pd09oc95 Proclamation 6833--National Children's Day, 1995...

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Week Ending Friday, October 6, 1995
 
Statement on Hurricane Opal

October 4, 1995

    As Hurricane Opal hits the coast of the Southern United States, our 
hearts and prayers go out to all whose lives have been disrupted by the 
devastation. The people of Florida and Alabama have shown great courage 
and strength in dealing with the damage that has already been done, and 
I know they will continue to show courage as the hours progress.
    I want the States affected by this terrible storm to know that the 
rest of America is with them. One of the basic values of America is the 
responsibility to stand with each other in times of need. I will do all 
I can to ensure you the Federal support you need for successful recovery 
efforts. Tonight I have signed emergency declarations to supplement 
State and local recovery efforts in both Florida and Alabama. James Lee 
Witt, the Director of the Federal Emergency Man- 

[[Page 1765]]

agement Agency, will be on the ground coordinating efforts in the South 
to save lives and protect the health, safety, and property of those 
affected by Hurricane Opal.
    The action I am taking tonight will now enable us to immediately 
send rescue teams into the affected areas. Please be assured that the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency will mobilize all necessary 
resources to help these States recover from the damage. And be assured 
that the prayers of our entire Nation are with you.


<DOC>
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[Page 1765]
 
Monday, October 9, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 40
Pages 1749-1788
 
Week Ending Friday, October 6, 1995
 
Remarks Announcing Agreement on a Cease-Fire in Bosnia-Herzegovina and 
an Exchange With Reporters

October 5, 1995

    The President. Good morning. Today we take another solid step on the 
hard but hopeful road to peace in Bosnia. I'm pleased to announce that 
the parties in Bosnia have agreed to a cease-fire to terminate all 
hostile military activities throughout the territory of Bosnia-
Herzegovina to become effective on October the 10th, if certain 
conditions are met.
    At the same time, the Governments of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia 
have agreed to proximity peace talks in the United States, beginning 
about October the 25th, aimed at bringing them closer to a peace 
agreement. Those negotiations will take place with the assistance of our 
able negotiating team, led by Assistant Secretary Holbrooke, together 
with our Contact Group partners.
    The talks will continue, then, at an international peace conference 
in Paris that can help to achieve an enduring end to the struggle. This 
is an important moment in the painful history in Bosnia, for today the 
parties have agreed to put down their arms and roll up their sleeves and 
work for peace.
    We need to be clear-eyed about this. What matters is what the 
parties do, not simply what they say. There remain deep divisions to 
overcome. We are now on the right road, but we have by no means reached 
our destination, which is a serious and lasting peace in Bosnia. This 
cease-fire, however, greatly increases our chances to end the war and to 
achieve a peace. The United States, together with our European and our 
Russian partners, intends to use all of our influence and every ounce of 
our energy to seize this historic opportunity for peace.
    Q. Do you think--this statement, and do you wish you had done it 
sooner? If you had moved more aggressively----
    The President. All I know is that we're on the verge of a cease-
fire. We're going to do our best to get the cease-fire. We have 5 days 
of hard work to do on that.
    Q. Will NATO police this cease-fire? How will this be enforced?
    The President. We're going to brief you on all the details of the 
cease-fire. We intend to go forward with the cease-fire, then go forward 
with the talks here in Washington. We hope we can start the talks in 
Washington by October the 25th, and we feel very strongly that that will 
increase the chances of peace.

Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. in the Briefing Room at the White 
House.


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[Page 1765-1772]
 
Monday, October 9, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 40
Pages 1749-1788
 
Week Ending Friday, October 6, 1995
 
Remarks on Presenting the Arts and Humanities Awards

October 5, 1995

    The President. Thank you very much. It's an eerie feeling being 
introduced by your wife. [Laughter] You never know what's going to be 
said. [Laughter] You're steeling yourself for the discipline not to show 
any adverse reaction. [Laughter] We're having a good time today, Hillary 
and I are. We love this day; we look forward to it. And we thank all of 
you for coming. We thank especially Senator Pell and Senator Simpson. 
Thank you for coming. We're glad to see you.
    We thank the members of the administration who are here. I see 
Secretary Riley, and Deputy Secretary Kunin of Education; and Roger 
Johnson, the Director of the General Services Administration. There may 
be others here. I thank all of you for being here. I want to say a 
special word of thanks for the service of Jane Alexander and Sheldon 
Hackney for the great job that they have done. I thank my good friend 
John Brademas, the Chairman of the President's Committee on the Arts and 
Humanities, and Diane Frankel, the Director of the Institute for Museum 
Services. And I thank all the members of the Arts and the Humanities

[[Page 1766]]

Councils who are here for their willingness to serve.
    It's a great honor for me to be able to present today the National 
Medal of Arts and the Charles Frankel Prize in the Humanities to a 
distinguished group of Americans who have lived their lives as builders, 
bringing people enlightenment, bringing people enjoyment, advancing the 
cause of human knowledge and human understanding and the joy in life. 
Before I do that, I think I ought to say, we've had a couple of pieces 
of good news this morning at the White House, which at least are not 
inconsistent with what so many of these people have given their lives 
to.
    The President of Mexico called me this morning and told me that, 
after all the difficulties his country had faced in recent months, that 
he was making an early repayment of $700 million of the money they 
borrowed from the United States to keep their economy going. And I think 
that's a good thing.
    You know, when you loan money, you never know whether it's a good 
thing or not until it's too late to do anything about it. [Laughter] 
Some of you have been in that position. But they're our friends; they're 
our allies; they're our partners for the future. They're fighting for 
their democracy, and they're fighting for the quality of their country's 
economy. They hit a rough spot in the road, and they borrowed less money 
than we authorized them to, and they're paying it back more quickly. And 
we're going to have a brighter future as a result of it and a safer, 
more secure future, and a better partnership. And that's a good thing.
    And perhaps even more importantly, I learned early this morning that 
in 5 days from now, if we can just get a couple of things done, the 
parties in Bosnia have agreed to a complete cease-fire of all military 
hostilities. They have, furthermore, agreed to come for what are called 
``proximity peace talks''--I'll tell you about that in a minute; that's 
a Government language word--to the United States to actually talk about 
hammering out a final peace agreement in late October. So this is a good 
day for the cause of peace and prosperity in the world and in the United 
States.
    Proximity peace talks means that they'll all come to the same 
country, to the same town, to the same place, but they'll let us talk to 
them, and they won't talk to each other until--[laughter]--but that's 
better than it's been. [Laughter] And sooner or later, we'll all find 
out we have more in common than we do dividing us. And that's the lesson 
that we hope the American people keep in mind us we go through the next 
months and years as well.
    I think it's fair to say that no President has ever enjoyed these 
award ceremonies more than I have because every year I get a chance to 
recognize the lifetime achievements of people who have been heroes to me 
in various ways, men and women who, unbeknownst to them, have been my 
teachers, my role models, my inspiration, because, as President, I am no 
different than any other American who enjoys literature or music or art 
and architecture. And I have benefited, as so many of you have, from the 
work of the people we recognize today.
    These awards call attention to the lives of 17 individuals and one 
organization who have worked to enrich the lives of millions and 
millions of Americans, millions of people around the world, and have 
made this country a stronger, better, richer place. They are genuine 
examples of the American ideal and their work as a whole is a national 
treasure.
    The arts and humanities have energized the American dream in so many 
ways. The soul of our country has literally been shaped by the vision of 
our artists and the creativity of those whom we honor here today. And 
many others in the past have helped America to become and to remain the 
freest, most democratic nation in the world. Through the arts and 
humanities, we assert both our oneness and our diversity. And in 
celebrating this ideal, we move forward together.
    Human creativity is clearly the most powerful force on Earth. And 
these awardees have exercised that power to the fullest. They have woven 
for us a wonderful mosaic of music and dance, art, and literature to 
comfort and inspire a troubled world.
    The importance of this work is more important now, perhaps, than 
ever before as our country and our world go through a period of 
unprecedented change, changes that are

[[Page 1767]]

both bringing us together and ripping up the bonds that have united us 
in the past. In a nation as diverse as ours, our arts and our humanities 
are bridges to help us reach out to one another and understand one 
another better. Projects like the NEH's national conversation are truly 
helping us to accomplish this.
    In the face of those who would divide us, we must remain steadfast 
in supporting the arts and humanities as a way of coming together while 
we celebrate our diversity. Our support for them is not the preservation 
of some extravagant cultural elite, it is the preservation of our 
cultural tradition for all Americans and especially for those who, 
unlike me and so many of us, are not part of anybody's elite, and they 
need their country to make sure they have access to the great heritage 
of America as well.
    For the last 30 years, the National Endowment for the Arts and the 
National Endowment for the Humanities have made the arts and humanities 
accessible to millions of our fellow citizens from school children to 
people in our inner cities to citizens in our most isolated rural 
communities, many of whom would never have experienced these gifts had 
they not been offered so freely by our Nation's artists and scholars and 
by their Nation's Government.
    For a very small contribution, both the NEA and the NEH have made 
vital contributions to the life of this Nation. Each of the awardees we 
recognize here today has been a pioneer. Sometimes they've made us 
laugh. Sometimes they've helped us cry. Sometimes they've challenged us 
to see the error of our ways. Sometimes they've helped us to celebrate 
the strength of our goodness. But always they have lifted us to higher 
ground.
    I am honored to confer upon this wonderful group of Americans the 
National Medal of the Arts and the Charles Frankel Prize. First, the 
Medal of the Arts winners.
    Licia Albanese: the beginning of her career came as something of a 
surprise. When the lead soprano in a Milan production of Madame 
Butterfly fell ill during the performance, this young singer was called 
upon to finish the opera. Her performance that evening brought the house 
down. And a career that spanned more than 30 years was launched.
    She went on to leading roles in operas all around the world, always 
creating characters memorable not only for the arias they sang, but for 
their intense vitality. She had the rare ability to combine her great 
talent as a singer with equal talent as an actress. It was once said 
that Licia Albanese had the two qualities which all great artists have, 
simplicity and sincerity. Most recently, she and her late husband 
founded the Puccini Foundation, and she has worked tirelessly for the 
benefit of opera and its survival as an art form.
    Please welcome our first honoree, Licia Albanese.

[At this point, the President and the First Lady presented the medal and 
congratulated Ms. Albanese.]

    Gwendolyn Brooks began writing poetry when she was only 11. And at 
the age of 13, her first poem was published. More than 75 others 
followed, while she was still a teenager. For four decades, Gwendolyn 
Brooks has drawn on the black experience to create poetry that speaks to 
all of us in a frank and familiar way. She served as the poetry 
consultant to the Library of Congress, and today is the Poet Laureate of 
Illinois. In 1949, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. She 
has kept alive the culture of her roots through the cultivation of her 
words.
    Gwendolyn Brooks.

[The President and the First Lady presented the medal and congratulated 
Ms. Brooks.]

    Each painter, performer or thinker here today has in one way or 
another served to create a legacy in the halls of American art. Their 
contributions shall be forever remembered in their fields and beyond. 
But their work might never have seen the light of day were it not for 
generous, committed, and visionary citizens like two of those whom we 
honor, Iris and Bernie Cantor.
    They have helped literally countless young artists to succeed. 
They've introduced countless young people to the joys of art. The grants 
and gifts bestowed by the Cantor family have built and filled the 
galleries and museums across our Nation. From the Rodin sculptures given 
to New York's Metropolitan

[[Page 1768]]

Museum of Art, to the grants for exhibitions at institutions such as our 
own Arkansas Art Center at home, to the sculpture exhibit here at the 
White House, the Cantors' love for art has known no bounds. They've done 
much to keep the arts alive in America, and we owe them our thanks. 
Bernie could not be with us here today. But Hillary and I are delighted 
that our good friend, Iris Cantor, is here to accept the award on behalf 
of both of them.
    Iris and Bernie Cantor.

[The President and the First Lady presented the medal and congratulated 
Mrs. Cantor.]

    It's a special honor for me today to honor another husband and wife 
team that has shown that a commitment to the issues facing the world 
around us can be just as important a part of their lives and our lives 
as a commitment to the art one creates. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee met in 
1946, performing in a Broadway version of Jeb Turner. I want to say that 
again. They met in 1946, while performing in a Broadway version of Jeb 
Turner--[laughter]--a play in which she was violating the child labor 
laws at the time. [Laughter] They were married a year later. And they 
have performed individually and together now for almost 50 years.
    While the stage and screen have kept them busy with such projects as 
``A Raisin in the Sun,'' ``The Jackie Robinson Story,'' and ``Do The 
Right Thing,'' they have continued to fight for others' struggle for 

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