pd04my98 Remarks at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner...

	Web GovRecords.org

coerced abstinence throughout the criminal justice system.

Note: This statement was made available by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on April 25 but was embargoed for release until 4:30 p.m. on 
April 26.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]


[Page 716-717]
 
Monday, May 4, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 18
Pages 711-754
 
Week Ending Friday, May 1, 1998
 
Remarks at the Premiere of ``Ragtime''

April 26, 1998

    Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, when we were being 
ushered up the aisle and backstage and we were preparing to come up 
here, I was full of ambivalence, frankly. I wanted so badly to come up 
here and thank Garth and the magnificent cast, musicians, people 
backstage, everybody who had anything to do with this unbelievable gift 
we have been given. I wanted to thank the leaders of the Democratic 
Party and the staff. I wanted to especially thank all of you for being 
here and for making this weekend, celebrating our 150th birthday as a 
party, a success. But I was absolutely convinced that anything I would 
say would be a complete anticlimax after the ringer they have put us 
through today. [Laughter]
    I was thinking on the way over here about the time when Mr. Doctorow 
published this magnificent novel over 20 years ago now, and Hillary and 
I were young law professors living in the mountains of north Arkansas. 
And I read the book almost immediately after it came out. I couldn't put 
it down. I just sat there, read right through it. And after it was over, 
I felt just as I felt after the show was over.
    But I don't think even then I fully grasped the life force behind 
the stories in ``Ragtime.'' And I think what I would like to say to you 
is that, yes, this is the story of America, and it reminds us that we 
have a good system and the best ideals, but we always fall a little 
short. And the story of our country has to be the continuing effort to 
overcome our own individual flaws and imperfections and tendency to fall 
into injustice and bigotry and oppression and greed and 
shortsightedness, or just plain tone-deafness but that there is also a 
part of the human condition which makes us vulnerable as people.
    I was walking down the aisle and several of you said, thank you so 
much for what you did to try to help the Irish people process along. And 
then I saw the representative of my ancestors, the Irish fireman here--
[laughter]--playing the heavy. We got a book last week, Hillary and I 
did, entitled ``How The Irish Became White.'' [Laughter] And it 
basically talks about how, when the Irish immigrants first came here, 
they really identified with the African-American slaves because they 
were treated the same way, and they had much the same experience.
    I say that to remind us all that there will always be the tendency 
of people to abuse power if they can abuse it. That's why we have a 
constitution which seeks earnestly to limit that. And all of us will 
always have our imperfection, and so will our children and grandchildren 
and their grandchildren. The thing that makes America great is that we 
have the right ideals and that through history we have constantly sought 
to overcome our own limitations, to stand for deeper freedom, to stand 
for wider opportunity, to stand for a more perfect Union.
    And I hope that all of you will always remember what you saw on this 
stage tonight. I hope you will never, ever abandon what brought you here 
to this performance tonight. And I hope all of your lives you will try 
to create more of the joy you saw here, eliminate all the oppression you 
can, and be very proud to be both an American and a Democrat.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

[[Page 717]]

Note: The President spoke at 7:30 p.m. at the National Theater. In his 
remarks, he referred to Garth H. Drabinsky, chairman and chief executive 
officer, Livent, Inc.; and author E.L. Doctorow.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]


[Page 717-718]
 
Monday, May 4, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 18
Pages 711-754
 
Week Ending Friday, May 1, 1998
 
Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner

April 26, 1998

    Thank you. Thank you very much. Let me see, we have now seen a 
magnificent musical rendition of a wonderful novel. We heard two fine 
speeches. If I had any sense, I would sit down. [Laughter]
    When Bob was talking about that obscurity is forever, I think the 
Vice President is too sensitive. I thought he was talking about being a 
former President, not being a--[laughter].
    I want to thank the Kogods and the Smiths and all their family 
members for having us in this magnificent home, for giving us a chance 
to look at all the wonderful art, for being in this beautiful tent. I'm 
delighted with the weather, and I'm delighted with the company. I want 
to thank the leaders of our party and the cochairs of this event 
tonight.
    As you leave here--and the Vice President has already said a lot of 
the things that I think should be said about what it means for a party 
to be 150 years old. But let me say, when Hillary and I were in Chile 
recently, someone, I think on her staff, got us a copy of a speech which 
Theodore Roosevelt gave in Chile after he left the White House in the 
early part of this century, a speech which I have to say I believe the 
members of his party ignored.
    But it's brilliant speech about how in politics, if you want to 
really matter, you have to be faithful to eternal values, but you have 
to always be willing to lift the dead hand of history off your politics, 
always be willing to do whatever is necessary to advance the expansion 
of freedom and opportunity for people, and never to be paralyzed by what 
you used to do when it no longer makes sense.
    It's really quite a brilliant speech, and I read it when I was in 
Chile, thinking, that's what I think, and that's what I think our party 
embodies.
    What I would like for you to think about, leaving here tonight, 
basically are just three things. Number one, in terms of what we're 
going to do in the next 2\1/2\ years, in order to continue to win 
Presidential elections, win back the Congress, and become the dominant 
party in the country again, I think we not only have to continue to win 
with an aggressive, specific agenda; I think we have to also keep 
pushing the big ideas--that we do believe in opportunity for everybody; 
we do believe that we should expand the reach of human freedom; we do 
believe that we're stronger as a diverse country.
    And there are two or three really simple things that I would like to 
mention that to me are quite important. And frankly, I haven't succeeded 
yet in convincing huge numbers of the American people that this has to 
be a part of our thinking. The first is that it no longer makes sense to 
have a clear, bright line between what is an American domestic policy 
and what is a foreign policy. Now, if I had succeeded in doing that, we 
wouldn't have some of the disputes we still have in our country today, 
and there would be more support in our country for paying our U.N. dues, 
investing in the International Monetary Fund, being responsible citizens 
in every way.
    I think the American people know we're living in an interdependent 
world, but it's not such a high priority that politicians for their own 
purposes don't feel they can--they still feel free to walk away from 
some of our responsibilities in the world. And I think that's a great 
mistake, because I can tell you--you know, I believe that every nation I 
have set foot in as President, I was doing something that was good for 
the American people and their future and our children's future.
    You do not have to be a Jewish-American or an Arab-American to know 
that the children of our country will have a brighter future if there is 
peace in the Middle East. You don't have to have come out of central 
Europe to know that the children of our country will have a brighter 
future if there is peace in Bosnia. You don't have to be Greek or 
Turkish to know that we'd be a whole lot better off if we'd resolve the 
problems over Cyprus. You don't have to be Indian or Pakistani to know 
that it would be an ultimate disaster if those two great nations went to 
war over Kashmir, when they could

[[Page 718]]

go to peace and change the whole future of the 21st century by their 
numbers and their ingenuity.
    This is elemental, and as Democrats we have got to continue to push 
the fact that our children live in a smaller and smaller world and that 
we cannot any longer just look at the outlines of the United States on a 
map and say only those events which occur within that border and only 
the people who live within those borders bear directly on our lives, our 
future, and our imagination.
    The other thing I'd like to say is that I think that we have got to 
learn to stop thinking of ourselves as the environmental party and start 
thinking of the environment as a part of all of our other policies. I 
think we will never have the kind of country we want unless we say we 
can conquer the problem of climate change as we grow the economy.
    We dare not think of some--we can't even have health policy unless 
we have environmental policy. We have to learn to think in a more 
integrated fashion. This may be late at night, and you may think that's 
esoteric, but I'm telling you, I'm about through with my public service 
as an elected official. Most of my service as President is over, and I'm 
thinking about the things that will shape what our children have to live 
with for 30 or 40 years.
    And the last thing I want to say is what the musical was about 
tonight is still the most important thing. We have to got to inculcate 
in our people both the pride in their own heritage, beliefs, and 
convictions and a fundamental respect, even a celebration, of people who 
are different from them. It is a great opportunity for the United States 
that we are the most diverse democracy in the world.
    Now, as a factual matter, both Russia and India also have huge 
numbers of different ethnic groups, languages, and religions within 
their borders, but the difference is, largely those people live in 
geographically separate parts of the same country. Here, we're the most 
mixed up, if you will--I don't mean addle-brained--[laughter]--I mean, 
inter- mixed--diverse democracy in all of human history.
    And if there is one thing I have learned as President that I did not 
really know when I took office in the way I know it now, it is that when 
people fight and kill each other or live in paralyzed isolation because 
of their ethnic, their racial, or their religious differences, they do 
not do it because of some dark content of human nature, some inevitable 
hard hand of history. They do it because they don't have leaders who 
stand up and say, this is the right thing to do; that is wrong to do; we 
must not live apart; it is wrong to kill and hurt and maim people.
    So when you go home tonight, I hope you'll remember the play for the 
rest of your life, the musical. I hope you will always be proud you were 
here. But remember, there is a reason we're still hanging around after 
all these years. Because we've still got the same values we started 
with, but we never let the dead hand of history keep us from making the 
changes necessary to make the American dream more real for more people 
in a more profound way in each new age and time.
    And if we leave with that and we continue to fight for that and we 
remember the three specific things I said tonight, then 150 years from 
now a bunch of other people will be having a nice dinner celebrating the 
300th birthday of the Democratic Committee. [Laughter]
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:41 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to dinner cohosts Arlene and Lauren Kogod and 
Clarice and Bob Smith.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]


[Page 718-720]
 
Monday, May 4, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 18
Pages 711-754
 
Week Ending Friday, May 1, 1998
 
Message to the Congress on Narcotics Traffickers of the Cali Cartel

April 24, 1998

To the Congress of the United States:

    I hereby report to the Congress on the developments since my last 
report concerning the national emergency with respect to significant 
narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia that was declared in 
Executive Order 12978 of October 21, 1995. This report is submitted 
pursuant to section 401(c) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 
1641(c), and section 204(c) of the International Emergency Economic 
Powers Act (IEEPA), 50 U.S.C. 1703(c).

[[Page 719]]

    1. On October 21, 1995, I signed Executive Order 12978, ``Blocking 
Assets and Prohibiting Transactions with Significant Narcotics 
Traffickers'' (the ``Order'') (60 Fed. Reg. 54579, October 24, 1995). 
The Order blocks all property subject to U.S. jurisdiction in which 
there is any interest of four significant foreign narcotics traffickers, 
one of whom is now deceased, who were principals in the so-called Cali 
drug cartel centered in Colombia. These persons are listed in the annex 
to the Order. The Order also blocks the property and interests in 
property of foreign persons determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, 
in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, 
(a) to play a significant role in international narcotics trafficking 
centered in Colombia or (b) to materially assist in or provide financial 
or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, the 
narcotics trafficking activities of persons designated in or pursuant to 
the Order. In addition the Order blocks all property and interests in 
property subject to U.S. jurisdiction of persons determined by the 
Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and 
the Secretary of State, to be owned or controlled by, or to act for or 
on behalf of, persons designated in or pursuant to the Order 
(collectively ``Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers'' or 
``SDNTs'').
    The Order further prohibits any transaction or dealing by a United 
States person or within the United States in property or interests in 
property of SDNTs, and any transaction that evades or avoids, has the 
purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts to violate, the prohibitions 
contained in the Order.
    Designations of foreign persons blocked pursuant to the Order are 
effective upon the date of determination by the Director of the 
Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) 
acting under authority delegated by the Secretary of the Treasury. 
Public notice of blocking is effective upon the date of filing with the 
Federal Register, or upon prior actual notice.
    2. On October 24, 1995, the Department of the Treasury issued a 
notice containing 76 additional names of persons determined to meet the 
criteria set forth in Executive Order 12978 (60 Fed. Reg. 54582, October 
24, 1995). Additional notices expanding and updating the list of SDNTs 
were published on November 29, 1995 (60 Fed. Reg. 61288), March 8, 1996 
(61 Fed. Reg. 9523), and January 21, 1997 (62 Fed. Reg. 2903).
    Effective February 28, 1997, OFAC issued the Narcotics Trafficking 
Sanctions Regulations (``NTSR'' or the ``Regulations''), 31 C.F.R. Part 
536, to further implement my declaration of a national emergency and 
imposition of sanctions against significant foreign narcotics 
traffickers centered in Colombia (62 Fed. Reg. 9959, March 5, 1997).
    On April 17, 1997 (62 Fed. Reg. 19500, April 22, 1997), July 30, 
1997 (62 Fed. Reg. 41850, Augusthree 4, 1997), and September 9, 1997 (62 
Fed. Reg. 48177, September 15, 1997), OFAC amended appendices A and B to 
31 C.F.R. chapter V, revising information concerning individuals and 

Other Popular 1998 Presidential Documents Documents:

Other Documents:

1998 Presidential Documents Records and Documents