Remarks at the Metropolitan Baptist Church: December 7, 1997

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Dec 22, 1997

And so I say to you, it begins when we speak the truth to one another, when we feel free to disagree, when we don't hide what we feel - but if you go on down in that chapter, when we don't let the sun go down on our anger, when we are genuinely kind to one another, for we are members, one of another. Now, on Christmas, we celebrate the birth of a child born in poverty, who never got elected to anything, never had a nickel to his name, and has more followers than any politician who ever lived for simply reminding us that we are children of God and that we are members, one of another.

So let us go out of here resolved to keep working together until every child is in a good school, until every family can be safe in their neighborhoods, until every grownup has a place to go to work in the morning. And we'll all be better off when we are selfishly selfless, recognizing that we are members, one of another.

Thank you, and God bless you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:50 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to Rev. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr., senior minister, Metropolitan Baptist Church, and his wife, Elizabeth; Mayor Marion S. Barry, Jr., of Washington, DC; Linda Cropp, chair, DC City Council; Dr. H. Patrick Swygert, president, Howard University, and his wife, Sonja; poet Maya Angelou; David Du Bois, grandson of W.E.B. Du Bois; and Sean Nalle and Ahjah Prom, children' who presented a book of children's letters to the President.