pd09mr98 Proclamation 7071--Women's History Month, 1998...

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    The JFK Library and its museum are national treasures, but I would 
like to talk about three things that are to some extent both more 
intangible and more tangible in the legacy of President Kennedy that 
will be enshrined forever if all of us do our job and keep this great 
enterprise going.
    First, the spirit of citizen service, most clearly embodied in the 
Peace Corps. President Kennedy said that he wanted to speak to those 
peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break 
the bonds of mass misery. We pledged to them our best efforts to help 
them help themselves. Five weeks later, 37 years ago yesterday, the 
Peace Corps was born. In 3 weeks, when I travel to Africa, my first stop 
will be Ghana, the first place President Kennedy's Peace Corps 
volunteers went to serve. Now they have gone, over the years, to 132 
nations.
    Tomorrow America will celebrate these accomplishments during the 
first ever Peace Corps Day, when thousands of former Peace Corps 
volunteers, including Secretary Shalala, who was a volunteer in Iran, 
and I might add has volunteered to go back if it will help our new 
efforts. [Laughter] Thousands of Peace Corps volunteers have agreed to 
talk with students around our country about their life-changing 
experiences.

[[Page 364]]

    The JFK Library also has a Library Corps, perhaps not as well known 
as the building itself, started by this foundation, which is inspiring 
young people in Roxbury, Dorchester, South Boston to work after school 
on community service projects.
    Inspired by President Kennedy's example, I have done what I could to 
advance the cause of citizen service. I just asked for the largest 
funding increase for the Peace Corps in history, in the hope that we can 
put 10,000 volunteers overseas by the turn of the century.
    Our national service project, AmeriCorps, has already given 100,000 
young people a chance to earn some money for college while they serve in 
their communities. One of my happiest days as President was when we 
walked up the South Lawn of the White House with all the first group of 
young people, and I met Senator Kennedy, and we signed the bill.
    Soon, tens of thousands of those young people will be working with 
elementary school students, to teach them to read, and middle school 
students, promising to stay with them throughout their careers to make 
sure they get a chance to go to college, too.
    So we thank President Kennedy and all of you for the spirit of 
citizen service.
    The second thing that I would like to say in appreciation to the 
legacy of President Kennedy is that he did a lot to remind us all that 
we owe it to ourselves, to our children, and to our future to cherish 
and proliferate exposure to the arts. The First Lady and I have tried to 
do that in our celebration of the millennium. We have been having these 
Millennium Evenings. We had the great Harvard historian Bernard Bailyn 
the other night, and this Friday night we will have the brilliant 
cosmologist Stephen Hawking. A week from tonight we will also highlight 
four vernacular dances that have entered our unique dance: tap, Lindy-
hopping, jazz, and--so help me, I didn't organize this--Irish step 
dancing. [Laughter]
    I want to thank Yo Yo Ma for the work that he has done to try to 
bring the arts, and music in particular, to so many Americans who might 
otherwise have never had a firsthand experience with what can lead us 
all to a higher level of understanding and enjoyment of life.
    Finally, and most personally, I am here because President Kennedy, 
Robert Kennedy, their generation, made me admire and believe in public 
service and made me understand that it could be fun but that it also 
carried with it certain responsibilities. They made me believe that it 
was not a bad thing but a noble thing to want to exercise power but only 
if it were exercised for some larger purpose. There are many people in 
this room tonight who could be standing here making exactly the same 
statement.
    Just before I came over here, I finished a magnificent new biography 
of Theodore Roosevelt by H.W. Brands called ``The Last Romantic.'' It's 
a terrific book, and it's only 820 pages long. [Laughter] But I was 
thinking--because President Roosevelt died right after the close of the 
First World War, I was thinking about the whole sweep of the century 
that President Kennedy's life marked and that his service marked in such 
a profound way.
    This century we are about to leave was dominated by the consequences 
of the industrial revolution, the growth of very big organizations--
economic organizations, governmental organizations--and the attendant 
wealth and power and possibility and threat that revolution spawned. So 
that for most of this century, Americans in positions of responsibility 
and ordinary American citizens have both had an incredible opportunity 
to find wealth and personal fulfillment and greater expression of 
freedom because of the organized development of this time. But they have 
also had an enormous responsibility to stand up against the new horrors 
that vast organized power presented to them, whether in greed or bigotry 
or outright totalitarian oppression.
    John Kennedy made us believe that in public service you could fight 
for the things that ought to be fought for; you could fight against the 
things that ought to be fought against; and that the sole purpose of 
power, fleeting though it is, was to be applied to the best of your God-
given ability to those worthy goals.

[[Page 365]]

    Now, we're about to enter a new century with problems and 
opportunities unparalleled in history, speeding along at a pace and with 
a complexity that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. 
There is a lot of good in the fact that the knowledge of the world is 
now doubling--sheer facts are doubling every 5 years. We see in the 
human genome project miraculous health discoveries being made almost 
weekly now.
    But we also know that in this new world, where the Internet is 
exploding and 65,000 new sites are being added every hour of every day, 
that there will be new ways that people who are organized for the abuse 
of their power will present new threats, perhaps terrorists or organized 
criminals or narcotraffickers, perhaps in the forms of chemical or 
biological or small-scale nuclear weapons, perhaps unwise leaders being 
too greedy in the short run, forcing poor people off their land into the 
teeming cities of poor countries, devastating the environment, leading 
to the spread of disease.
    So we will now live in a new area where humankind will have all 
kinds of new possibilities for good and all manner of new things that 
need to be fought against. I hope that the children of this age will 
find a way to believe in America the way President Kennedy helped me to 
believe in America and to believe that the political process leaves the 
ultimate power in the people and gives its elected Representatives a 
precious chance just to bring out the good and stand against the bad. It 
is the eternal human obligation. He made it seem fun and noble and good. 
The least we can do is to keep the torch burning.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:10 p.m. in the Hall of the Americas at 
the Organization of American States. In his remarks, he referred to 
Victoria Kennedy, wife of Senator Edward Kennedy; Caroline Kennedy and 
her husband, Edward Schlossberg; John F. Kennedy, Jr.; Paul Kirk, chair, 
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation Dinner; and Secretary 
General Cesar Gaviria of the Organization of American States.


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[Page 365-366]
 
Monday, March 9, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 10
Pages 351-388
 
Week Ending Friday, March 6, 1998
 
Remarks on Signing a Memorandum on Standards To Prevent Drinking and 
Driving

March 3, 1998

    The President. Thank you, Brenda, and I thank the other members of 
the Frazier family and the friends who are here in support of you. 
Attorney General Reno, Senator Lautenberg, Congresswoman Lowey, Senator 
DeWine, Chief Flynn, thank you for your work and your support. I thank 
Secretary Slater, Senator Dorgan, Senator Hollings, Senator Moseley-
Braun, and Congressman McGovern for their presence and their support. 
And I thank the Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against 
Destructive Decisions, the organizations for highway safety, all of you 
who are here in this noble endeavor.
    Let me say that after hearing Brenda Frazier's story there is very 
little that needs to be said. After seeing the photograph of Ashley, 
there is very little that needs to be seen. Every parent in this 
country, every single one, who has ever put his or her child in a car 
with someone else to go off to some destination, has felt that sense of 
loss of control, that fear that something might happen. Every parent of 
a teenager has spent some moment on every weekend of the teenager's 
life, when the teenager was out, wondering, hoping, and praying that 
nothing would ever happen.
    To be reminded that these things do happen should be all the 
reminder any Member of Congress or any American ever needs. We've heard 
Brenda's story, but there is hardly a family or community in America 
that hasn't been touched by drunk driving. Senator Dorgan, we thank you 
especially for being here today, because you lost your mother, Dorothy, 
to a drunk driver. And we know that this is a national problem. Senator 
DeWine reminded us that in 1984 President Reagan signed into law the 
legislation to help make 21 the national drinking age. Senator 
Lautenberg fought for that law in Congress because he knew that most of 
all our young people were threatened.

[[Page 366]]

    Eleven years later, I was proud to sign into law the zero tolerance 
legislation that is helping to make it illegal for a person under 21 to 
drive in any State after drinking any measurable amount of alcohol, no 
matter what the legal limit is. I say to you, if we win this battle and 
you want to come back for a lower limit, I'll be glad to stand here with 
you under those circumstances as well. The ``Safe and Sober Streets 
Act'' takes the next step to lower the legal limit to .08 in every 
State. When Congress passes it I'll sign it, and we'll work hard to pass 
it.
    Today there is something else I'd like to do. I am instructing 
Secretary Slater to report back to me in 45 days with a plan to make .08 
the legal limit on all Federal property, from National Parks to military 
bases, so that the United States can lead the way in making .08 the law 
of the land all over the land.
    Lowering the legal limit to .08 will not prevent adults from 
enjoying alcoholic beverages. But lowering the limit will make 
responsible Americans take even greater care when they drink alcohol in 
any amounts if they intend to drive.
    To people who disregard the lethal threat they pose when they drink 
and drive, lowering the legal limit will send a strong message that our 
Nation will not tolerate irresponsible acts that endanger our children 
and our Nation. We will, meanwhile, continue to do all we can to protect 
our young people from harm, fighting to keep drugs and guns and alcohol 
out of our schools and our children's lives, fighting to shield them 
from the deadly harm of illegal exposure and use of tobacco.
    With the steps we take today, we will build on that progress to help 
to ensure that the lives of Ashley Frazier, Dorothy Dorgan, and 
thousands of others cut short by drunk driving will not have been lost 
in vain.
    Now, in a few moments I want to ask Ashley's classmates who are 
here, members of my Cabinet, and the Members of Congress who are here to 
join me as I sign the Presidential directive on Federal property. But 
before I do, if you will indulge me, because of the action of the United 
Nations Security Council with regard to Iraq and because this is the 
only chance I have to appear before the press and therefore the American 
people today, I would like to make a brief statement.
    The unanimous vote of the United Nations Security Council last night 
sends a clear message. Iraq must fulfill without obstruction or delay 
its commitment to open all of the nation to the international weapons 
inspectors--anyplace, anytime, without any conditions, deadlines, or 
excuses.
    All the members of the Security Council agree that failure to do so 
will result in severest consequences. The Government of Iraq should be 
under no illusion. The meaning of ``severest consequences'' is clear. It 
provides authority to act if Iraq does not turn the commitment it has 
now made into compliance.
    As the Secretary-General told the Security Council yesterday, Iraq's 
complete fulfillment of these obligations is the one and only aim of the 
agreement. No promise of peace and no policy of patience can be without 
its limits. Iraq's words must be matched by deeds. The world is 
watching.
    Now, I would like to ask Ashley's classmates, the members of the 
Cabinet, and the Members of Congress, as well as Chief Flynn, would you 
all join us up here now, and Brenda, please.

[At this point, the President signed the memorandum on standards to 
prevent drinking and driving.]

    The President. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 2:16 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Brenda Frazier, mother of Ashley 
Frazier, who was killed by a drunk driver; Edward Flynn, chief of 
police, Arlington County, VA; and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi 
Annan.


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


[Page 366-367]
 
Monday, March 9, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 10
Pages 351-388
 
Week Ending Friday, March 6, 1998
 
Memorandum on Standards To Prevent Drinking and Driving

March 3, 1998

Memorandum for the Secretary of Transportation

Subject: Standards to Prevent Drinking and Driving

    We have made progress in improving highway safety through a variety 
of innovative and aggressive initiatives, including our ``Buckle Up 
America'' campaign to increase safety

[[Page 367]]

belt usage and improve child passenger safety, and the formation of a 
ground-breaking public-private partnership on airbags. We have also 
taken important steps to reduce the deaths and injuries brought about by 
alcohol use and driving. In November 1995, I signed into law legislation 
to help ensure that States adopt ``Zero Alcohol Tolerance'' laws by 
October 1998 for young drivers. To date, 46 States and the District of 
Columbia have enacted such laws.
    However, drunk driving remains a serious highway safety problem. 
Over 40 percent of all motor vehicle deaths in 1996--17,126--were 
alcohol-related, and nearly 3,000 of these fatalities were young people 
under the age of 21. Moreover, alcohol-related automobile accidents cost 
our society $45 billion every year, not including the pain and suffering 
endured by the victims.
    We must do more to prevent the many tragic and unnecessary alcohol-
related deaths and injuries that occur on our Nation's roads. That is 
why my Administration has called on the Congress to pass legislation 
helping to ensure that a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08 becomes the 
national legal limit. Research shows that, at a BAC level of .08, 
drivers are impaired with regard to critical driving tasks such as 
braking, steering, lane changing, and exercising good judgment. The risk 
of being involved in a crash increases substantially when drivers have a 
BAC level of .08 or above. In fact, the relative risk of a driver being 
killed in a single-vehicle crash at .08 BAC has been estimated to be at 
least 11 times higher than it is for drivers who have no alcohol in 
their system. Yet 33 States and the District of Columbia continue to use 
.10 BAC as the legal limit. It is estimated that if all States were to 
lower their limits to .08 BAC, there would be 600 fewer alcohol-related 
traffic deaths every year.

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