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CLINTON COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS - PENN STATE
MAY 10, 1996
TRANSCRIPT
Between now and the nominating conventions in August, President Clinton and Sen. Dole will be speaking regularly on issues of major concern to the electorate. We will each week carry extended excerpts of some of those speeches. We began with Sen. Dole's foreign policy address yesterday. Today, it's President Clinton's commencement address at Penn State University.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: As my wife says in her book, I really believe it takes a village of all of our people working together to make the most of our lives. To build that kind of America, we have to be able to honestly meet our challenges and protect our values. We have to find ways to create these opportunities for all Americans. We have to find ways to build strong communities, and we have got to find ways to get more personal responsibility from all of our citizens, opportunity, responsibility, community. These are values that have made our country strong, that have built great institutions like Penn State, that guide my actions as President. I believe they must guide our nation as we prepare for the tomorrows of the 21st century. And so what I'd ask you today is to think about that. What is the role of the individual citizen in making the America of our dreams in the 21st century? What is the role of the individual citizen in making sure that we will move into this global society, with everyone having a chance to live up to his or her dreams?
It is clear to me that government alone cannot solve this problem.
(applause)
If you look at any society's most fundamental requirements, strong families, and safe streets, and you ask yourselves what are all the causes for the stresses on those things in our country, you may come up with a whole laundry list of things that government can do about them. I know I have, but in your heart of hearts, you know that many, many of the things from which we suffer are caused by the lack of personal responsibility on the part of millions of American citizens: the teen mother who leaves school for a life on welfare, a father who walks away from or abuses a family, a criminal who preys upon the rest of us, the neighbors who turn their backs upon the children in need. I say to you we cannot tolerate this anymore if you really want your vision of the 21st century to become real. We have to be willing to give people a chance to escape lives that are destructive for them and costly for the rest of us. That is our responsibility, but we must also insist that people help themselves and assume responsibility for making their own lives and the life of this great nation better.
Nearly a third of our babies today are born out of wedlock, a whole lot of 'em end up on welfare. A few days ago, we took an action which should force more responsibility. Every state will have to require teen mothers to stay in school unless--and to sign a personal responsibility contract and to stay at home--unless the environment is abusive, so that they must work to turn their lives around if they want to keep those benefits. I'm still working with members of Congress and both parties to pass legislation to overhaul the entire welfare system. And I hope we can do it, even though this is an election year. There is really no call for a work stoppage, and by the time November comes around, you'll have more politics than you can stand. Meanwhile, we ought to be working to give those people what we want for ourselves: independence, work, and responsible parenting.
(applause)
The harsh truth is too many of our young people don't have the kind of discipline or love, guidance or support that it takes to grow up into responsible adults. Church groups and neighbors and parents all need to send a clear message to all children, not just their own. We care about you, but you have to take care of yourself. Don't get pregnant or father a child until you're ready to take responsibility, but if you do, we'll help you as long as you are responsible.
(applause)
There--(applause)--and you can't walk away from that responsibility. If you do, we'll make you assume it.
(applause)
Helping children on welfare to move off of welfare, helping communities to reduce the crime rate, these are not the only areas in which we desperately need more citizen involvement to make America the place it ought to be. Let me just suggest three other things that we could do to get more young people involved. First, I've asked Congress to increase funding for work-study programs for students so that we can have a million students earning their way through college by the year 2000.
(applause)
Today I'd like to ask Penn State and every other institution of higher education in the country to consider using more of this money to promote service, to put thousands of college students to work in community service. If it's good for students to earn money by putting books back in library shelves or working in the dean's office, surely it makes sense for them to earn money helping teen mothers handle their responsibilities, helping older people get around, helping young people to look to a brighter future.
(applause)
Second, I challenge every high school in America to make service a part of its basic ethic. Every high school student who can do so should do some community service. There are some schools, both public and private, that require community service as a part of their curriculum. I say good for them. Commitment to community should be a ethic we learn as soon as possible so we carry it throughout our lives.
(applause)
And, third, I challenge every community to help those high school students answer the call of service. Today I'm prepared to make an offer and challenge any school district or civic organization in the country to match it. If you will raise $500 to reward a high school student who has done significant work to help your community, the federal government will match your $500 and help that student go on to college.
(applause)
That would cost us, by the way, about $10 million if every high school in the country did it. It would be the best $10 million we ever spent. We'd get hundreds of millions of dollars in improved quality of life in service to people as a result of it. We should make service to the community a part of every high school in America and a part of the life of every dedicated citizen in the United States.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: President Clinton speaking at Penn State University's graduation exercises. Our coverage of major policy speeches by candidates Clinton and Dole will continue next week and each week until the August political conventions.
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