Remarks at the "AmeriCorps Call to Service" in College Park, Maryland

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Feb 15, 1999

February 10, 1999

Thank you very much. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, when I was listening to Stephen and Leslie and Justin and Pepe talk, I was reminded of why I wanted to be President - so that I could give young people like them the chance to make America a better place.

I want to thank all those who are here today who have supported our efforts. I thank Harris Wofford for his outstanding leadership of the Corporation for National Service; Deb Jospin and John Gomperts of AmeriCorps. I thank Governor Glendening and Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend for making Maryland America's leading State for citizen service. They have clearly done that. I thank my good friend, Prince George's County Executive Wayne Curry; Senator Mike Miller, my longtime friend; and Mayor Jacobs, thank you for making us welcome. Carson Daly, thank you for the work MTV did on those wonderful spots, the PSA's. I would like to thank also the mother of the Lieutenant Governor, my good friend, Ethel Kennedy, for being here today. And I thank Mark Gearan, our Peace Corps Director, and I'll say a little more about the Peace Corps in a minute and its relationship to AmeriCorps.

I'd like to thank one person who is not here today, but who was on the frontlines of creating AmeriCorps, Senator Barbara Mikulski, your United States Senator from Maryland. I thank her. I want to thank the president of the University of Maryland, on my right, and the president of the student government of the University of Maryland, on my left, for making me welcome. Avery and Dr. Mote, thank you.

You have already heard from Dr. Mote and others that 6 years ago I came here to celebrate the end of the Summer of Service, which was our dry run for this national service program. We wanted to work out the kinks and see whether we could make this idea go. There were three-people who are here who were instrumental on that day; would like to thank them: Georgia Sorensen, Marilyn Smith, and my former White House staffer, who I miss very much, Bill Galston. Thank you all very much for what you have done.

And I thank the University of Maryland for the College Park Scholars, the Team Maryland athletes, the work-study students that are tutoring, and the others from the students and faculty who demonstrate the power of citizen service.

Let me say to all of you, when I ran for President in 1992 I wanted to get America working again and moving again, but I also wanted to bring America together again. It seemed to me that we had two great problems. One is that our economy was not functioning very well, and we seemed to be getting weaker, but also that we seemed to be letting our divisions overcome what we have in common.

Martin Luther King once said that the old law of an eye for an eye sooner or later leaves everyone blind. I always believed that America's differences could be the source of our strength if we respected and we celebrated our differences but we understood that, underneath it all, there was something that bound us together that was more important.

So, as I look back on the last 6 years, I think we can all take a great deal of pride in what our country has achieved together: economically, the longest peacetime expansion in history; the lowest peacetime unemployment rate since 1957, 42 years ago; the welfare rolls cut nearly in half; the lowest crime rate in over a quarter century. I think those are great things.

But I think we can also celebrate the evidence that we are coming together: over 90 percent of our children across all racial and ethnic lines immunized against serious childhood diseases for the first time in history; the doors of college literally open to all with the HOPE scholarship; the lifetime learning tax credit; the more generous Pell grant, more affordable student loans; more work-study slots. Those things matter. But maybe most of all, those of you here in AmeriCorps, and those in citizen service - whether in the Peace Corps, serving our country in the military, or serving in some other way - embody the determination of America to draw closer together as we grow more diverse. And that, I think, is terribly important.

When you saw the four AmeriCorps volunteers up here speaking, and each of you identifying with them in turn - if they worked in your project or you knew them - you know they were a picture of America, of the changing face of America, and the best of America that never changes.

If you look around the world today, at many of the challenges that I face as your President and that the United States faces - the sad trip that the First Lady and I recently took to Jordan for the funeral of our friend the King of Jordan, who survived decades of assassination attempts - literally decades of assassination attempts, probably 50 in all - to stand as a symbol of peace among people in a very tough neighborhood, who use religion as a reason to find their differences more important than their common humanity. All over the world today, you see that. If the United States wants to lead the world toward peace and freedom and prosperity in a new century in a new millennium, it is actually quite an advantage for us to have within our borders people from all races, all religions, all ethnic groups, all cultural backgrounds doing all kinds of different things.