Remarks at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 25, 2000

September 21, 2000

Give her another hand. [Applause] Wasn't she great? Thank you, Karla.

Well, good afternoon, everyone. I am delighted to be here at Mott Community College. And I want to begin by thanking Karla Hudson again for her sterling example, but even more for her commitment to helping other people build a better future for themselves.

I also want to thank my longtime friend and now Cabinet member, Secretary Mineta, for his years and years of commitment to empowering people with disabilities. I thank my National Economic Adviser, Gene Sperling, who is a native of Michigan, for the work he did on the announcements I will make today. And Mayor Stanley, thank you, as always. Judy Brewer, thank you for your work.

I also want to acknowledge Pamela Loving from the Career Alliance and Michael Zelley from the Disability Network for what they're doing. I'd like to thank Dr. Shaink, the board, and the faculty members and the students of Mott Community College for making us welcome here today.

And I'd like to acknowledge a couple of other people who came with me today to be here--first, the remarkable president of Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, Dr. I. King Jordan, and a marathon runner-congratulations for being here-James Clark, vice president at NCR; Carl Augusto, the president of the American Foundation for the Blind; and from the administration, Judy Heumann, the Assistant Secretary for Special Education Rehab Services, and Jonathan Young from the White House. They're all around there. Thank you all very much for being here.

I would also like to thank the Vice President in his absence for the work that he has done with me for 8 years to empower all Americans.

Looking back, I think this is my fourth trip, Mayor, to Flint. I'm beginning to feel at home. I'm afraid if I come back, I'll get a tax bill, I've been here so often. [Laughter] When I first came here in 1992, Mayor Stanley welcomed me. Now I'm about the leave the Presidency, and when I'm gone, he'll still be mayor. [Laughter] I want to know what the secret is. [Laughter]

Let me say, as Secretary Mineta said, this is a very fortunate time for our country, and it happened because of a lot of people across America working together. Flint has worked hard, against tough odds, to bring this city back,

to prepare for a new century. And you have made a great deal of progress. I am quite sure that the people whom I visited today who are involved with the Disability Network and the Career Alliance and the people at this community college have played a major role in the resurgence of this fine community.

But we all know that not everyone has shared in the American economic renaissance. We all know there are people and places who have been left behind, including millions of Americans with significant disabilities who want to go to work but whose path is blocked and who could work and could contribute, not only to their own lives but to the rest of us, as well.

The great labor priest George Higgins articulated a fundamental truth when he said, "Work is an important way in which we exercise our humanity. In return, society offers us not only our daily bread but a sense that we, ourselves, are honored for the contributions we make."

When I sought the Presidency in 1991 and 1992, my first objective was to give work back to the American people. One of the strongest supporters I had was your former Governor, who is here with me today, and my friend of many years, Jim Blanchard, and I thank him for coming. Not only here in communities in Michigan but in far away New Hampshire, Jim went with me in the snows to listen to people who had lost their livelihoods, who broke down over dinner, dying because they were afraid they'd never be able to send their kids to school.

And we have, in large measure, succeeded. But we have not given every American the chance, first, to get an education, and second, to use their education to work and achieve the American dream. We have an obligation to do it, an obligation that requires us to keep expanding the circle of opportunity. And in this information age, when the pace of change increasingly accelerates at a breathtaking rate, we cannot achieve that goal if we leave any Americans stranded on the other side of the now famous digital divide.

Now, for nearly 8 years now, the Vice President and I have worked to break down barriers that hold people back. One of the most important things we did was to fight hard in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to insist that people with disabilities have full access to telephone equipment and service that most people take for granted. And one of our Federal Communications Commissioners, Susan Ness, is here with me today. I thank her, and I thank all of those who helped us to fight for the rights of disabled Americans in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

In 1998 we pushed through the Work Force Investment Act, requiring that any information technology the Federal Government buys be accessible to people with disabilities. And in 1999, I was very proud to sign the Work Incentives Improvement Act, which will enable Americans with disabilities to retain their Medicare or Medicaid coverage when they go to work and provide more choices for job training. This will give tens of thousands of Americans the opportunity to be in the work force.