Remarks at the Sons of Italy Foundation Dinner - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, May 29, 2000

May 25, 2000

Well, thank you for the warm welcome. I am delighted to be here. I'm sorry to be late. I got here in time to see Mario Andretti's film, or at least to hear it. And I want to begin by congratulating Mario Andretti and Connie Stevens on their award and congratulating you on honoring them.

I was, today--the reason I had to be a little late tonight is, I'd been forced to go to Rhode Island. I had to go to a memorial service today for a friend of mine. And then when I came back, I stopped by the Asian-Pacific American dinner tonight. And I brought Mary Beth Cahill, my Director of Public Liaison. Now, she's Irish. I'm Irish. We went to the Asian-Pacific dinner, and then we came to the Sons of Italy dinner. Is this a great country, or what? [Laughter]

I want to thank all the Members of Congress who are here: Michael Capuano, Rosa DeLauro, Peter DeFazio, Nick Lampson, Dave Weldon. And I know John LaFalce was here, and since he's from New York, I think I'll mention him anyway. [Laughter]

I want to--I see Ambassador Salleo back there. Thank you, sir, for representing your country so well. And our U.S. Ambassador to Hungary has come all the way back, Peter Tufo, thank you. Thank you, Paul Polo. Thank you, Phil Piccigallo. Thank you, Phil Boncore.

And I'd also like to recognize one of my heroes, since I'm a baseball nut, Tommy Lasorta, and Vic Damone. And Vince Panvini, the Sheet Metal Workers' president, thank you.

You know, I do a lot of these dinners. And I never come so late, but normally by this hour, people are beginning to flag. But you look pretty lively to me tonight. [Laughter] And I don't think it's me. I think, the espresso, maybe. [Laughter]

I am going to follow tonight the admonition of one of the greatest of all Italians, Cicero, who was a pretty fair speaker. He said this: "Brevity is the best recommendation of a speech." So I agree with that, except when it comes to the State of the Union. [Laughter] And Cicero never had to give one of those, so I forgive him.

Let me begin by saying that obviously this is the last one of these dinners I will attend as President. Many of you have helped me and the Vice President and our administration family over 7 1/2 years, especially when it comes to advancing the cause of education. I thank you for what you do for the young people every year, and I hope to meet your young honorees tonight, which you've given the scholarships to. And I thank you very much for what you've done for us over these last 7 1/2 years.

I'd also like to say how profoundly indebted I am to the host of Italian-Americans who have served in this administration: today, my Chief of Staff is John Podesta, the second Italian-American chief of staff I have had; my Deputy Chief of Staff, Steve Ricchetti; the Counselor to the Chief of Staff, Karen Tramontano; my Director of Communications, Loretta Ucelli; my Deputy Press Secretary, Jennifer Palmieri; and that's just the beginning. I used to joke with them that someday, someone would file an affirmative action suit against me for having too many Italians in the administration. [Laughter] But I'm very glad also to have Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who's done a terrific job, and I want to thank him.

I want to also thank the Italian-American community for the contributions that so many millions have made to the progress of America these last 7 1/2 years--to the economic progress, the social progress, bringing the values of immigrants, of hard work, faith, and family, to the forefront of America and bringing us together.

And I want to make basically just two points, very briefly, that I think are consistent with what the Sons of Italy have done for 90 years now and more. First of all, you may have noticed that this is an election year. It's the first time in 26 years I haven't been on the ballot, so I haven't paid much attention to it--[laughter]--but I'm told that this is an election year. Most of the time, I'm okay about not being on the ballot.

But what I want to say to you is this: I've done everything I know to do to help our country deal with the challenges that have faced us at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. We are now in a once-in-a-lifetime position, in terms of the strength of our economy, in terms of the strengthening of our social fabric, in terms of our security position in the world, and I believe the great question in this millennial year is, what are we going to do with this good fortune?

And those of you, at least in this audience, who are over 30 can all remember at least one time in your lives when you made a mistake--a personal mistake or a professional or a business mistake or, if you're in politics, a political mistake, not because things were going so poorly but because things were going so well, you thought there were no consequences to a lapse in judgment, to taking the immediate path rather than the long view.

The whole history of Italian-Americans is the history of people who overcame obstacles, strengthened their families, made sacrifices today for the benefit of tomorrow. And what I hope and pray for Americans, without regard to whether they're Democrats or Republicans or independents, is that we will take advantage of this precious opportunity. We have to ask ourselves, what are we going to do with this good fortune to build the future of our dreams for our children and our grandchildren? How are we going to meet the big challenges still out there? What about the people in places who have been left behind by this prosperity?