Remarks at Parkrose High School in Portland, Oregon

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Jan 14, 2002

January 5, 2002

Well, thank you all very much for such a gracious and warm welcome. It's nice to be back here in Oregon. I'm impressed by the Mighty Ducks; they're awfully good. I wasn't a believer; now I am. [Laughter] They're good. Of course, they gave my Texas boys a good lesson last year, as I recall. [Laughter]

But thanks for coming out on a Saturday afternoon to say hello. I was earlier in California, and then I'm here--went to a community college. You've got a wonderful community college here in the Portland area, which is worried about helping people find work. And I went by and saw the good instructors there that are trying to help people help themselves.

And I come in here to be able to share some thoughts with you. And then I'm going to hustle on home for dinner--[laughter]--right there in Crawford, Texas.

I want to thank Katie Harman for being here. It was a pleasure to meet your mayor. Mayor Katz, thank you for coming. It's very gracious for you to be here today.

I picked a good man from Portland to represent us in New Zealand; that's my friend Butch Swindells, who is now the Ambassador to New Zealand.

I spent a little time with some people that work for a company called InFocus, which is a company--[applause]. John, it sounds like you packed the crowd. [Laughter] Either that, or you've got a big family. [Laughter] But I want to thank John Harker and his team for coming to talk to me about how best they think we can stimulate growth. I want to thank them for employing people in this part of the world, for trying to figure out how to grow their economy, for worrying about their workforce, as well as making a quality product. I'm going to share some thoughts that John shared with me in a little bit. But I do want to thank you for coming.

I also want to thank my friends Senator Gordon Smith and Greg Walden. They were hitchhiking in California and they needed--[laughter]. They were looking for a free ride, and Air Force One happened to be available. [Laughter] But they did fly down with me, I'm impressed by these two good men,

We spent a lot of time talking about Oregon. They're deeply concerned about the fact that a lot of people aren't working; I am, too. They're deeply concerned about the fact that parts of your State are not being treated very well. We spent time talking about the Klamath Basin. I share their concern about people who make a living off the land. And I told these two good men that we'll do everything we can to make sure water is available for people who farm.

I also want to thank two of the Congressmen from this area, Earl Blumenauer and Darlene Hooley, for being here, as well. Thank you so much for coming; I appreciate you being here. I know you had better things to do on Saturday afternoon, and here you are, stuck with me. [Laughter] Thanks for coming; it means a lot.

You know, there were some--some of the things that are happening in Washington, I expected. And there was one thing that happened was not expected. It's been a heck of a year. [Laughter] I will tell you, before I get into the expected and unexpected, I believe 2002 is going to be a fabulous year for America.

I remember meeting with business leaders in Austin, Texas--this is before I began heading north to become sworn in as your President--and there was deep concern about the economy then. A year ago December, people were saying, "This economy is soft, and we're going to be in for a rough ride." It was not unexpected to see the economic slowdown. And I want to share some thoughts with you about how we can reverse the trend--although I'm optimistic about our economy. There are some numbers coming out that appear that things are getting a little better: The unemployment rate is 5.8 percent. But if you're unemployed, it's 100 percent, and I'm worried about that.

The unexpected, obviously, was September the 11th, when evil people decided to attack America. I say "evil people" because I don't view this as a religious war. I view this as a struggle of good versus evil. And make no mistake about it, good will prevail.

We are making steady progress in the first theater on the war against terror. We have made it clear to people that we weren't going to allow the injustice done to America to stand, and that if anybody harbored these people or fed them or clothed them or tried to provide them help, they were just as guilty as the terrorists were.

These people are like parasites, and they find a host. And for those of you who ranch, you understand what a parasite can do to the host cow, for example; too many parasites weaken the host. What happened was, was that they became parasites in Afghanistan. But we weakened the host; the Taliban no longer is in power.

And as a result, this great nation should be proud of the fact that we led a coalition that liberated women and children, a coalition that brought down a government that was so incredibly repressive it's hard for those of us who live in America to understand. Some of my finest memories thus far of this war against terror was the joy that came on people's faces when they realized that the Taliban would no longer hold them hostage to an outdated, outmoded, dictatorial point of view.