Remarks at Miami-Dade Community College in Miami, Florida

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 28, 1996

The President. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let me, first of all, say I have had a lot of introductions in my life - [laughter] - I have had a lot of real good introductions in my life, but I have never been introduced better than Jerry Sawyer did it just then. And he was up here, you know, talking, and he got a real head of steam up, and he started talking about how the other side said my economic program would fail and they all voted against it and they said the sky would fall, and then all the good things that happened. I thought to myself when he was up here really wound up, I thought, now, where were you when I was preparing for that debate last week? I could have used you, Jerry Sawyer.

President Eduardo Padron, thank you for having us here at this wonderful place. Governor Chiles, thank you for your leadership for Florida and your friendship and advice to me. And the same for you, Lieutenant Governor MacKay. Congresswoman Carrie Meek was up here. She told me that she started out here at Miami-Dade Community College. And I could tell that you are still her people, and she is still yours, and you should be very proud of her - very proud of her.

I'd also like to thank some other folks who are up here with us today: Attorney General Bob Butterworth; our insurance commissioner, Bill Nelson; Congressman Peter Deutsch; and of course, the chairman of your board of trustees, Martin Fine. Thank you all for being here. Thank you, gentlemen, for coming. Thank you.

I have wanted to come here for a long time, to the largest community college in the entire United States of America. I am grateful to you for many things. But some of you may not know it - I actually have a member of my Cabinet who went to school here, whose parents taught here, and whose mother, I believe, is still in the audience. Carol Browner went here and then on to the University of Florida and wound up being head of the Environmental Protection Agency, where she is helping us to save the Florida Everglades. Thank you, Miami-Dade. And I'd like to thank her mother if she's here in the audience.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is college day for us. The First Lady is at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. The Vice President is at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. I got to come here to America's largest community college because I believe that community colleges work the way America has to work in the 21st century.

If you just think about it, this is not a bureaucratic organization; it's a flexible, creative organization. You change from year to year the programs you offer. And you have to meet a high standard of excellence, otherwise you'll be punished for what you don't know in the marketplace. It is a purely democratic organization - that's small "d" democratic - in the sense that it's open to all. Nobody asks you what your race, your religion, your ethnic background is. All you've got to do is be willing to work hard, learn what you're supposed to learn, take the exams, make the most of your own lives. If you show up, you're a part of the community college, and you ought to be a part of the American community, as well. This is the way America ought to work, the way these community colleges work.

Today I came here to talk about expanding opportunity to colleges. But I want to say something about what Jerry mentioned. Today we got some more evidence that America's economy is on the right track with low unemployment, low inflation, and low mortgage rates. We now have 4 1/2 million new homeowners in the last 4 years. And lower interest rates have helped 10 million more Americans to refinance their old mortgages at lower rates, saving huge amounts of money for those families.

Homeownership is an idea that ought to be available to every working American. We now have the highest rate in 15 years. And by the 21st century, if you'll give us 4 more, Secretary Cisneros and the rest of us who are working on this will have an all-time high of homeownership. By the year 2000, more than two-thirds of the American people will be living in their own homes if you will work with us and help us to build that bridge to the future.

My fellow Americans, you've got a big decision to make on November 5th. Are we going to build a bridge to the future or a bridge to the past? Are we going to build a bridge wide enough and strong enough for everybody to walk across together? Or will we say, "There's the future out there. I hope you can make it?"

Audience members. No-o-o!

The President. Are we going to tell the American people, "You're on your own," or are we going to say that, yes, it does take a village to raise and educate our children and build our country and go forward together?

You heard Jerry say it, and you know we're in better shape than we were 4 years ago: 10 1/2 million more jobs, the deficit cut by 60 percent, nearly 2 million fewer people on welfare, the lowest violent crime rate in 10 years. We are moving in the right direction. But your vote will decide what bridge we take to the future and whether we build one wide enough for everyone to walk across.