Election year 1992
is finally over! Bill Clinton has taken the oath of office, settled into
the White House, and has already suffered his first embarrassment with
the withdrawal of his choice for Attorney General. There will be more
embarrassments, no doubt, during his term in office. Those
embarrassments will be forgotten and lost in the footnotes of history,
however, if President Clinton can keep just a beggar's portion of the
promises he first made a year ago in the cold and snow of New Hampshire.
Then,
Governor Clinton thanked the people of New Hampshire for making him the
"comeback kid". He said he would never take the Granite State
for granite. We must hold President Clinton to that promise. But, in our
looking to the White House or assistance in helping to turn around the
local economy, we must not forget that local problems require local
solutions. More important, they require local, and personal
commitment!
That personal commitment is in great supply right now driven by the
excitement of a new administration and a new generation, the first
baby-boomer president in power. I felt it as I crisscrossed the
Washington DC area before and during the inauguration, and as I watched
the post-inauguration events on TV. If the new administration can keep
this excitement alive as they go from being the new administration to
the current administration, then more people each day will come to
believe in a place called hope.
I get excited with every election. I am filled with new optimism. Old
dreams get pulled from the attic and get dusted off for a second look.
New dreams are born. Everything becomes possible and everyone's goals
are reachable. I also focus on my own goals and dreams, and reflect
again on the wish and dream I have for every new president; one I have
for President Clinton.
The dream isn't new and it is far from being original. Martin Luther
King had the dream, as did Bobby Kennedy, who dreamed things that never
were. Ted Kennedy told us as he bowed out of what would be his last bid
for the presidency in 1980, " . . . the dream shall not
die." Jesse Jackson reflected on it when he told us to
"keep hope alive!" My dream and wish has been with me since I
first stepped into the voting booth twenty years ago. That wish, Mr.
President, is that when your term in office is over, and historians
chronicle your time as President, they record that you were the greatest
President ever.
Washington D.C. is a strange but exciting place at any
time. Days like Inauguration Day just add to it and create feeling that
can't be explained unless you are present. Some people cheered with
faces reflecting 4th of July fireworks while others stared blankly ahead
in sullen and cold anger and disbelief.
As I walked around Washington on Inauguration Day I
had some weird and funny experiences. I talked to many people from so
many places both domestic and foreign. I met as many
people, (probably Republicans), who were hoping and praying for President
Clinton to fail as I did who were cheering for him to succeed. The
new administration had not taken it's first breath and already people
prayed for it to be still-born. They wanted it to fall short and fail
and they began creating roadblocks to help assure that it would. It's hard to understand why.
Think about it. If Bill Clinton is the greatest President we ever
had, where do you thing that would leave us, the common folks, be us
Democrat or Republican? Would we also not be great? Is that not the
challenge each generation has, to make things better than the last
generation; to reach for greatness? How could anyone be hoping for
failure and for things to fall apart? If that happens, were do we all end
up?
Friends call me an idealist when I talk about such things. I plead
guilty to the charge. I wear the title with honor and pride. But, that
idealism comes with a healthy dose of pragmatic realism. I learned
over the years that all battles can't be won, nor should all wars be
fought. I learned that some
things must be left for the next generation. That is also part of my
dream for President Clinton.
Mr. President, history will not measure your greatness by only your
accomplishments while in office, or in the legacy you leave behind.
History will also judge you by examining the foundation that you lay for
the next generation to build upon. Greatness will be measured by the
hope you present them with from which they can build for their future. You
see, Bill, you are not the only one who believes in a place called hope.
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