Date: Mon, 8 May 95 11:46:44 CDT
From: Rich Zellich <[z--l--h] at [STL-17SIMA.ARMY.MIL]>
To: [N--B--N] at [Mainstream.com]
Subject: Clinton's MSU Speech (Re: Presidential Provocation?)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release May 5, 1995
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT CLINTON AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Spartan Stadium
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
1:30 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: President McPherson, Governor Engler, Ambassador
Blanchard, distinguished members of Congress and state officials,
members of the Board of Trustees, distinguished faculty, honored guests,
family members and most importantly, members of the Class of 1995 --
(applause) -- I'm honored to be your speaker today and to be back on
this wonderful campus, the site of one of the great presidential debates
in 1992. (Applause.)
I have fond memories of Michigan State. And I was sitting there
thinking of all the uses to which I might put my honorary degree.
(Applause.) Maybe I will get more respect in Washington now.
(Laughter.) Regardless, now I know who I'm supposed to root for in the
Big 10. (Applause.)
Speaking of sports, I want to take a moment of personal privilege to
offer my very best wishes on his retirement to your distinguished
basketball coach, Judd Heathcote. (Applause.)
And as a person who never, ever, would have had an opportunity to be
here today, doing what I am doing, I want to thank President McPherson,
the present and past governors of Michigan, and all others who have
supported the remarkable set of educational opportunities for young
people in Michigan, especially in higher education. The tuition
guarantee program to keep tuition increases here to the rate of
inflation for five years is a standard I wish other universities all
across America would follow. (Applause.)
I also hope that other states will follow the example of the Michigan
Education Trust, and of Michigan State in entering into the direct loan
program, which will lower the cost of college loans for young people and
improve their repayment options so more people can afford to go to
college and stay there until they get their degrees. (Applause.)
I also want to say that I am deeply honored to be joined today by
another Michigan State alumnist who spoke from this platform last year,
my friend and fellow Arkansan, Ernest Green. He was one of the Little
Rock Nine, a brave group of Americans who staked their lives for the
cause of school integration and equal opportunity in education in my
state almost 40 years ago. He made the right choice at the right moment
in his life. He is a good model for you, and I hope you will do the
same. (Applause.)
As I was reminded by your president and others when we gathered just
a few moments ago, the last sitting president to address this assembly
was Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. There were fewer than 100 graduates in
the senior class then. (Laughter.) But it was a time not unlike this
time. We are on the edge of a new century; they had just begun a new
century. We are on the edge of a new era; they had just begun the dawn
of the industrial age. Like us now, they had many, many opportunities,
but profound problems. And people were full of hope mixed with fear.
But President Roosevelt and his generation of Americans were
optimistic, aggressive in facing the challenges of the day, and
determined to solve the problems before them. They launched the
progressive era, using the power of government to free the market forces
of our country from the heavy hand of monopoly, beginning to protect our
environment for future generations, to keep our children out of
sweatshops, to stand strong for America's role in the world.
Theodore Roosevelt and the Americans of his generation made the right
choices at the right moment. They met the challenges of the present,
paved the way for a better future, and redeemed the promise of America.
Our journey as a nation has never been an automatic march to freedom
and opportunity. In every generation there has come a point of
challenge in change. When critical decisions are made by our people to
go forward to turn back, to reach out or turn inward, to unify or
divide, to believe or doubt.
Today, we stand at the end of the Cold War and the Industrial Age, at
the onset of the global economy and the Information Age. Throughout all
219 years of our republic, times of great change like this have
unleashed forces of promise and threat, forces that uplift us and
unsettle us.
This time is not different. You are walking into a future of
unlimited possibilities. But more than half your fellow citizens are
working harder, spending less time with their children, and earning
about the same they did 15 years ago.
You can look forward to bringing your children into an exciting
world, freer of the dangers of war and nuclear annihilation, but the
dangers here at home are still profound. Too many of our children are
not born into stable families. Our streets are still too violent. And
new forces threaten the order and security which free people everywhere
cherish.
And so, my fellow Americans, it falls to your generation to make your
historic choices for America. This is a very new and different time.
But the basic question before us is as old as our country: Will we face
up to the problems and seize our opportunities with confidence and
courage? It is our responsibility to make that choice again.
Because you have a fine education, with all its power and potential,
when you leave this stadium your responsibility to your families, your
community and your country will be greater than ever before. With your
lives fully before you, you, too, must once again redeem the promise of
America.
On the home front there is reason for optimism. Though income
stagnation and economic uncertainty plague too many of our people,
unemployment is down, inflation is low, our deficit is declining, trade
is up, and most importantly of all, educational opportunities are
increasing. Though crime and violence, drug abuse and welfare
dependency and out-of-wedlock pregnancies are still too high and
threaten our social fabric, we are making a serious assault on all of
them, and we can make progress on all of them. Though government is
still too cumbersome and outdated, it is growing smaller, more flexible,
less wasteful and more effective.
In all these endeavors you must demand higher standards and more
personal responsibility. But you must know that progress is possible.
Beyond our borders there is also reason for hope. Since the end of
the Cold War the bonds among nations and the forces of commerce have
grown stronger. There is now a greater understanding of our world's
environmental challenges, and a willingness to do something about them.
Freedom, democracy and free enterprise are on the march. Large
countries are much less likely to go to war with one another. I am very
proud to say that for the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age,
no Russian missiles are pointed at the people of the United States.
(Applause.)
And I am equally proud to say that next week I will become the first
American president in nearly 40 years to visit Russia when no American
missiles are pointed at the people of Russia. (Applause.)
Therefore, you who graduate today will have the chance to live in the
most exciting, the most prosperous, the most diverse and interesting
world in the entire history of humanity. Still you must face the fact
that no time is free of problems, and we have new and grave security
challenges.
In this, the 20th century, millions of lives were lost in wars
between nations, and in efforts by totalitarian dictatorships to stamp
out the light of liberty among their subjects. In the 21st century,
bloody wars of ethnic and tribal hatred will be fought still in some
parts of the world. But with freedom and democracy advancing, the real
threat to our security will be rooted in the fact that all the forces
that are lifting us up and opening unparalleled opportunity for us
contain a dark underside. For open societies are characterized by free
and rapid movements of people and technology and information. And that
very wonder makes them very, very vulnerable to the forces of organized
destruction and evil. So the great security challenge for your future
in the 21st century will be to determine how to beat back the dangers
while keeping the benefits of this new time.
The dark possibilities of our age are visible now in the smoke, the
horror and the heartbreak of Oklahoma City. As the long and painful
search and rescue effort comes to an end with 165 dead, 467 injured, and
two still unaccounted for, our prayers are with those who lost their
loved ones, and with the brave and good people of Oklahoma City, who
have moved with such strength and character to deal with this tragedy.
But that threat is not isolated. And you must not believe it is. We
see that threat again in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New
York; in the nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway; in the terrorist
assault on innocent civilians in the Middle East; in the organized crime
plaguing the former Soviet Union now that the heavy hand of communism
has been lifted. We see it even on the Internet, where people exchange
information about bombs and terrorism, even as children learn from
sources all around the world.
My fellow Americans, we must respond to this threat in ways that
preserve both our security and our freedoms. Appeasement of organized
evil is not an option for the next century any more than it was in this
century. Like the vigilant generations that brought us victory in World
War II and the Cold War, we must stand our ground. In this high-tech
world, we must make sure that we have the high-tech tools to confront
the high-tech forces of destruction and evil.
That is why I have insisted that Congress pass strong anti-terrorism
legislation immediately -- to provide for more than 1,000 new law
enforcement personnel solely to fight terrorism; to create a domestic
anti-terrorism center; to make available the most up-to-date technology
to trace the source of any bomb that goes off; and to provide tough new
punishment for carrying stolen explosives, selling those explosives for
use in a violent crime, and for attacking members of the uniformed
services or federal workers.
To their credit, the leaders of Congress have promised to put a bill
on my desk by Memorial Day. I applaud them for that. This is not, and
must never be, a partisan issue. This is about America's future. It is
about your future. (Applause.)
We can do this without undermining our constitutional rights. In
fact, the failure to act will undermine those rights. For no one is
free in America where parents have to worry when they drop off their
children for day care, or when you are the target of assassination
simply because you work for our government. No one is free in America
when large numbers of our fellow citizens must always be looking over
their shoulders.
It is with this in mind that I would like to say something to the
paramilitary groups and to others who believe the greatest threat to
America comes not from terrorists from within our country or beyond our
borders, but from our own government.
I want to say this to the militias and to others who believe this, to
those nearby and those far away: I am well aware that most of you have
never violated the law of the land. I welcome the comments that some of
you have made recently condemning the bombing in Oklahoma City. I
believe you have every right, indeed you have the responsibility, to
question our government when you disagree with its policies. And I will
do everything in my power to protect your right to do so.
But I also know there have been lawbreakers among those who espouse
your philosophy. I know from painful personal experience as a governor
of a state who lived through the cold-blooded killing of a young sheriff
and a young African American state trooper who were friends of mine by
people who espouse the view that the government was the biggest problem
in America and that peopole had a right to take violence into their own
hands.
So I ask you to hear me now. It is one thing to believe that the
federal government has too much power and to work within the law to
reduce it. It is quite another to break the law of the land and
threaten to shoot officers of the law if all they do is their duty to
uphold it.
It is one thing to believe we are taxed too much and work to reduce
the tax burden. It is quite another to refuse to pay your taxes, though
your neighbor pays his. It is one thing to believe we are
over-regulated and to work to lessen the burden of regulation. It is
quite another to slander our dedicated public servants, our brave police
officers, even our rescue workers who have been called a hostile army of
occupation.
This is a very free country. Those of you in the militia movements
have broader rights here than you would in any other country in the
entire world. (Applause.)
Do people who work for the government sometimes make mistakes? Of
course they do. They are human. Almost every American has some
experience with this -- a rude tax collector, an arbitrary regulator, an
insensitive social worker, an abusive law officer. As long as human
beings make up our government there will be mistakes. But our
Constitution was established by Americans determined to limit those
abuses. And think of the limits -- the Bill of Rights, the separation
of powers, access to the courts, the right to take your case to the
country through the media, and the right to vote people in or out of
office on a regular basis.
But there is no right to resort to violence when you don't get your
way. There is no right to kill people. (Applause.) There is no right
to kill people who are doing their duty, or minding their own business,
or children who are innocent in every way. Those are the people who
perished in Oklahoma City. And those who claim such rights are wrong
and un-American. (Applause.)
Whenever in our history people have believed that violence is a
legitimate extension of politics they have been wrong. In the 1960s, as
your distinguished alumni said, many good things happened and there was
much turmoil. But the Weathermen of the radical left who resorted to
violence in the 1960s were wrong. Today, the gang members who use life
on the mean streets of America, as terrible as it is, to justify taking
the law into their own hands and taking innocent life are wrong. The
people who came to the United States to bomb the World Trade Center were
wrong.
Freedom of political speech will never justify violence -- never.
Our founding fathers created a system of laws in which reason could
prevail over fear. Without respect for this law there is no freedom.
(Applause.)
So I say this to the militias and all others who believe that the
greatest threat to freedom comes from the government instead of from
those who would take away our freedom: If you say violence is an
acceptable way to make change, you are wrong. If you say that
government is in a conspiracy to take your freedom away, you are just
plain wrong. (Applause.)
If you treat law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line
for your safety every day like some kind of enemy army to be suspected,
derided and, if they should enforce the law against you, to be shot, you
are wrong. (Applause.) If you appropriate our sacred symbols for
paranoid purposes and compare yourselves to colonial militias who fought
for the democracy you now rail against, you are wrong. (Applause.)
How dare you suggest that we in the freest nation on Earth live in
tyranny. How dare you call yourselves patriots and heroes.
I say to you, all of you, the members of the Class of 1995, there is
nothing patriotic about hating your country, or pretending that you can
love your country but despise your government. There is nothing heroic
about turning your back on America, or ignoring your own
responsibilities. If you want to preserve your own freedom, you must
stand up for the freedom of others with whom you disagree. But you also
must stand up for the rule of law. You cannot have one without the
other.
The real American heroes today are the citizens who get up every
morning and have the courage to work hard and play by the rules -- the
mother who stays up the extra half hour after a long day's work to read
her child a story; the rescue worker who digs with his hands in the
rubble as the building crumbles about him; the neighbor who lives
side-by-side with people different from himself; the government worker
who quietly and efficiently labors to see to it that the programs we
depend on are honestly and properly carried out; most of all, the parent
who works long years for modest pay and sacrifices so that his or her
children can have the education that you have had, and the chances you
are going to have. (Applause.) I ask you never to forget that.
And I would like to say one word to the people of the United States.
I know you have heard a lot of publicity in recent days about Michigan
and militias. But what you have seen and heard is not the real
Michigan. This is the real Michigan. (Applause.)
This is the real Michigan in this stadium today. (Applause.) The
real Michigan is Michigan State. It's the astonishing revival of the
automobile industry, with the remarkable partnership between the
autoworkers and the management. Real Michigan is Kellogg's Corn Flakes
and the best cherries in the world. (Laughter and applause.) The real
Michigan is the Great Lakes and the UP.
And the real Michigan -- (applause) -- most of all, the real Michigan
was presented to me when I got off the plane and one of your local
officials told me that here in mid-Michigan in only five days, the
people of this area raised $70,000 to pay for the help that people need
in Oklahoma City. (Applause.) And that money is now on its way to
Oklahoma City in a 27-car caravan, led by members of 27 different law
enforcement agencies from this part of your wonderful state. That is
what I want America to know about the real Michigan. (Applause.)
So, my fellow Americans and members of the Class of 1995, let me
close by reminding you once again that you live in a very great country.
(Applause.) When we are united by our humanity and our civic virtue,
nothing can stop us. Let me remind you once again that our best days as
a nation still lie before us. But we must not give in to fear or use
the frustrations of the moment as an excuse to walk from the obligations
of citizenship.
Remember what our founding fathers built. Remember the victories won
for us in the Cold War and in World War II, 50 years ago next week.
Remember the blood and sweat and triumph that enabled us to come to
this, the greatest moment of possibility in our history.
Go out and make the most of the potential God has given you. Make
the most of the opportunities and freedoms America has given to you. Be
optimistic; be strong. Make the choices that Theodore Roosevelt made,
that Ernest Green made. Seize your moment. Build a better future. And
redeem once again the promise of America.
Thank you, and God bless you all. (Applause.)