Remarks at Logan High School in La Crosse, Wisconsin

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, May 13, 2002

May 8, 2002

The President. Thank you. Okay, here we go. Thank you all very much. It's---

Audience member, We all love you!

The President. Your mother may be watching; behave yourselves. [Laughter]

I'm honored to be here. I want to thank the citizens of La Grosse, Wisconsin, for such a warm welcome. I'm--great to be here in Logan High School. It's a great place.

So I was being briefed about Logan High School. I'll tell you what impressed me the most. I was impressed by the fact you've got a great baseball team. I was impressed you've got a great girls basketball team. But I was most impressed when I saw that the school raised a banner for the academic superstars. I'm at this school, of course, to talk education, but I'm also here to herald excellence. And we have found excellence at Logan High School, and thanks for giving me a chance to come by.

I appreciate the Secretary of Education traveling with me today. You know, we've got a lot of people who like to theorize in Washington, DC--kind of philosopher types. I'm kind of a roll-up-your-sleeve-and-get-it-done type guy. And that's what I want the people--and I picked that kind of man as our Secretary of Education as well. This is a fellow who's been on the frontlines of education. I had the honor of meeting your superintendent here in La Crosse. They were able to talk superintendent talk. [Laughter] They know how to get things done. And so I've got a really good man who's joined me in my administration to help make sure that no child in America--and we mean no child--is left behind when it comes to education.

I want to thank Logan High grad, class of '81, Congressman Ron Kind for joining us today. Thank you, Ron. I really appreciate you coming today. I'm honored you're here. I also want to thank your Governor, Scott McCallum, for traveling with me today as well. I want to thank Michael McArdle, who is the president of the La Grosse School Board, for being here. I want to thank all the school board members. I appreciate Thomas Downs, who's your superintendent. Interestingly enough, he showed me a picture of he and my dad when he was--I think, a teacher, he said, in Iowa. I really want to thank Scott and the staff and the teachers for making this visit possible. You know, one of the things I've learned, as Governor and now President, is that when you find a good school, you also find a good principal.

There's going to be some folks here graduating, I understand, pretty soon.

Audience members. Yes!

The President. Don't take it for granted. [Laughter] But you'll be the first high school class that has graduated with America under attack. We got under attack in September, and you're graduating in a time of war. And I want to talk to you a little bit about what that means for America, what it means for our country, what it means for a nation to fight for what it believes in.

I can't imagine what went through the minds of our enemy when they attacked us on September the 11th. You know, they must have thought America was so self-absorbed, so materialistic, so selfish that we would cower in the face of a challenge; well, we might file a few lawsuits or two, but that would be all we would do. But that's not the America I know, and that's not the America you're a part of. This is a country that when it comes to defending that which we believe in, when it comes to defending our freedoms, we are patient; we're deliberate; and we are plenty tough.

You're graduating in a time of war, right here in America, but a war that your textbooks really haven't been able to describe before. It's a new kind of threat to our country. Now, you need to know right off the bat that our enemy are nothing but a bunch of coldblooded killers. And they hate America because of our freedoms. They cannot stand the thought that we worship freely, that we've got freedom of the press, that we debate freely. They can't stand that. It bothers them. And therefore, they're out to hurt us again.

Now, you need to also know that we're doing everything we can to protect the American people. My most important job is the security of the American people. I learn that every day when I walk into the grand Oval Office. In the morning, I walk in there, and first thing I do, of course, is--after I bring the First Lady a little coffee--[laughter]--is take Spot and Barney down, let them work the South Lawn for a while. [Laughter] Spot was born in the White House. She's 13 years old. She understands the decorum of the Oval, so she gets to go in. But Barney is only a year and a half and we got a new rug, so he doesn't. [Laughter]

Every morning I read about threats to America. I read about the enemy wanting to inflict some more harm on us. And every morning it reminds me that I will do everything in my power to protect the American people.

Our law enforcement officials are talking better amongst each other; we're sharing information a lot better way now. The Federal Government is in better communications with State and local governments. And anytime we get a hint or anytime we get kind of a sniff that something might be fixing to happen, you need to know we're acting. We're acting within the confines of the United States Constitution, but we're acting.