Remarks to employees of Albers Manufacturing Company in O'Fallon

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, March 25, 2002

March 18, 2002

Thank you all. Gosh, thanks for that warm welcome. It's great to be back in Missouri. And thank you for that hospitality.

I'm so glad that I'm with the Senator today; he is a champion of the small-business person. I look forward to working with him on some good legislation that understands the incredibly important role that the small-business person plays in America. And here it is: On a practical sense, more new jobs are created by small-business people than anybody else.

And I happen to think that the small business--the entrepreneur represents one of the true strengths of our country. I mean, after all, this is a country where if you've got a good idea and you're willing to work hard and you're willing to take a little risk, you can own your own business. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter how you were raised. It doesn't matter whether you were born in America. What matters is, is that you're willing to dream and work for the dream.

And so one of my jobs is to make sure the entrepreneurial spirit is strong and alive in America, that it continues to flourish so that the great American Dream of owning your own business is vibrant and alive and well. And when we go into the 21st century--and I want to talk about that today, a little bit.

Before I do, I want to thank Rolf and the good folks here at Albers for their hospitality. It's not easy to welcome the President and the entourage--[laughter]--just a mere 14 vehicles. [Laughter] But I do want to thank you for your hospitality, and all the employees with whom I just had an interesting discussion about how to--about what's on their mind, about what's it like to work for a small business and how best--what the Government can do to perhaps make the small business more vibrant and/or deal with some of the needs that directly affect the employees.

Now, I want to thank the other small-business owners who are here. I love what you do. Again, as I repeat, you're an incredibly important part of the future of the country. Thanks for taking risks and for working hard. I appreciate my friend Hector Barreto, for coming. He was born here in Missouri, raised in California, and is doing a fine job as the head of the Small Business Administration in Washington, DC. I had the honor today as well, of traveling with Jim Talent and four fine members of the Missouri congressional delegation, Congressman Akin and Blunt, Congressman Hulshof and Jo Ann Emerson. Thank you all for coming.

I also was met at the airport today by a guy named Derek Rapp. Where are you, Derek? There you are. Got a good seat, I see. [Laughter] That's what you get for coming to the airport. [Laughter] Here's Derek. Derek is the CEO of a small biotech firm. He is an economic entrepreneur, but I'm heralding Derek today because he's also a social entrepreneur. He's a person that understands that with freedom comes the responsibility to love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself, and I appreciate that spirit, Derek. He started what's called St. Louis Cares. It is a recruiting vehicle to help match people with kind hearts with people who need kind hearts in their lives.

And the reason I want to talk about the Dereks of the world is because in order to win the war against evil, this Nation must continue to practice acts of decency and kindness and goodness. That there is no question that the entrepreneurial spirit in America makes us unique, I think. But one of our other strengths is the fact that our Nation is a kind nation and a compassionate nation and a nation where neighbor loving neighbor is having a profound impact on the quality of our country's life. And so one of the things--and one of the reasons I like to introduce a guy like Derek, is because it helps remind us all about really one of the great strengths of our country, and that is our people.

You know, Government can't make people love one another. I would sign the law. [Laughter] But people loving one another is essential to having a bright future, so that everybody can experience the great American Dream. And we've got pockets of persistent poverty in our society, which I refuse to declare defeat--I mean, I refuse to allow them to continue on. And so one of the things that I'm trying to do is to encourage a faith-based initiative to spread its wings all across America, to be able to capture this great compassionate spirit.

One of my hopes is, out of this evil that was done to our country, is that people, young people understand that living in America is wonderful, but it also requires an effort to make the communities in which they live a better place, that we've got to work to usher in an era of personal responsibility. And part of that era of personal responsibility is not only, you know, obviously taking advantage of the material wealth available if you work hard and have got a good idea, but that there's much greater promise and hope than materialism, itself--materialism, itself, is a dead end-that the idea of trying to work to help somebody in need is a powerful part of having a full and complete life.