GORE REMARKS ON CIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT FUNDING JAN. 19

[USIA]

USIS Washington File

20 January 1998

TEXT: GORE REMARKS ON CIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT FUNDING JAN. 19

(Largest hike in Civil Rights enforcement in 2 decades) (3680)

Atlanta -- Vice President Gore told the congregation at the church of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Ebenezer Baptist Church, January 19
that "If he were here today, I believe he (Dr. King) would be proud
that this administration has appointed more blacks, more Hispanics,
more Asian Americans and Native Americans to Cabinet positions and
judgeships and other high posts than ever before in our history.

"But I believe he would not let us forget that in so many places and
professions, the glass ceiling still has not been shattered," Gore
said.

The Vice President spoke on the federal holiday which is observed
annually in honor of Dr. King, who was assassinated on April 4, 1968
while leading peaceful protest demonstrations in Memphis, Tennessee.

"I believe he would be proud to see how much we have done to banish
discrimination from our laws," Gore said. "But I believe he would tell
us that we still have much to do in banishing discrimination from our
hearts. And I believe he would tell us that we still have much to do
to enforce the laws that are on our books."

"That is why I am pleased to announce today that President Clinton and
I are proposing, as part of his initiative on race, the largest single
increase in the enforcement of our civil rights laws in nearly two
decades," said Gore. "Through new reforms and through heightened
commitment to enforcement, we will seek to prevent discrimination
before it occurs, and punish those who do discriminate in employment,
in education, in housing, in health care, in access for those with
disabilities.

"I believe Dr. King would be proud of how diverse American culture has
become -- with people of all races and ethnicities listening to each
other's music, reading each other's books, living and working
together," the Vice President said. "But I believe he would be
disappointed by how destructive and dangerous some of our culture has
become -- with guns, drugs, and violence against women too often
taking the place of family, faith, and community. I think he would
find unacceptable the number of broken homes and the failure of too
many fathers to accept responsibility for their children. I think he
would be heart-broken to see the devastation in too many inner-city
communities, with boards still covering the windows and doors of some
buildings burned in anger and grief three decades ago."

Following is the text, as prepared for delivery:

(begin text)

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Vice President

REMARKS BY VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE
(As Prepared For Delivery)

EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH ATLANTA, GA

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY
MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 1998

Today, we honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., and rededicate
ourselves to his work. Thirty years ago, the first eulogies to Dr.
King recalled what was said in Genesis by the brothers of Joseph:
"Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him,
and cast him into some pit...and we shall see what will become of his
dreams."

Thirty years later, that is still the question: what will become of
Dr. King's dream?

It is ironic that some of the modern apostles of apathy now
misappropriate Dr. King's own words to support their belief that the
struggle for justice in which he led us is nearly over, and that the
time has come for our policies to be, in their phrase, "color-blind."

Let's start at the beginning: what is racism? Is it merely a mistake
in reasoning, an erroneous conclusion based on faulty logic which,
once corrected, can be banished from human society? Or is it something
deeper and more powerful, more threatening and persistent?

Dr. King taught us that as human beings, we are vulnerable to the sin
of racism. As a young man, he studied the teachings of the theologian
Reinhold Niebuhr, who had written that it is foolish to regard racism
"as a mere vestige of barbarism when it is in fact a perpetual source
of conflict in human life." Niebuhr criticized those who "wrongly drew
the conclusion...that racial prejudice is a form of ignorance which
could be progressively dispelled by enlightenment. Racial prejudice is
indeed a form of irrationality," he said; "but it is not as capricious
as modern universalists assume."

What is it about human nature that creates this persistent
vulnerability to the sin of racism?

First and foremost, the Bible teaches us, in the words of the Apostle
John: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us."

But the Bible also teaches that we have the capacity to overcome evil
with good. And we are called upon to choose. In the words of the
famous hymn,

"Once to every man and nation

Comes the moment to decide

In the strife for truth and falsehood

For the good or evil side."

Moreover, there is a tendency, rooted in human nature, to group up
with those who look like ourselves. In the Apocrypha, which is part of
Catholic scripture, it is written: "flesh consorteth according to
kind, and a man will cleave to his like."

So even though we understand that diversity is an enriching and
ennobling strength, in creating an integrated society, it is foolish
and naive to imagine that our differences will disappear and
relinquish their claim on us. Indeed, our challenge is to appreciate
and celebrate our differences, as a necessary prelude to transcending
them in order to join together on the basis of what we all have in
common as children of God.

That does not mean that we ignore difference. Indeed, we ignore it at
our peril. John Hope Franklin has taught that the most important
lesson of his long scholarship is that race is always present.
Pretending it isn't is naive. But if properly acknowledged and
sensibly dealt with, race can be transcended.

But it is far from easy to acknowledge and celebrate differences while
simultaneously transcending them, because differences among people
automatically carry the potential for unleashing an impulse to
compare, and to magnify whatever feelings of insecurity, or
abandonment, or loss each individual feels in his or her soul.

Why did Cain slay Abel? He felt "disrespected" -- because God regarded
his offerings differently from those of Abel. "And it came to pass...
that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him."

Why was Joseph, resplendent in his coat of many colors, thrown into
that pit and left for dead by his brothers? They felt "disrespected"
because their father regarded them differently from Joseph. Why do so
many young men on the streets with empty lives and loaded guns slay
their brothers? They tell us time and again that their brothers
"disrespected" them. And often what they are really feeling is that
their fathers disrespected them by abandoning their mothers and them.

Those who are quick to feel disrespected often have a spiritual vacuum
in their lives, because they feel disconnected to the love of their
Father in Heaven. False gods force their way into the hole in their
hearts. They search for meaning and respect in trivial forms of group
identification. Rival gangs adopt rival colors. The slight difference
between a blue bandana and a red bandana has led to the senseless loss
of many lives.

What is the difference between Hutus and Tutsis? Outsiders who visit
Rwanda have difficulty telling them apart. But their slight
differences have served as a trigger for an horrific genocide.

Look at Bosnia. There, too, outsiders can't tell the different groups
apart. Look at Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Chechnya,
Nogorno-Karabakh, and a hundred other conflicts that dot the broken
landscape of our hurting world. In all these places, slight
differences have served as an excuse to unleash the evil that lies
coiled in the human soul.

In fact, sometimes it seems that the smaller the difference, the more
explosive the violence. At the beginning of this century, our greatest
scientist, Albert Einstein, taught us that the most powerful and
destructive force on earth is found in the smallest container -- the
atom. Controlling our vulnerability to racism is just as important to
our future as controlling the atom.

Our nation was founded on the basis of a highly sophisticated
understanding of human nature, which took our vulnerability to sin
into account. That's why we have checks and balances, in a
Constitution that has been emulated by people seeking freedom all over
the world.

One of our founders, James Madison, wrote these words: "So strong is
this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities that...the
most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to
kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent
conflicts...The latent causes...are...sown in the nature of man;
and...cannot be removed...Relief is only to be sought in...controlling
its effects...The majority...must be rendered...unable to...carry into
effect schemes of oppression."

As we have struggled throughout our history to perfect our union,
slavery and other manifestations of virulent racism have stained our
national conscience.

When the Cherokees were forced on their fateful trail of tears. When
Mexican-Americans were forcibly removed from farms and ranches. When
Irish immigrants escaping famine encountered signs in Boston saying
"no dogs or Irish allowed." When innocent and loyal Japanese-Americans
were imprisoned at the outset of World War II, and when Hispanic
heroes of World War II -- who helped end the Holocaust against
millions of European Jews and the mass murder of hundreds of thousands
of Chinese -- were then denied burial in military cemeteries here at
home.

But in the aftermath of that war, in which Americans of all racial and
ethnic backgrounds joined together to defeat the racist rulers of Nazi
Germany and Imperial Japan, minority groups were emboldened to insist
that America live up to our values. Thurgood Marshall led the charge
in our courts. And the mass movement led by Dr. King gave us a chance
to redeem our nation's soul, and much progress has been made.

Yet now we hear voices in America arguing that Dr. King's struggle is
over -- that we've reached the promised land. Maybe they're just
carried away by the arrival of the Millennium, and are deluding
themselves that when the calendar turns to the year 2000, human beings
will have been perfected.

These people who now call for the end of policies to promote equal
opportunity say there's been so much progress that no more such
efforts are justified. But they fail to recognize that the tap root of
racism is almost 400 years long.

When I was 8 years old, in Carthage, Tennessee, my family and I lived
in a little house on Fisher Avenue, halfway up a hill. At the top of
the hill was a big old mansion. One day, as the property was changing
hands, the neighbors were invited to an open house. My father said:
"Come, son, I want to show you something." So we walked up the hill
and through the front door.

But instead of dwelling in the parlor, or the ornate dining room, or
the grand staircase with all the other guests, my father took me down
to the basement and pointed to the dark, dank stone walls -- and the
cold metal rings lined up in a row.

Slave rings.

We've left Egypt, but don't tell me we've arrived in Canaan.

Don't tell me that our persistent vulnerability to racism has suddenly
disappeared, and that we now live in a color-blind society.

What would Dr. King see if he were here with us and walked out of this
church and took us on a tour of America in 1998?

I believe Dr. King would be proud that in the past 30 years, we have
cut in half the gap between black earnings and white earnings. But I
believe he would not let us forget that the wealth of black and
Hispanic households still averages less than one-tenth that of white
households.

I believe he would be proud that African-American employment is at its
highest level in history, and African-American poverty is at its
lowest level in history; Thanks to President Clinton, all Americans
are rising with the tide of a stronger economy. But I believe he would
not let us forget us that African Americans earn roughly 62 cents on
each dollar that white Americans earn; he would not let us forget that
black unemployment is still twice as high as unemployment for whites.

I believe Dr. King would be proud that the gap in high school
graduation between blacks and whites has now been virtually eliminated
-- and that more African Americans are going to college than ever
before in American history. But I believe he would not let us forget
that the drop-out rate among Hispanic Americans is still eight points
higher, with barely half finishing high school, and far fewer going on
to college.

If he were here today, I believe he would be proud that this
administration has appointed more blacks, more Hispanics, more Asian
Americans and Native Americans to Cabinet positions and judgeships and
other high posts than ever before in our history. But I believe he
would not let us forget that in so many places and professions, the
glass ceiling still has not been shattered.

I believe he would be proud to see how much we have done to banish
discrimination from our laws. But I believe he would tell us that we
still have much to do in banishing discrimination from our hearts. And
I believe he would tell us that we still have much to do to enforce
the laws that are on our books.

That is why I am pleased to announce today that President Clinton and
I are proposing, as part of his initiative on race, the largest single
increase in the enforcement of our civil rights laws in nearly two
decades. Through new reforms and through heightened commitment to
enforcement, we will seek to prevent discrimination before it occurs,
and punish those who do discriminate in employment, in education, in
housing, in health care, in access for those with disabilities.

I believe Dr. King would be proud of how diverse American culture has
become -- with people of all races and ethnicities listening to each
other's music, reading each other's books, living and working
together. But I believe he would be disappointed by how destructive
and dangerous some of our culture has become -- with guns, drugs, and
violence against women too often taking the place of family, faith,
and community. I think he would find unacceptable the number of broken
homes and the failure of too many fathers to accept responsibility for
their children. I think he would be heart-broken to see the
devastation in too many inner-city communities, with boards still
covering the windows and doors of some buildings burned in anger and
grief three decades ago.

In the movie "Grand Canyon," the character played by Danny Glover
surveys a desolate portion of South Central Los Angeles and says,
"it's not supposed to be this way."

Two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul explained why it is this way:
"All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong."

So it is appropriate on this day for us to focus on all the work that
remains to be done.

I believe Dr. King would urge us to get busy and that he would be
proud that for people of all races, creeds, and colors, his birthday
is a day of national reconciliation and service. But I believe he
would be genuinely surprised that some who actively oppose his agenda
roll his words and phrases off their tongues even as they try to roll
back equal opportunity.

The phrase "the content of our character" takes on a different meaning
when it is used by people who pretend that that is all we need to
establish a color-blind society. They use their color blind the way
duck hunters use a duck blind. They hide behind the phrase and just
hope that we, like the ducks, can't see through it.

They're in favor of affirmative action if you can dunk the basketball
or sink a three-point shot. But they're not in favor of it if you
merely have the potential to be a leader in your community, and bring
people together, or the potential to teach children who are hungry for
learning, or to heal families who need medical care. So I say: we see
through your color blind.

Amazing Grace saved a wretch like me; was color-blind but now I see.

The Gospel of Luke tells us of Jesus's reaction to people who
willfully refuse to see the evidence before their eyes: "When ye see a
cloud rise out of the West, straightway ye say, there cometh a shower;
and so it is. And when ye see the South wind blow, ye say, there will
be heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face
of the sky and of the Earth; but how is it that you do not discern
this time?"

"Man sees on the outside, God sees on the inside."

I believe God has a plan for the United States of America, and has
since our founding.

Our mission has always been to advance the cause of liberty and to
prove that religious, political, and economic freedom are the natural
birthright of all men and women, and that freedom unlocks a higher
fraction of the human potential than any other way of organizing human
society.

I believe in my heart that our nation also has another,
closely-related mission -- one that we did not fully understand when
we counted each slave as three-fifths of a person -- a mission we
began to glimpse through a glass, darkly, on the eve of our terrible
Civil War.

I believe that God has given the people of our nation not only a
chance, but a mission to prove to men and women throughout this world
that people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, of all faiths
and creeds, can not only work and live together, but can enrich and
ennoble both themselves and our common purpose.

As children we learned in school about the lowest common denominator;
America is about the highest common denominator.

That is why Dr. King loved this country. He often spoke about "the
glory of America, with all its faults." During the Montgomery bus
boycott, for example, he said, "We are not wrong...If we are wrong,
the United States Constitution is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty
is wrong."

When the Supreme Court then struck down segregated transportation, Dr.
King said: "That wasn't a victory for colored folks. Oh no, don't make
the victory that small; that was a victory for justice and goodwill!"

And from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he inspired the nation
with his dream that America would "live out the true meaning of its
creed."

He was a patriot who always believed, as many of us do today, that
America is indeed, in Lincoln's phrase, "the last, best hope" of
humankind. So just as we reproach the apostles of apathy who tell us
our work is done, let us condemn those who spread hatred of America --
those disciples of division who preach a separatist philosophy and
call people of a different race "devils." To them, I commend the words
of Dr. King when he said: "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for
freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred."

The alternatives to bitterness and hatred are understanding and
empathy. And we must meet the challenge with our hearts as well as our
minds. We must use, in Niebuhr's phrase, "every strategem of education
and every resource of religion" to promote understanding and mutual
respect. And in our hearts, we must nurture empathy.

In 1957, Dr. King quoted Gandhi in saying that "the appeal of reason
is more to the head, but the penetration of the heart comes from
suffering. It opens up the inner understanding in man."

Dr. King said of his approach to the white majority: "The Negro all
over the South must come to the point that he can say to his white
brother: We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our
capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with
soul force. We will not hate you, but we will not obey your evil
laws."

Many ridiculed his reliance on what he called "the weapon of
non-violent protest." But the white majority came to understand his
humanity and the justice of his cause through his reliance on "soul
force."

In my religious tradition, we believe the world has been transformed
by the willingness of Jesus Christ to suffer on the cross. Suffering
binds us together, and enables us to see what we all have in common,
and what we are called upon to do.

Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This
is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

So let us not be weary in well-doing as we address the unfinished
agenda of Dr. King. Let us make his dream our agenda for action. And
always remember, in the words of the hymn he loved:

"In Christ there is no east or West,

In him, no South or North,

but one great fellowship of love

throughout the whole wide earth.

Join hands, disciples of the faith,

whate'er your race may be,

who serves my father as a child

is surely kin to me."

(end text)