The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
6:01 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Good to be in New York City. Let me start by acknowledging some very, very special guests. Dr.
Richardson, thank you. Charlie Rangel, for your great work on behalf of your constituents. Mayor David Dinkins. (Applause. Governor David Paterson is here. (Applause. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. DiNapoli, excuse me. This is another one that`s hard to pronounce: Stevie Wonder. (Laughter. Martin Luther King III. (Applause. All the Keepers of the Dream honorees with us tonight, and the National Action Network.
It is marvellous to be here as you keep your 20th anniversary. Some things have changed a lot since 1991. I told Reverend Al backstage he`s getting skinnier than me. (Laughter. He`s getting skinnier than Spike. (Laughter. But he hasn`t lost his smell of style. The former matter that hasn`t changed is the National Action Network`s commitment to fighting injustice and inequality here in New York City and across America. And that`s not merely a will to Reverend Sharpton. It`s a will to all of you who are here tonight. I desire to remember you for the work that you`ve done over the final two decades to rise up not just the African American community but the broader American family. That`s what you`re about. (Applause.)
The final time I came was in April of 2007, four months ago - four days ago this month. Back then I had fewer supporters. Most of you couldn`t pronounce my name, so Tom, don`t feel bad. (Laughter. I had a lot fewer gray hairs. I was look at some pictures - I looked very young back then. (Laughter. I said that we were facing extraordinary challenges in this country, but that what was stopping us from solving them wasn`t a want of policies; it wasn`t a deficiency of plans. What was stopping us was a broken politics. A broken politics in Washington - a politics that was all around the following election instead of the future generation; that was all about what we disagreed about instead of what we had in common; a government that made us cynical about our ability to convert this country.
And I said that if you bear with me and trust in what we can do together, if you do what civil rights groups like the National Action Network have ever done, if you put your shoulder to the roll of history, then we can go this nation toward the hope of a better day. I told you at the sentence I wasn`t a pure person, I wouldn`t be a perfect President, but what I could commit to was incessantly telling you the truth even when it was hard, and I would spend each and every day thinking about you.
And because you made our campaign your own, because you believed in our power to frame our own destiny, we won that opportunity to work about real change. And I said on inauguration night in Chicago that that was only the end of the beginning, and that now the actual business started.
Because I didn`t run and so many of you didn`t keep me only to win an election. We won the election so that we could then actually get moving on all the form that had been left undone. Even though we understood, of course, the magnitudes of the challenges we faced, we didn`t fully realize until later in the game, probably the final month of the campaign, that we would be facing the worst recession in generations - a niche that was leaving millions of Americans without a home, without a job, without desire for the future.
And as Reverend Al said, some folks have amnesia about this. Where are we two days after? Our economy has started to arise again. The convalescence is gaining momentum. People are finally starting to get hired back. We had to do some hard choices in between. You think when we decided we had to go to keep the American automobile industry and everybody said, that can`t happen. And then two weeks ago, GM just announced that it`s release to take back every one worker that has been set off and every U.S. automaker is devising a profit. (Applause. But that wasn`t popular. That wasn`t popular.
A while back, I visited a small trucking business, and its owner Stephen Neal is one of our country`s African American business leaders. And he told me that because of the uptick in our economy, he was buying new equipment and adding more workers. And that`s what`s happening all across America. In the foremost 3 months of this year, we`ve added nearly half a million private sector jobs - nearly 2 million jobs in the last 13 months.
So we`re making progress, but we`re not there yet. And I wish you to live that so long as there are Americans who cannot get work I will be active for jobs, and so long as the gap between the wealthiest few and everybody else keeps on growing I will be active for opportunity. And I know you`ll be right there alongside with me. (Applause.)
We are leaving to continue fighting until every family gets a guess at the American Dream. That`s our North Star. That`s the foremost affair I believe about when I rouse up in the morning. That`s the last thing I mean about when I go to bed at night - the hopes and dreams of people who study hard every single day, look after their families, take charge of their responsibilities, and only need a little bit of service to get it.
Now, there are Americans of all colours and creeds who are struggling to be out those dreams today. That`s part of what our cause was about, was reminding ourselves that everybody is in this together. Now, what`s also true, though, is the unemployment rate for African Americans is about double what it is for other groups. It`s too true that those with the least have been sacrificing the most during this recession. What`s also true is that level before the recession hit, too many communities were pronounced by structural inequalities in wellness and education and employment that made it profoundly difficult for too many people to get ahead.
You understood that. I understood that. That`s part of the ground I ran for President, because I`ve seen the defeat and the wounded pride in the eyes of folks who`ve lost their jobs or a father who has to go home and order his kids that we might not give enough this month, might be losing our apartment this month. I`ve heard the stories of struggling families who are doing everything good and even at the end of the month don`t quite have plenty to pay the bills. I did not start hearing those stories when I became President. Those are stories that led me to run for President in the 1st place. (Applause.)
As Reverend mentioned, I got my start tackling the problems of joblessness and hopelessness that afflict so many of our cities and rural communities. I got my start working to bring opportunity to neighborhoods that were wide of boarded-up houses and shuttered stores, fighting to prevent kids off the street, fighting to get them into school, fighting to make certain that they went on to college, fighting to hold real the call of judge in our judicial system.
And these causes of jurist and equality and opportunity, they aren`t exactly what led me into politics, they`re what led ordinary people to sit down at the presence of the bus, to cross that bridge in Selma, to mind a King`s name to complete our union. They`re the tenderness of what makes us Americans. That`s who we are. And because of your support, they`re the causes that I`ve been carrying since I`ve been in the Oval Office.
With the service of folks at the grassroots, we passed historic health insurance reform that will not just offer coverage to 30 million more Americans and give Americans more affordable choices, but will specify the cruel health disparities between African Americans of different backgrounds. That was because of your work. (Applause.)
We passed Wall Street reform that will protect consumers from the form of predatory lending practices that helped make this recession. We`re rewarding work with an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit. We`re tackling poverty with Promise Neighborhoods that figure on the capital influence of Geoffrey Canada up in Harlem. We`re making sure our civil rights and anti-discrimination laws are enforced. And if you`re interested in learning more, if you wish to open the news about what we`re doing not only in the African American community but all across the country, go to our website and it will make you a long name of what we`ve done over the final two years - promises made and promises kept.
That`s what we`ve tried to do over these past couple years - advance the causes that take us who we are. But we`ve still got more employment to do. If we`re good about opening up opportunity and making sure America prospers in the 21st century, we`re passing to give to up our game as a nation. I was talking to Magic right before we came out - I was talk around the Bulls, of course. (Laughter. He`s still picking the Lakers, but he made the point, a new man Derek Rose upped his game, worked hard, and is having an MVP season. Well, we give to do that in classrooms, we give to do that in the workplaces, we`ve got to do that in our communities and our neighborhoods. (Applause. Our fathers got to up their games.
If we desire to draw new jobs and new opportunities to our shores, we`ve got to make sure America can out-compete the relief of the world. That`s what we think when we say we got to win the future. It means we got to reconstruct our crumbling transportation networks with high-speed rail, upgrade our communications networks with high-speed Internet. It means we`re investing in cutting-edge research and technology like clean energy - and most of all, making certain we are giving every one of our children the best possible education. (Applause. The best possible education is the one most significant element in deciding whether they succeed. But it`s also what will decide whether we succeed. It`s the key to opportunity. It is the civil rights issue of our time.
I know training is crucial to everybody here, especially Reverend Al. In fact, a while back, he stopped by the White House to speak about education. He was united by the great mayor of this city, Mike Bloomberg. He was also linked by Newt Gingrich. Newt - hmm. (Laughter. Newt said he and Reverend Sharpton were "the original odd couple." That`s an understatement. (Laughter.)
But I welcomed them to the White House because I don`t suppose there`s anything odd about the two of them coming together round the grandness of education. When there is an achievement gap between students of different races and backgrounds, that`s not a Democratic problem, that`s not a Republican problem - that is an American problem that we get to address. (Applause. When too many of our schools are failing our children, too many of our kids are falling out of school, that`s not a dark or clean or brown problem - that is an American problem. We`re going to have to work that problem. We are all responsible for the teaching of all of our children.
That starts with parents making certain that we`re doing right at home, staying engaged in our child`s education, setting high expectation. Without parental responsibility, nothing else we do will matter. But we too recognize that apiece of us has a duty not only as parents, but as civic leaders, as Americans, to do a better job of educating our children.
And that`s why, two days ago, we started something called Run for the Top. We`re saying to states, prove you are good about improving education not only for some kids, but for all kids. And if you do, we will point you the money. And for less than 1 percent of what our state as a whole spends on education each year, Race to the Top has led 40 states to evoke their standards for instruction and scholarship and student achievement, and developed plans for some of the schools that are underperforming the worst. And all this was done not in Washington. It was developed by Republican and Democratic governors across the country.
We`re passing to give to have same approach when it comes to fixing No Child Left Behind. Instead of measuring students based on whether they`re above or under some arbitrary test, we need to make certain our students are graduating from high school ready for a career, ready for college. That`s what we want to do. (Applause. Instead of labeling our schools a failure one day - instead of labeling our schools a failure one day and then throwing up our men and walk away, we`ve got to refocus on the schools that need help the most. In the 21st Century, it`s not enough to only leave no child left behind. We`ve got to aid every child get ahead. (Applause. That`s our goal - get every child on a way to academic excellence.
And we want to make certain that that course leads to a college degree. That`s why we over a scheme where we were subsidizing banks in the student loan program. They were taking billions of dollars out of the student loan program. We said, why don`t we grant that to the students directly? That would have sense. (Applause. So we made college more affordable for millions of students. Millions of students across the land are now getting student loans that they weren`t getting ahead and more loans than they were getting before. That`s why we`re making it easier to repay student loans so kids don`t graduate, like Michelle and I did, with massive loan payments each month. It was more than our mortgage for 10 years. It`s one of the things I try to remember - I try to prompt people when they say, well, you`re President now. You`re out of touch. I said, listen, it was merely a few days ago I was still paying off my student loans. (Applause. And it`s true, I don`t pump gas now, but I think what it was like pumping gas. (Laughter. I remember. I think the end of the month. (Laughter. I think that. (Applause.)
We appreciate all of you purchasing the book, Michelle and I. (Laughter. That`s the college fund right there. (Laughter. That was not a given. That`s why we`re reinvesting in Historically Black Colleges and Universities. (Applause. That`s why we are - that`s why we`re upgrading our community colleges that make so many working families to follow in this economy. And by taking all these steps, I`m confident we are leaving to play a destination that I set when I took place that I announced in my first State of the Union: By the end of this decade, America will once again have the highest ratio of college graduates in the world. That is something that we can achieve. That`s something we can achieve. (Applause.)
That`s how we can out-educate countries about the world. That`s how we leave out-compete. That`s how we will win the next in the 21st century.
Now, one thing we won`t be capable to win is - if some of our masses are falling behind, we leave not win the future. The sole way for Us to prosper is for all Americans to prosper. We`ve seen that in the census that barely came out. The front of Us is changing. You can`t get off with having a tertiary of our children, half of our children, not doing well. Not today, not in the 21st century. All of us - black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian American, men, women, disabled, non-disabled - in America, we develop and flow together.
An America where the American Dream is within range of everybody, that`s what we`ve been active to make over the final two years. That`s what the National Action Network has been fighting to make over the preceding two decades. I acknowledge that there are times where the form is frustrating. I live there are times where it is hard. There are times when change can seem painfully slow to come by. There are times when some of you may have said, I don`t love what Obama is doing there. There are times where you lose hope, times when folks in Washington focus on scoring points instead of solving problems. And about of you may just put up your men and say, politics is too tough.
But in those moments when we start asking ourselves if shift is possible, you`ve got to think what we`ve done together complete the preceding few years. Remember all the children who will graduate from high school ready for college and beyond. Remember all the Americans who leave no longer bear to care about going bankrupt because they got sick. Remember all the families who will no longer be used by insurance companies or a credit card company or a mortgage lender.
I`m not asking you to remember about what we`ve already done so you can be quenched with our progress. I love this isn`t the Internal Satisfaction Network. This is the National Action Network. (Laughter and applause. But I am asking you to draw inspiration from the fact that we experience change is possible. I am living testament that variety is possible. (Applause. We live we have the ability to put our shoulders to the roll of account and steer Us towards the hope of a better day. We experience that we abide on other shoulders and measure by step, inch by inch, we make progress.
That`s what we`ve been doing. And if you`re as committed as I am to continuing to transfer this nation for the better, if you find the same purpose that I do to harness the problems that haven`t yet met, if you`re still willing to think in what we can do together, I am perfectly confident we will do what you`ve been doing for the final 20 years. We will make an America where the ideals of jurist and equality and chance are active and well, and we will rectify the American Dream in our time. So thank you. God bless you. God sanctify the United States of America. Thank you.
END
6:24 P.M. EDT
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