young people and certainly of
mentoring, Candace Bergen and Matilda Cuomo. And Mrs. Cuomo's book on mentoring will be
coming out -- I'm going to plug it just a little --- coming out in May or June, I guess, at the latest.
And I had the first conversation with Matilda Cuomo about mentoring more than 10 years ago.
And this is something that she has worked on diligently all those years since.
And the reason she and all of us are gathered here is because we know that
(inaudible) image of our young people is that very uncertain reality that we know and
understand. If we pick up a newspaper or turn on the evening news, not only (inaudible)
about what is wrong (inaudible). with our children, we see or hear about the violence, the
gangs, the drug abuse, the teen pregnancy, the dropping out -- all of the real challenges that
young people face. But we know that that is by no means representative of the great number of
young people.
I think it is much harder to be a young person today than it was certainly when I was
younger. And I think that the challenges of navigating that passageway to adulthood are
particularly difficult in today's world. And what I find most impressive is how well the vast
majority of our children are doing, often against great odds that I'm not sure I would be able to
survive. And so today we're here to celebrate what works to keep young people on the right
track, to give them the support and the tools they need to make the most out of their own lives.
We know that what works is preventing problems before they become crises or even tragedies.
We know what works to putting parents and other responsible adults into all of our children's
1
lives.
Every one of us, particularly every young person, needs someone to pick us up when we
fall, or congratulate us when we succeed, to tell us to keep going, to give us that combination of
love, attention, and discipline that every human being needs. And every one of us in this room, I
would bet, at one time could stand and tell a story of when they need a parent or a grandparent
or an aunt or an uncle, but also they need a teacher or a coach or a minister somebody in our
lives who really made a difference. And so all of us know how important it is to be part of a
child's life. And what we're doing this afternoon is celebrating that relationship.
You'll hear in a few minutes from a remarkable young woman who will share her story
of mentoring. Fannie is already, I just warrant in my short acquaintance with her, someone who
could be a great old force behind spreading the word about how mentoring changes lives.
We're also pleased that we have a number of organizations represented here that have
made a commitment to children and particularly to mentoring. Organizations such as Save the
Children, the Harvard Mentoring Project, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, America's Promise, the
National Mentoring Partnership, the Corporation for National Service, the Points of Light
Foundation, the Amelior Foundation, and the MCJ Foundation. These individuals and groups
have been the heart, and really are the soul, of our efforts to put caring adults into children's
lives. I would like to ask all of us to thank by a round of applause for the individuals that I
mentioned and all the organizations for the example and the work that they are doing.
(Applause)
And now it is my pleasure to start the program by introducing a leader who has worked
tirelessly in the halls of Congress to make sure that all children in America do have mentors. I
was kidding the Attorney General and the Senator when we were walking in that I was going to
say that the Attorney General and the Senator are mentor/mentee, and I leave that up to you
(laughter). But they quickly set me straight by saying that they are mutually learning from each
other, and certainly we are learning a lot from the example of Senator Lautenberg, who really
has put mentoring on the nation's agenda and given it the kind of support in Congress that it
needs so that organizations like yours and many others throughout our country and communities
this week honoring the grants to be announced later in the program, are provided the support
they require to be able to be a very positive role model for children's lives. Please join me in
welcoming Senator Frank Lautenberg.
[Senator Frank Lautenberg, Attorney General Janet Reno, and Fannie Cyanique speak.]
Well, thank you so much, Fannie. You know, your commitment and your courage was a
part of that magic combination that you and Robin have created in the mentoring relationship.
And as I've listened to Fannie, I just thought to myself, as I'm sure many of you did, how
fortunate, indeed, she has been. And how I wish that every child had someone like Robin in
their lives. Imagine if all children had someone to tutor them in school, take them for a
Broadway play, buck them up during the hard times of adolescence, help them out with family
2
issues, put them on the right track, and give them the chance, as Fannie had, it's going to take
for college.
Well, we know that mentoring makes a very big difference. We've had a lot of research
over the last four decades pointing in that direction. I remember very well years ago when I was
beginning work on children's issues and reading the results of the longitudinal study that
(inaudible) And they followed a group of young people who were in very similar
circumstances over a number of years, and even children of the same family. They charted what
happened to those children, how children faced the inevitable ups and downs of life: the loss of a
parent, the divorce of a family, the personal, physical, other kind of setbacks, the
disappointments in school. And at the end of the day, they concluded that the most important
factor that set apart those children who were in their first (inaudible) to get up every day and
keep going, and those who were overwhelmed by whatever life handed them was the difference
between those who had some caring adult who was there for them, and those who did not.
You heard the Attorney General refer to what we know about how this kind of
relationship helps prevent crime. But it does so much more than that. It has been one of the
Attorney General's great contributions to the efforts we've made against crime in the last six
years. I keep reminding everyone that, yes, we have to do what's needed on the punitive side
and on the law enforcement side. But as the chief of the Justice Department and someone who
works with law enforcement officials, she knows very well that we have to do more in terms of
prevention. And one of the single best strategies and the single best investments a person, a
family, a community or a nation can make is in the mentoring relationship.
Today, I am pleased to release a new Justice Department report, "Juvenile Mentoring
Programs 1998 Report to Congress." This report confirms what we have already known and
talked about this afternoon: that one caring adult can make all the difference in a child's life. It
shows that mentoring programs work to help young people stay away from crime and stay in
school and even go on to college.
In one study, young people with mentors were 46 percent less likely to start using drugs
and 33 percent less likely to hit someone. They were far more likely to attend class, improve
their grades, and strengthen their relationships with family and friends.
Now, I'm sure there will be some who will say, "Well, yes, but that's what a parent's
supposed to do; that's what families are for." And you will get no argument from any of us.
That is indeed what parents and families are for. But I have lived long enough, and everybody
in this room has lived long enough, to know that's not the way it always works. And I know
I've told this story many times, but one of the reasons that I'm so committed to children and
what needs to be done to get children the tools and support they need is because my mother did
not have that. She came from a very disruptive family situation, and at the age of 13 or 14 went
to work for somebody who in effect became a mentor. Along her young life's way, there were
3
people who held out a helping hand. But the woman she worked for became a real example of
love that she never had in her life before.
We know that sometimes parents can't be there physically, emotionally, psychologically.
We know that every parent needs help, especially in today's world where they're working so
hard. We know that there is absolutely no way that most parents -- particularly single parents --
can do without the help, as (inaudible name) said, of the village and the help of a supportive
community around them.
I've seen firsthand what does happen when children are given the support that Fannie
was talking about. I've seen it all over our country. I've seen it at the Harriet Tubman School in
Harlem. I've seen it at the Little White House in Anacostia. I've seen it from one coast to the
other. Each of us knows what difference it can make. And that is why today we are really
holding up these examples of mentoring and looking for new ways to encourage the
organizations here and the communities represented here to provide more opportunities like the
one we see before us between Robin and Fannie.
The President's budget has a very specific agenda when it comes to mentoring. Literally
it has an agenda when it comes to working families and children, but within that the President
wants to double funding for the new Gear Up program to help low-income children get into and
get ready for college. And he also wants to dedicate $95 million for our "At Risk Youth
Initiative," which supports mentoring programs like JUMP [Juvenile Mentoring Program of the
Department of Justice]. And I hope that the Congress, from both sides of the aisle, come
together this year and recognize that helping to create the conditions that these relationships can
be started and thrive is one of the best ways we can make a commitment to our children.
I'm also pleased that Newsweek has been willing to put out a publication about how to be
a great mentor. And, in fact, the mentor/mentee here on the cover are with us, and I'd like to ask
the mentor, Calvin Dobbs (sp.) to stand, and your mentee, Calvin (inaudible), if you could stand.
(Applause) Calvin told me earlier that he had gotten involved in the mentoring project through
the U.S. Postal Service, and that they had encouraged him through his employment to be
involved (inaudible).
Well the (inaudible) roles of more Calvins, more. (inaudible).. and more success stories
like Paul, I am pleased to announce $14 million in JUMP grants to 73 communities, including
Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and here in the District of Columbia. Now, in addition to
those large cities, other cities that are smaller communities are also receiving the grants. And I
would like to ask everyone who is associated with any cities receiving grants to please stand.
(Applause) These grants will reach more than 7,500 young people in 37 states with one-on-one
mentoring to help them stay in school, stay away from drugs, gangs and crime, and stay involved
in positive activities.
I'm also pleased to announce two new ways that private and nonprofit organizations will
4
also be working to make it clear that when someone hears about this and they decide they want
to be a mentor, they know what to do. We need to give guidance and support. It's not enough
just to decide you want to be a mentor, but you need the kind of support that comes from Big
Brothers/Big Sisters and other organizations. So I'm pleased to announce that there is going to
be some real concerted effort to try and make sure that when people think they want to be a
mentor, they are given the support that they need to be the best possible mentor they can be.
First, Kaplan Educational Centers, Newsweek and the National Mentoring Project have
teamed up to produce the first comprehensive guide and website for mentors. That's what you'll
find if you open up this special edition of Newsweek. You'll find information about how to do
the match that you're looking for. You know, we're all human beings, maybe the person
(inaudible) if one doesn't quite take, but if you stay with it and you get good advice and help,
you will find somebody that really relates to you, and that you feel very connected with. We
hope that thousands of adults will pick up this guide and also log onto the website if they're
interested in becoming mentors. That is www.mentoring.org. And we hope that that will
happen. You know, as many kids as you can imagine in the next couple of weeks.
Second, I am pleased to announce two new PSAs that are part of the new national media
campaign involving the major networks and studios. One is spearheaded by the Harvard
Mentoring Project, again, and features Quincy Jones. The other was created by Save the
Children, in partnership with the Ad Council. They both ask us to become mentors. And they
feature a toll-free number that will direct us to local mentoring organizations that need our help.
I'd like to show you both of these new PSAs now.
[PSAs shown.]
I hope every single American gets to see and hear these messages, especially about not
having to be perfect. (Laughter) That's a very good message to send out and receive. And I
think that the kind of partnership that you've seen put together around this with the Federal
Government, through appropriating funds for these programs; the kind of leadership Senator
Lautenberg and the Attorney General have given, providing local communities throughout 37
states; and working with not-for-profits to really understand how you do this work of mentoring
-- will, I hope, really make a big difference.
In this mentoring guide that I hope you will all pick a copy up of, it explains how the
word "mentor" was first used in Homer's The Odyssey. And how the character "Mentor" in that
classic was described as "a wise and trusted friend," and was relied upon to watch over the
kingdom and to watch over Odysseus' son.
Well, it is no different today. Each one of us needs a guardian angel. And our children
certainly do. That's why we've got the halo as one of the logos for the mentoring relationship.
And I hope that all of us will not just preach to the choir. Most of us in this room already
believe in mentoring, we're committed to mentoring, we've been mentored or done mentoring.
5
And I hope we can go forth from here and reach as many Americans as possible, because there
are so many children who are just looking for the chance to be taken in hand and given the kind
of support that we've heard about today.
I want to thank all of you for what you've done to make mentoring really come alive in
America's consciousness. And I want to ask you to keep doing all you can so that we really
enlist the thousands and thousands of mentors for the thousands and thousands of young people
who need them. And I also want to ask you to make sure that you use this example of how we
build human relationships as a way of demonstrating for your fellow Americans in every walk of
life that we have a (inaudible). We are so blessed. If you will take the time, make the
investments, and spread those lessons, we will be even more blessed in the years to come.
Thank you very much.
6
TRANSCRIPT IN PROGRESS
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS TO
PROJECT CHILDREN'S IRISH VALENTINE
THE KENNEDY CENTER
FEBRUARY 3, 1999
1
Thank you very much. Thank you. It is an honor for me to be hear
again and don't you feel energized after seeing the Trinity Irish Dancers?
And it is that kind of energy that children give us and remind us of. I
want to read The Railway Children by Seamus Heaney.
The Railway Children
By Seamus Heaney
When we climbed the slopes of the cutting
We were eye-level with the white cups
Of the telegraph poles and the sizzling wires.
Like lovely freehand they curved for miles
East and miles west beyond us, sagging
Under their burden of swallows.
We were small and thought we knew nothing
Worth knowing. We thought words traveled the wires
in the shiny pouches of raindrops,
Each one seeded full with the light
Of the sky, the gleam of the lines, and ourselves
So infinitesimally scaled
We could stream through the eye of a needle.
Each of us has memories of childhood. And tonight we celelbrate
Project Children's Irish Valentine. Through the power of a child's voice,
Seamus Heaney takes us back to a time of imagination and innocence. A
time when we felt so small we could fit through the eye of a needle. A
time when we looked to adults to protect and guide us.
2
And that is exactly what Project Children, thanks to all of you, has
been doing for the past twenty-five years: Guiding the children of
Northern Ireland as they create their own world -- a world without the
bombings and hatred of the past, a world filled with peace and hope for
the future.
For 25 years, Project Children have helped both Catholic and
Protestant children to build bridges of friendship and understanding. To
see that what they shared in common was far greater than what they
thought they had in terms of differences. To understand that a just society
is built on the foundation of mutual respect -- especially for our
differences.
For 25 years, Project Children has opened the hearts and minds of
so many people and especially the heart and mind of -- one child at a time
-- to plant the seeds of peace which now flourish. In so doing, we have
been shown the road to peace depends, not only upon teaching children,
but also listening to them. Which is what we are doing tonight.
Through readings, song, and dance, we can hear the voices of the
young people who will one day inherit Northern Ireland. Their calls for
peace, once whispered, are now a reality in their homeland and an
inspiration for the entire world.
I've heard these voices of peace. I've heard them in Belfast and
I've heard them here in Washington. Because the participats of Project
Children's Washington program have made it clear to all of us that we
had to open our hearts and minds. One of those young people, Vicky
Moore, interned in my office at the White House. And, when she
returned to Northern Ireland, she ran for the Executive Committee of the
Women's Coalition -- and she won. She is now the youngest person ever
to serve on this Executive Committee. I like to think that my osmosis she
picked up some political hints while she was here with us.
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I heard these voices of peace in Johnny Graham, another Project
Children participant who created Grassroots: Northern Ireland, an
organization modeled after our own AmeriCorps. Johnny and his friends
understood that without opportunity, too many young college graduates,
will leave Northern Ireland in search of jobs. So they've helped graduates
earn money while working for community organizations and staying
home to build a strong, prosperous, hopeful, peaceful future. There are so
many stories like these, so many voices to hear.
I remember just this past Septmember when the President and I
were in Belfast. And I went to a beautiful green space
And I heard those voices of peace standing with Protestant and
Catholic children on one of Belfast's beautiful green spaces this past
September. We were joined by an American organization named
KaBOOM! and a Northern Ireland organization named PlayBoard, which
were teaming up to create safe environments for children to play in --
something almost unheard of during the Troubles. I stood with these
children on a grassy hilltop as they released white balloons into the air --
carrying with them their dreams for tomorrow.
Because tonight we mark more than an anniversary -- we celebrate
the promise of a new day for the children of Northern Ireland. A day
when they can play and grow up like all children should -- without respect
to religion or politics, without stereotyping or name calling, without fear
or violence.
And when they do, it will be because Project Children helped give
them the courage to imagine a different world and the commitment to
create it for themselves and all who follow. Just as you've done for 25
years.
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Happy anniversary and thank you very much.
5
TRANSCRIPT IN PROGRESS
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS AT YOM HASHOAH EVENT
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA
APRIL 13, 1999
I can't tell you how excited I am to walk into this overflown room inaudible. I want to
thank Mr. and Mrs. Sandler and I also have with me Congressman Wexler and his inaudible. I
had awonderful viist flying doewn from Washington and it is so meaningful for me personally to
participate in thsi observation, a day of remembrance. As some of you may know, that last night
at the White House, I'll talk about this in my ??? remarks--the President and I were honored to
host Elie Wiesel--who has become a wonderful friend of ours and someone who we admire so
greatly. And when we invited him to come, you know we do these things so far in advance, it
was part of our Millennium lecture series becasue we could not think of a better personto talk
about the meaning of this century and to talk to a very broad audience about the Holocaust. And
never could we have guessed that at the very time he would be doing this it would be nearly 54
years to the day that he was liberated from the camps, that he would be speaking about the
inhumanity at a time, when at the end of this violent century, we see those pictures of our
televsion screens and children being put into trains, families being separated and another
example of inhuman, evil treatment. So this is an especially important moment for those of us
who remember survivors, never to forget, Elie Wiesel constantly reminds us. And to use
whatever gifts we have to make sure that we as Americans understand our obligations and speak
out against inhumanity. Never ever to make the same mistake we made.
(MAN SPEAKS. TAPE SHUTS OFF.)
Go on into the ??? event but I wish I had time, Rob and I were laughing about this as we
were coming in. We were saying how many times is there an overflow of 1,000 people and how
I wish I could spend more time with you and get a chance to visit with you. But I hope that I'll
be invited back for some other event.
Thank you all very much.
(Following are the PREPARED remarks.)
I am deeply honored to be here to mark this Yom Hashoah
[hah-SHOW-ah] with all of you.
I want to thank Congressman Wexler for that introduction and for his leadership in
1
bringing peace to the Middle East. It is especially meaningful to be here with the two things in
the world that mean the most to him -- his family and this community.
I want to thank Rabbi Brander and Rabbi Riemer; our hosts, the Jewish Federation of
South Palm Beach County; and each and every of you who have made this event possible and
who have struggled year after year to raise the voices of the victims so they will always be
heard.
I was particularly moved by the oath we just saw passed down from one generation to the
next: an oath to make sure we keep alive the memories of the survivors and those who lost their
lives -- because they teach us about the worst of our past -- and the most important lessons for
the future. No one understands that better than this community.
I have heard that every child in Florida is taught about the Holocaust. And that this
community makes a special effort to bring survivors -- and their stories -- into your classroom.
And I know that today, there are young people from South Palm Beach County who are taking
part in the March of the Living -- visiting concentration camps in Poland and going on to Israel.
Just as many of you have done in years past.
As I was getting ready to come here, a staff member of mine showed me some of the
writings that young people have done after taking part in this program. One poem read, "As I
stand in Jerusalem, I am surrounded by memories of the Jews I left behind and of the ones I
carry with me in my heart and soul. As I become a guardian of my past, I am surrounded by
memories of the six million innocent victims who are now ashes laid upon the earth and of those
who struggle to keep their memory alive."
Here, at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and all across our nation today, we
talk about Zahor [zah-Hore]. We talk about the need to always remember. And, in particular
today, we remember the SS St. Louis, which, 60 years ago, came to our shores in Miami with
almost 1,000 people think of it, three times the number of people here in Zinman Hall. They
were seeking refuge from Nazism. They needed someone to help. And, despite how much we
have to be proud of in this country, none of us are proud of how it responded that day. As you
know, the St. Louis was turned away, turned back to Europe just before World War II. Many of
its passengers who could have been saved, died in the Holocaust.
So, today we remember what happened when hatred and violence and indifference
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DONE TRANSCRIBING--NEEDS EDITING
Holocaust Memorial Yom Hashoah Ceremony
Remarks by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Boca Raton, Florida
April 13, 1999
(Tape cut this millennium really causes a lot of us to take a few moments and
reflect about who we are and where we are and where we think we're going.
The service earlier -- in commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust and in honor of
the survivors that I had the privilege to be part of -- really gave one pause. And I was privileged
to, after the speaking program, to go down and shake hands -- and to know that I was shaking
the hands of a lot of survivors. People who as children or young adults were subjected to the
most incredible evil and extraordinary horror that is beyond imagining.
And as I was shaking their hands, person after person said to me, "Tell the President
we're behind him. Give the President our best wishes." Well, many of the survivors said, "You
know, I see those pictures on television, and they bring back terrible memories. Those trains
filled with children and women and a few men, separated from families, displaced from their
homes. Inaudible not in a concentration camp, but inaudible no man's land and there are still,
we estimate about a half a million Kosovars up in the hills of Kosovo, hiding out.
But there is however inaudible.
But here at home I think it is not only hard to imagine something inaudible.
You can't turn on your television set, you can't refuse to listen to the interview of the
President (inaudible) of the terrible atrocities.
We have to force ourselves to overcome what Elie Wiesel called last night at the White
House lecture the "Perils of Indifference." And in order to do that, it is not only necessary that
we have leaders, like the President, willing to commit our nation to thousands of men in that part
of the world of the impression that is being brought to bear on people simply because of their
ethnicity. It is not even just enough to have a member of Congress to speak out and to stand up
and be counted and pass votes that are important. We also have to support leaders like the
President and Congressman Wexler. We have to be willing to say, "We want to be part of
building an America to be proud of." It's not enough just to say that we are the only remaining
super power. What is power? What is leadership? It's not connected with values. It's not
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inaudible on the path to humanity.
Certainly it is a complex and challenging issue. There aren't any easy solutions. If there
were we would have found them. We tried economic sanctions. We tried diplomacy. We
worked for over a year to try and talk sense into Milosevic. We tried bringing in inaudible to
what he was already doing in Kosovo. But when it became clear after the inaudible agreement
which he refused to sign and the Kosovar inaudible that the KLA did sign, it became clear we
had a very stark choice. We could have washed our hands of it; it didn't affect us directly. We
got that inaudible. We could turn and walk away. Or we could try as best we know how with
our NATO allies to try to bring some force to bear that would cause this man to change and to
make the inaudible return the refugees home.
We chose the second alternative, and history will report that it was the right course for us
to take despite inaudible, despite inaudible. And you also have to be a little more patient
because history will also report that we've had three weeks of bombing; we had about 10
weekdays given the weather. It takes time. You can't be doing military campaigns on a 24-hour
cycle schedule. We have to listen to the military, we have to follow their direction, and do the
best we can. But one of the reasons that we did this is because we believe that we have to stand
against what people inaudible.
I hope those of you who are here this evening will speak out and let your voices be heard
on behalf of the military and the humanitarian mission that we have undertaken. And if there are
ways that you individually can help people from organizations that are working over there, I
hope you will do that make contributions, whatever is feasible for you.
I want to be able to say to myself- as I think every American does at the end of this,
"We did what we could. We tried and we were successful." When Elie Wiesel finished his
lecture last night in the White House, the last question that was asked was asked by a Catholic
priest who said, "You know, it's hard for us to believe even today at that place, the suffering and
the terror of the Holocaust. And here we are looking on our television screens and seeing faces
we never thought we would see again. How can we inaudible hopelessness people find in life?"
And we know by inaudible wise man that we don't have any choice. We have to find it in our
own lives, in the world around us, inaudible.
At the end of this century - that many call the American century - we can be the
strongest in the world militarily; we can have our stock market over 10,000; we can be solving
our own social problems and feeling really good about ourselves, as we should. But if we expect
to continue to lead and influence the world, then we have to make it possible for others to have
hope as well. And that is why inaudible.
Thank you very much.
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TRANSCRIPT IN PROGRESS
TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA
Remarks by First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton
Washington, D.C.
March 15, 1999
Thank you, Sonny, for that introduction. I've heard a lot about you. That as the son of a bus
driver, and a bus driver yourself you've never forgotten your roots -- and you've always given
back to your community. That when the rank and file members call you -- you always return
their calls; and answer every single letter even when that means coming in on weekends.
Given your history of commitment to your fellow workers it doesn't surprise me that you've
chosen as your personal motto "we shall overcome." That spirit of determination and courage
has always fueled America's labor movement. And it's that spirit that brings us here this
morning.
(Where tape began)
Those are the issues we should be talking about. It's not just issues for the union or for the labor
movement--these are issues for America. And I came here in part to thank you, to thank you
because if I look back on the six years that I have lived here in Washington now--the lives of
working families and communities across America are better. And they are better because of the
partnership that has been forged between the White House, to our friends and allies in Congress,
to friends and allies in the labor movement and throughout our country. And so first of all let
me thank you. I want to thank you for your leadership and I also want to thank two individuals
in particular, John Kerrigan and Peggy Olstein for their hard work and their commitment. And
we as set these legislative priorities, which are not only yours, but I hope are the country's as
well, that each of us has something we need to do.
You know I have been told also that this month marks the 60th anniversary of TWU's
founding -- when a small group of New York City transit workers met secretly on Manhattan's
west side to form a union. Well, we've come a long way in 60 years, too. No more are we
meeting secretly but right here in the nation's capitol and we're right here in front of the cameras
and the press talking about the legitimate rights and needs of working Americans. And as we
look at the history of the twentieth century now that it is drawing to a close one of the great
advances that we have to protect and that we have to further is what has been done for working
families. So, as you celebrate the passion and courage of your legendary founder, Michael
Quills, and the many struggles and victories that you've had over the years, let's think about
what we've done the last six years, what we need to do the next two years, and what we need to
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do into the 21st century.
I want to thank you also for the support that you've given to my husband and the
administration, and the Democratic Party -- especially for our victories in 1998. That took a lot
of grassroots hard work and Peggy was telling me before I came in that the increase in intensity
and support for political activity for members of this union began to grow in 1994 when we saw
that if we didn't participate in politics, people who shared our views about what should happen
in our country, we stood in danger of losing a lot of the rights and having this country go
backwards. So starting in 1994, building in 1996, and really reaching a peak of positive activity
in 1998, we have a lot to show for the changes that are occurring on the political scene. We've
also a lot to show on the front of issues and not just electing candidates who are pro-worker and
pro-family but electing people and then working with them to make sure that agenda gets
enacted.
I'm proud that the President stood with you in the defeat of the anti-union "Paycheck
Protection Act" in California. You know, that was a very sweet victory, wasn't it? Because
when you think about the millions and millions of dollars and the organized interests that were
against that right it is a great tribute, not only to the unions and working people of California that
it was defeated but because it was an incredibly cohesive effort around the country. It showed
what can happen when labor really does put its mind to a particular issue and we could then
build from that. So I'm very pleased that that was not only a good victory on behalf of an issue
that was important, that it could stop that movement in its tracks, and it also created a lot more
strength in the labor movement to go forward on behalf of issues that we're also concerned
about. I know that I am also grateful that you stood with the President and we stood with you to
strengthen collective bargaining for all transit workers. And I know how hard the President and
the Secretary Slater worked with you to defeat those who wanted to eliminate 13C from the
Transportation bill of 1995.
I'm also very proud to be a rider, whenever I can, of Amtrak. I love to ride on Amtrak
and again all of you worked side by side with the administration in averting an Amtrak strike in
1997. And also with the Administration to make sure that we improved Amtrak's financial
situation -- which has benefitted all transit workers -- and again strengthened collective
bargaining.
I'm also very grateful and proud of the work that was done together, with you, with the
Administration on ICTEA's predecessor, the landmark Transportation Equity Act of the 21st
century, actually the successor, known as TEA 21, which affirms this President's commitment,
not only to invest $198 billion in highway and transit programs over the next five years. But to
improve safety, protect public health, and the environment as well as creating more jobs for all
Americans. And there is a lot of good that will come from T21. It will help create more jobs in
minority and women owned businesses. There's also some money in there to help provide
transportation to get to jobs for people coming off of welfare because we want to make sure that
they have to get to the jobs that we're trying to make for them so that they can support
2
themselves and become independent. It's important that all these enterprises succeed because
that will continue to fuel the economic boom that we've enjoyed.
Now it also means though that we have to make sure that nothing is done in this
Congress or the next Congress or any future Congresses to weaken worker's bargaining rights.
That is a constant theme as you know, and it's a theme that we have to be very conscious of all
the time because there's always an effort underway to do away with you know, the forty hour
week, these basic kinds of rights, do away with overtime, do away with all kinds of benefits.
Now together with you, the President, the Administration and our allies in Congress, have said
no to those who wanted to undermine safe pensions and safe working conditions. But we have
to remain vigilant.
Toward that end -- Secretary Slater and the Administration have just announced plans to
commit $196 million in federal grants to build new transit systems in six American cities --
including San Diego, Memphis, and Ft. Lauderdale. Now this will mean better transportation, it
will also mean more jobs and more good jobs, jobs that are (INAUDIBLE) believed should
happen by collective bargaining rights and benefits that really give people a decent income to
support themselves and their families. So year after year we've seen some real progress haven't
we? We've seen some positive things happen through this Administration and your partnership
with it. We've seen some positive legislation because of the work that has been done in
Congress. So we are at this point not only on the large issues but on the issues that are of
particular concern to you where we can say you know, we really made progress. But I am one
who believes that progress always has to be protected and you always have to vigilant and you
have to keep working to make sure that you maintain the progress that you have already made
but continue to build on it.
Now it would be easy in these times for people to say well you know my job looks pretty
secure, I have good benefits, we have equal pay for equal work if we're working women because
I'm in a union that guarantees that, we have health care, we have pensions. But I don't think
that anyone who comes out of the labor movement and knows the history of the 20th century can
rest easy until all Americans have the same right to say, "I have a secure job, my children have
health care, I have a secure pension". So the agenda that we have worked on together and that
has made such a difference in the lives of you and all the members you represent, that is an
agenda we have to continue to work on for all Americans.
Now we're clear that when a union such as yours meets to talk about legislative issues I
know you have to focus on issues that are important to your workers and to the issue of
transportation, transit and other things that are directly related to what you do every day. But
what I am particularly grateful for is that you have stood with this Administration as we have
tried to give benefits to families whether or not they were unionized, trying to give help to
working men and women who may never have the opportunity to join a union. Millions of
working families today have been lifted out of poverty because we expanded the earned income
tax credit together, we raised the minimum wage and by the way we should raise it again to
3
make sure that families are taken care of.
We also, in the last six years, have seen crime go down for five years in a row throughout
our country because we worked hard not just to talk about crime but to develop strategies around
our nation with communities so that we could get assault weapons off the street, we could do
background checks on people with mental illnesses or records who might show up to buy a
handgun, we could put 100,000 more police on the streets. All of those were part of the
President's strategy that we have seen deployed around the United States with very good results.
But we have to keep working on that. We should try to make our cities even safer. There is
even more work that we could do.
And, remember back in 1992, when other countries were lecturing our country about
our economic house. I can remember that memorable terrible meeting in Japan before the '92
election when, you know, the Japanese were talking about how we were a declining power and
we had such deficits and we would never be able to get back the position of leadership we had
enjoyed. Well, who would have imagined that when my husband came before groups of
Americans in 1992 and said if you elect me we'll create 8 million new jobs. But today I stand
before you saying we've created 18 million new jobs. In the last three years wages have risen at
twice the rate of inflation. Now those achievements are not the province of any one person or
any part of government they're really an American achievement. But if we hadn't had the
changes in leadership at the top, if we hadn't had millions of Americans really rolling up their
sleeves to get to work, we couldn't stand here and say look at the economic progress that we've
enjoyed. And we wouldn't be able to challenge ourselves about what we're going to do with
that economic progress going forward. So we can look back and say thank goodness that we had
good strong leadership when our country needed it. And now we can say what else do we need
to do. How do we look toward the future?
Well, let me just make just a couple of suggestions that I know you are already
concerned about. We have to be sure that we do what is necessary to keep this economic
expansion going. Now some people claim that well you know how can that happen because
there are cycles in the economy, we all know that. But we have defied predictions and we have
defied cycles for the last six years. But what we haven't done is to give every working
American the sense that this prosperity also belongs to them, that everybody has a chance to
share in the American dream and to feel that they are going to be taken care of if they work hard,
if they play by the rules, if they get a job, they keep a job, they show up every day.
You know one goal we haven't yet been able to achieve and this is something I feel very
strongly about is that I don't believe any American who works full time, 40 hours a week,
should bring home a wage that puts that American below the poverty level. That is just not
right. And what are the things that contribute to that? Well, we know that when somebody
brings home minimum wage or even a couple dollars above minimum wage, by the time you pay
for everything you have to pay for there's not very much left, and sometimes the things that are
left out are really important to a family.
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I was in Brooklyn recently at a YMCA talking with a group of women, working women,
and I was listening to their stories. I met a woman who has worked her way up and has really
just made a great success of her life. A divorced mom, raising her son, she makes $30,000 a
year now but she can't afford child care because she makes too much money to get subsidized
child care and she can't afford the child care that's not subsidized. So for her every day is a
disaster waiting to happen. She never knows whether these make shift arrangements that she's
put together with an aunt here, a friend there, a neighbor here, are going to hold. And she's
scared to death every single day that something is going to happen, that she's not going to be
able to get to her job, or she's going to feel really insecure about her son and she may lose that
job.
Now we should be doing more to help working moms and dads. This is not a woman's
issue, this is a family issue. I believe that fathers care just as much about their children as
mothers do. So how can we give that woman and every woman and man the security they need
to know that when they go to work they have affordable, quality child care nearby? Now some
people say that is not a big issue, but as those of you who work with anybody besides people
who don't have children, you know it is. And what we would like to see happen is that the
Congress would support the President's plan to provide more working families with the means to
have the child care that they deserve to have. We also have to worry about our children after
school don't we?--and we have made some real progress on that front because the way life is
today, a lot of parents work until late, they have commutes that they can't get back home until
even later, and we have too many children still who are latch-key kids. You know they get
home by themselves and they pull that dead bolt and they lock those doors and they call mom or
dad and say okay I'm home. And then mom or dad take a deep breath and says okay, stay there
and don't go outside. That's no way for a young child to spend his or her time--they should be
outside, they should be playing, they should be with other kids, but it's too scary in a lot of our
communities to let that happen. What we need is more good quality, adult supervised after
school programs that children can go to and be taken care of until their parents get home. These
are part of a working families agenda--child care, after school care, that I think if we begin to
address can really make it possible for us to say at the end of this century that we've created job
opportunities and an economic climate that truly will enable those who are willing to work hard
to make it in America.
Another issue that is a real working family's issue is the Family Medical Leave Act. We
did a wonderful thing together in 1993, when finally after it had been vetoed twice, the Congress
passed and the President signed the Family Medical Leave Act.
Again in Brooklyn I met a woman whose daughter, 17 year old daughter, she brought a
picture of her, in fact she was sitting in the front row so that we could all meet her, had been in a
serious car accident the year before and needed not only intensive hospitalization but then when
released from the hospital needed a lot of rehabilitation. Now luckily for that family that mom
had a job that was covered by the Family Medical Leave Act. And SO she could take the unpaid
leave, because she wasn't unionized, she could take an unpaid leave for twelve weeks to take
5
care of her daughter and help with the physical rehabilitation while her husband kept working.
And she could have a job waiting for her when she returned and so she was very grateful for that
unpaid leave. But think of the millions of working families who don't have that opportunity. I
think it's time to expand family and medical leave so that it reaches even more working families.
That we ought to lower the employer limit from 50 workers down to at least cover another 100
million workers so that they can too have the peace of mind that comes when a child is sick, a
spouse is sick, or an older relative is sick and not have to worry about losing their jobs.
Another issue that is not so much an issue for the Labor Movement but it is a real
problem in America is pay equity. Women are still not being paid on an equitable basis with
men. And the AFL-CIO just published a report about what that means to families. Not just
comparing men and women, which I think we do too much of. It shouldn't be a contest or a
competition--we ought to be thinking of how the pie gets bigger for everybody. And everybody
can enjoy higher incomes and a more secure economic opportunity. Well the FL-CIO's report
shows that the average working family losses more than $4,000 a year because of the wage gap
between women and men. Now that hurts women, that hurts single mothers, it hurts working
couples, it hurts families. And it hurts our economy. So we need to enforce pay equity at every
level of government throughout the United States. That $4,000 could go a long way in the
pocketbooks of most women and families that are now being deprived of pay equity. So one of
the real challenges is let's make sure work pays fairly and equitably for everyone who does it.
Sonny mentioned my commitment to health care and I know it's your commitment as
well. And I do think that we have to continue working to make sure that health care is
affordable and available to every American. That means we have to pass the Patient's Bill of
Rights that's in the Congress. We should not turn over decision making in health care matters,
the most personal matters that we know of, should not be turned over to accountants and
bureaucrats, and bookkeepers and HMO's. They should be decided by you and your doctor,
your nurse, whoever your health care professional is. And we should be sure that if there are
disputes with your HMO or your health care provider, you have a right and a way of resolving
those disputes before its too late. There are many stories, and I bet if I asked I could see hands
go up all over this room of people who know first hand someone being denied a treatment or
being only given a treatment after weeks and months of arguing. And sometimes it comes too
late. So we have to pass the Patient's Bill of Rights. But we also have to continue to expand
coverage for Americans. And that is something that we are going to have to address together.
We tried in 1994, and that didn't work. And we won't try that way again, we'll try a better and
a different way. But we have to continue to look for ways to make sure every American has
health security as well as economic security. We also have a great opportunity now to take care
of Social Security and Medicare for the future. Now the President has laid out his core
principles about taking care of those two fundamental programs that really are the building
blocks of economic and health security as we age. But it's not just our older parents, it's not just
my mother who is on both Social Security and Medicare. Think about what it would mean in
our lives as the children of aging parents if they didn't have that kind of support. I've met so
many families who without Medicare and Social Security would do the right thing as I hope all
6
of us would. We would take care of our parents, but that might mean not sending a child to
college, that might mean not being able to afford that house that you need because you are
bursting at the seams where you are now, that might mean as one woman told me again at the
Brooklyn Roundtable she had to quit her job to take care of her mother which she gladly did
because she remembered all the times as we can when we were taken care of. But it meant then
that she had to give up the car that she and her husband shared between them because they
couldn't make the payments anymore. So not only do we have to think about what we do that is
right for older Americans, we have to think of the impact that these programs have on all of us.
You know Social Security is a family protection system. If you have ever met a young
person, as I have, who has been disabled by a stroke or an accident, maybe in his twenties or his
thirties--he never thought about Social Security for a minute, but all of a sudden he has disability
insurance through the Social Security system that enables his children to live better than they
could because he can't work anymore. So don't think of Social Security as just something we
have to worry about when we are 65 or older--think about the impact this decision will have on
our lives together and on the lives of our families.
Medicare is the same kind of issue. There is going to be a lot of debate about what
should be done with the Medicare system. You know the President has been very clear--let's
take this surplus that we have built up because of good fiscal management over the last six and a
half years and let's use it to take care of Social Security for many years into the future and let's
use it to help take care of Medicare for many years into the future as well.
So there are so many issues that we could talk about--public education which is a key
issue in everybody's mind and everybody's community that we need to address and many others
that I know you are going to be talking about in the days ahead. Not only during this COPE
Convention but I hope in the weeks and months that this Congress deliberates on all of them.
But let me come back to where I started. What you have been able to do both
individually through this particular union and collectively through the labor movement is to help
build and shape the kind of economic security that many millions and millions of Americans
enjoy. There are a lot of people whose parents and grandparents were in the Labor Movement,
they are not any longer and they may not remember that they are where they are because they
stood on the shoulders of the people in the Labor Movement who helped them get to where they
are. And there are many Americans who may not appreciate what this movement has done in
the last 60 or so years. To change working conditions and to protect working people. So you
have a wonderful legacy that needs to be honored and as we move toward the Millennium we've
adopted a slogan at the White House "Honor the Past and Imagine the Future."
Well let us honor the past, all of you who have helped to build this union and build the
American Labor Movement. But let us not rest there. Let's continue to imagine a better future.
A future where every working man and woman has the respect and the dignity they deserve for
doing the work that this society needs, that they have the pay and the benefits they deserve
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because they put in that hard work all week, every week. And where every child is given the
support that child needs to get a good education and to grow up and feel that he or she can do
whatever their dreams might lead them to. That's the kind of America that we need to imagine
together, and if we work together--that's the kind of America that I think we can build for the
21 st century. Thank you all very much.
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TRANSCRIPT IN PROGRESS
Seventeen Magazine/Cover Girl
Volunteerism Awards
Remarks by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
National Museum of Women in the Arts
March 16, 1999
I am absolutely delighted to be here for many reasons. First of all, this
is one of my favorite places in Washington, and I hope that all of you have had
a chance to explore and enjoy the exhibitions here at this wonderful museum. And
secondly, because I am so pleased that the partnership between Seventeen
Magazine and Cover Girl is doing this important work of not only honoring
individual young women for their volunteer accomplishments, but making it clear,
as the video said in the very beginning, that we need to do a better job of
really understanding how terrific America's young people are. We don't know the
full story. We don't see beyond the headlines and the images sometimes on
television. And I'm privileged to meet with a lot of young people throughout
our country, and I always come away encouraged and confident about the future
because of what I see them doing and believing. So this is an especially
important event for me and I'm very grateful to have been invited.
I want to thank Ann for her introduction and for her leadership of this
effort. I also want to thank Seventeen magazine's publisher, Lori Burgess, and
Editor-in-Chief Patrice Adcroft and the Editorial Projects Director, Andrea
Chambers, for your commitment to both educating and challenging young women.
Now I confessed to Lori that I -- first I had to ask this question to Lori, how
long has Seventeen been published? And I was relieved to learn longer than I've
been alive. There are few things that I find current that you can say that
about any longer. But I could tell Lori that I used to read Seventeen magazine,
and so for me, knowing what it meant to my friends and me, and to the young
women whom I knew growing up, I was especially pleased that the editorial
content and the stories in the magazine are focusing on all aspects of a young
woman's life. And to be here to help join in congratulating these outstanding
young recipients of the Seventeen Cover Girl Volunteerism Awards, gives me a
chance to really say just a few words about why this event is important in and
of itself, but why what it represents is even more important. I also want to
thank Brandy for being here, and I really enjoyed my opportunity to meet her
along with the other young women that I met before the event, but Brandy I want
to thank you for your energy and for the kind of commitment that you've made to
being a good role model for young women, and I congratulate you.
You know, March is Women's History Month, and last night at the White House
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we had a millennium event, one of the events that we hold from time to time, to
talk about women's lives as we move toward the end of a new century. We watched
film clips of women marching for the right to vote, we watched them speaking
out on behalf of issues they cared deeply about. We reminded ourselves that
some of the greatest work that has ever been done in our country has been done
by women as volunteers-women who were reformers, women who believed that they
could make life better for their families and their neighborhoods and their
communities, so they decided to advocate on behalf of causes. Women at the end
of this last century, the 19th century, were at the forefront of pointing out
the injustices that existed at that time. They were the ones who would speak
out on behalf of the incredibly difficult conditions of work that women and
children were subjected to, who launched campaigns to clean up the streets and
get rid of the garbage, things that made a real difference in how people lived
and worked. As we listened last night to the scholars that we'd invited to
speak to us, I was reminded in a very positive way about the changes in women's
lives over the last hundred years, and the theme of our millennial celebration
is, "honor the past, imagine the future." Well certainly we honor the past when
we pay tribute to those who worked hard and fought for and struggled to obtain
the rights that we enjoy as citizens of America, and for women we pay particular
tribute to those women and men who stood up year after year, starting in 1848,
and said women should be allowed to vote, women should be able to hold office,
women should serve on juries, women should be able to own property in their own
name. All of these things, which now seem like part of ancient history, some of
them were not resolved until the 1970's, when the last state finally was ordered
to let women exercise the right of citizenship and obligation to serve on a
jury, for example. So there is a lot of change that has happened in my lifetime
and in the lifetime of many of you in this room. So let us honor the past, but
equally and probably more important, let us imagine the future. And knowing the
past helps us imagine the future. Knowing about not just famous people whose
names you might read about in history, but knowing the stories in your own
families, helps each of us think about what we can do. You know, Ann was
telling some stories about her children, and I was thinking about my own
mother's life, someone who was born before women could vote, who had a very
difficult upbringing, who didn't have a lot of opportunities that she and my
father worked to give to me, and really the story of America is each generation
imagining a better future, so that our children and our grandchildren will have
the opportunity to enjoy these rights and exercise these responsibilities that
we call our right of citizenship here.
By looking at the stories of these six young women, we can imagine the
future. And we can think more about what we're all capable of accomplishing. I
think often about the kinds of people who inspire us. Now, I never met
Seventeen's founding Editor-in-Chief, Helen Valentine, but I have read a little
bit about her in preparation for this, and she, even then, encouraged young
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women to become informed and get involved. Now that was at a time when women's
activism had died down. It comes and goes in sort of cycles in our country.
And she told young women: "Never for a moment think, I am only a girl in my
teens, what can I do? You can do plenty." And urging women to be politically
active, and contribute to the war effort, Helen Valentine said, "We expect you
to run this world more sensibly than we have."
From its very beginning, Seventeen was more than a handbook on hairstyles
and makeup. I'm told that every March issue in the 1940's was dedicated not to
what we would wear to prom, but to the Red Cross, and ever since, it has
fulfilled that tradition. In recent years, Seventeen has brought to its pages
the voices of teen mothers, children who are victims of unfair labor practices
in the Philippines, families rebuilding their lives after the hurricane in
Central America, teens whose parents are in prison. Now that may not always be
easy reading, but it's important reading. Those stories need to be told.
Because if we're going to imagine a better future, we cannot shut our eyes to
the suffering nearby and far away. And I'm particularly pleased that in its
work, and in its efforts to communicate with young women, that message of Mrs.
Valentine's is still being told today. So it shouldn't surprise us that a
Seventeen survey found that nine out of ten teens already volunteer. They
believe, as we do, that it's part of being an American. So the stories that we
heard in this video should make us all stop and think that yes, we're honoring
six remarkable young women today, but these young women stand for thousands and
even millions of others of young women and men who are trying to do their part
to make sure we do build that better future we can imagine.
I want to thank each of the winners. I want to thank Aubyn Burnside. Taking
care of foster children has been a very important issue to me for a very long
time. I've worked on behalf of foster children, neglected and abused children,
children who, once they come into the foster care system, become our
responsibility. It's not just the social workers or the judges, it is all of us
who have to care for these young boys and girls. And I want to thank Aubyn for
doing what she could to give a sense of dignity and respect to these children,
some of whom move many, many times in just a very few years of their short
lives.
I want to thank Jennifer Fletcher, for understanding how important the arts
are in our educational system. Mr. Holland's Opus is one of my favorite movies,
Jennifer, and it is because I can remember, although I have not a shred of
musical talent, how much I learned in school, starting in my elementary school
and going through my high school, because of the classes I was exposed to,
because of the opportunities I would have to be in productions-I was always told
that if I lip-synched and didn't actually sing, I could be in the chorus with my
friends-and I know how significant it is that we keep the arts in our schools
and I want to thank you for having the idea of having a benefit concert. Now I
believe that it should not take a Jennifer Fletcher to make sure that the arts
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stay in the schools; every school district should work out a way of doing that.
And I want to thank Annie Chau for her taking on the responsibility of
making it possible for young children to be exposed to the arts, again something
that we are losing in our school systems, because too many school systems, when
budget cuts come, they cut the arts and they cut physical education, two things
that I think are essential to what young children should be exposed to. So I
want to thank Annie for mobilizing other talented young artists like herself, to
be sure that they were give a chance to use their skills and to learn.
And Melissa Poe is someone that I have known for several years, because I
happened to be on the board of directors of Wal-Mart at the time that -- and I
chaired the environmental committee at the time that we made a partnership
with Melissa to do what we could to make Wal-Mart stores and employees more
environmentally conscious, and Melissa was a great help in that. And she's gone
on to create an organization that has touched hundreds of young people and
influenced adults as well. And the issue of the environment will only continue
to become a more important issue in the twenty-first century, that all of us are
going to have to face up to and do something about, and I want to thank Melissa
for her leadership.
And Megan Kirschner, I want to thank you, for doing something to try to help
a young woman who needed that kind of help. We still do not have health
insurance for all the children in our country, and it is heartbreaking, if, like
Megan, you know a child who is not able to get all the treatment he or she
needs, because that child's parents cannot afford the insurance that would pay
for the treatment. It is something that should not be a part of our American
life, and I am grateful for Megan's willingness to try to do something to help
one young woman.
And Kat McKell, thank you, for your combination of commitment to expanding
youth volunteerism and the environment. I love the name Manateens, that's so
perfect for Florida, and it is a real symbol of what young people can do
together, if given a chance.
So each of these young women are being honored today for what they did, but
what they did should, I hope, send a message to all the rest of us about what
remains to be done. We should make it possible for all young people to
volunteer, and perform service, but we should also learn from the lessons and
the models that these young women give to us, that there is a lot of work we
need to be doing in partnership with young people, to imagine and then to build
that better future. So I'm honored to be part of this awards ceremony that pays
very just tribute to these particular award recipients, and to thank both
Seventeen and Cover Girl for their commitment to really exemplifying what
volunteerism means. But I think we should not just applaud them, we should be
challenged by them, and if we are, we will find even more opportunities for
young women and men to give service to their communities, and we will find ways
of making it possible to imagine and build a better future for them and all of
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us.
Thank you very much.
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