Remarks at a candlelight vigil honoring the Little Rock Nine in Little Rock, Arkansas

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 6, 1997

How many of our children today are not given that? And are all their neighbors doing everything they can to make sure that if they get the least little chance, they'll make the most of it? Are all of us who are interested in volunteering in the schools equally willing to walk the neighborhoods? Are we equally willing to walk on a street that is unfamiliar and walk into a home that we may not know and do what it takes in a personal way to try to rescue our children?

I spent a day in Boston not very long ago, and I went up there for a particular reason. There has not been a child - not a child - killed by a handgun in the city of Boston for almost 2 years - 2 years. Now, it's a bigger city than Little Rock, with a lot of tough neighborhoods and a lot of poor neighborhoods and a lot of problems. But the police there walk the streets, and they walk with parents groups and citizens groups. And the probation officers, they make house calls. And the police officers, they make house calls. Instead of waiting to bust the kids when they get in trouble, they go to the homes and sit down and visit with the parents and say, "Your child needs help. I'm here to help."

And they have a delightful group of people that wear T-shirts, and they call themselves - no offense to the pastors in the audience - Streetwalkers. [Laughter] And they're proud of the double meaning because they've turned it on its head, because they're walking the streets to save people's lives, not to waste people's lives.

I say that to make the point that what we owe the Little Rock Nine is to do our part in this time to deal with the new problems of this time and the unresolved problems of their time, so that when our time is done, at least our kids have something else to worry about. At least our kids have something else to worry about.

I'll never - one of the wiser men I ever met in public life was a former Secretary of State, United States Senator, and Governor of Maine, Edmund Muskie. And when he was still living, in 1983, Hillary and I went to Maine to a Governors' meeting. And we were having a very relaxed conversation, and I said, "Mr. Secretary," I said, "of all the jobs you ever held, which one did you like the best?" He said, "I think I liked being Governor the best, because I was close to people and their problems and their hopes and dreams." And I said, "Well, how do you define success for a Governor?" He said, "Success is whether you leave the person who comes after you a new set of problems or whether they're dealing with the same old problems." He said, "Look," he said, "the Bible teaches us that human nature is inherently flawed and that there will be problems till the end of time, but if you leave your people who come after you the same old problems, then you haven't done your job. Leave it up to God to figure out what the next generation's problems are going to be. Don't saddle them with yours."

And so I say to you, that's what I hope you will think about. Think about the kids in the gangs. Think about whether they could have made it if there hadn't been any neighbors to support them, if there hadn't been a Philander Smith to tutor them, if they had had to worry about going home and getting run over by somebody who just made a big drug sale, if they were estranged from people who were in a violent gang.