 Joining by Dr. Jenninger, president of the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, on behalf of the German Bundestag and on behalf of all the German people, I wish to thank you, to you and the Congress for this proclamation declaring October 6, 1987 as German American Day. My country, Mr. President, and I myself consider this as a special honor and a visible token of the close ties which bind us. The foundation for this close relationship was laid more than 300 years ago. The Germans, who left to come to your country at that time, had one aspiration in common, the desire for freedom. To paraphrase Alexis de Tocqueville, the land they found seemed to have been held in reserve by God as if it had just emerged from the great flood. Over three centuries, German immigrants have found their particular place here in America. They became royal citizens of their adopted countries. They began to weave the many close ties which today holds the German and American people together in partnership and in friendship. Mr. President, we in Germany have not forgotten the helping hand of the United States after World War II. Nor can we forget how we were aided at that time by martial plan and by the initiative of care. But what is most clearly etched in our minds is this. It is due to our friendship with the United States and the Western Alliance that we ensure the blessings of peace and freedom. For future years, the same holds true. The unity of the alliance cannot be preserved without close unity with the United States of America. In an alliance which is oriented towards defense alone, it is a great political accomplishment to have maintained a strong military presence on another continent for more than 40 years. Since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded, more than 10 million Americans, soldiers and their families have lived in my country. Americans are doing this for the freedom which we share. Mr. President, let me carry one message to you and to the citizens of the United States. The overwhelming majority of my countrymen is in favor of the presence of American soldiers in our country and regards them as friends. We know that we can rely upon each other. Why are our political relations so stable? Above all, apart from our common security interests, they are stable because we share the same vision of freedom, the same vision of human dignity and human rights, and because we are committed to democracy. Though Americans and Germanies may differ on certain reasons, they agree on the important question of our commitment to freedom. Now here is this more clearly demonstrated than in Berlin. It is a decisive importance that your young citizens get to know each other better. This realization led to the US exchange program agreed between the German Bundestag and the United States Congress. We know from bitter experience that ignorance leads to the justice and misjudgment. We must guard against both of these to assure the German-American friendship will endure in the future. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, if we continue along this path, I need not fear for the future of our two nations and peoples. Thank you very much. Thank you, President Jenner, Ambassador van Veld, Senator Lugar, and distinguished guests. Some say this is German-American day. I don't know. Seeing the band here in costume, I'd say it is Oktoberfest. As the President has told us, it was 304 years ago this coming week that a small band of Mennonites disembarked from their ship the Concorde in Pennsylvania. They made their way from Philadelphia to what is now Germantown, where they established the first German community in what is now the United States. Since that time, German-Americans have helped forge the ideals and dreams that have built our nation. It was a German-American, John Peter Zenger, who first fought for and established the tradition of freedom of the press on this continent. The colonial governor charged Zenger with libel, and Zenger's defense was that he had printed the truth. He won and the principle he established lives to this day that the press can and must be free to tell the truth. Freedom and the opportunities that freedom brings have been enduring themes in this German-American story. In 1830, one young German engineer wrote eloquently of his yearning for freedom, in particular the freedom to try new ideas and pursue new dreams. He had seen the bureaucratic restrictions on commercial freedom in Westphalia, where he had found his first job after graduating from the Royal Polytechnic Institute in Berlin. No project could go forward, he wrote, without in his words an army of counselors, ministers and other officials discussing the matter for ten years, making long journeys and writing long reports. And a few months after arriving, he wrote, I have found all that I sought, a free, reasonable democratic government and reasonable natural relationships of the people toward each other. No unbearable taxes, no executor, no arrogant chief magistrate. Well, the writer of those words was named John Robling, and he designed and with his son built one of the greatest monuments to engineering in American history, the Brooklyn Bridge, which has been sold many times or attempted to be sold by certain individuals. Yes, America's genuine heritage is rich. It is deep and fertile. It's helped nourish and cultivate our national heritage, our national accomplishments and our national ideals. And that's why I'm so happy to have all of you here today. I remember back when I was a boy in Illinois up near the Wisconsin border, the German heritage was displayed with pride. The German language at that time was the second most widely spoken language in the nation. Here in America, German Americans have helped give our nation its freedom, optimism, enterprise, and its love of peace. Today, this heritage is Germany's as well. A common dedication to democracy, freedom, and peace ties America and Germany together. It is the bedrock on which our alliance has been built. And it's why our people have made the sacrifices to build and maintain our military strength in the face of the missiles and armies of the Warsaw Pact. In the last six and a half years, we've stood firmly together. And now as a result, America may be on the eve of an historic agreement with the Soviet Union. I remember too many times to count that my arms reduction proposals were not serious. After all, the Soviets would never agree to actual arms reductions, certainly not to the zero option for U.S. and Soviet intermediate-range ground-launched nuclear weapons. The agreement toward which America and the Soviets are now moving is not happening because we, America, Germany, and our allies have been weak, but because we've been strong. And it is, as you know, nothing short of historic. Never before has an agreement actually abolished an entire class of U.S. and Soviet nuclear missiles. Never before has either side retired top-of-the-line, smanking new, mint-quality missiles. I don't know just when I'll sit down with General Secretary Gorbachev to sign this agreement, but I look forward to that day. None of us should ever forget, however, that all that we've achieved for world peace could never have happened without the strong alliance and friendship between the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. Now, though, let me say a brief word of purely domestic interest. As you know, I've nominated Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. I've been very clear about why I want Judge Bork on the high bench. Robert Bork believes that judges should interpret the law, not make it. And he believes that as time the court showed less compassion for criminals and more for the victims of crime. There's been a lot of misstatement spread around about Judge Bork and civil rights. It's time to set the record straight. Robert Bork has an outstanding record on civil rights. As Solicitor General, for example, he convinced the Supreme Court for the first time ever to extend the protection of federal civil rights laws to purely private contracts. Those who've been distorting his record have said over and over he's going to turn back the clock on civil rights. It's amazing they can find a room big enough for them to get in front of the cameras. Their noses must be so long by now. It's time to say a few words about the way the confirmation hearings have been conducted. Our founding fathers intended the courts to be above partisan politics. But in the last few weeks, we've seen an attempt to turn the confirmation of a justice into a partisan issue. No expense has been spared and we all know the reason. A few special interests consider the courts their private preserve. Communities all over the nation have seen how these special interests get through the courts what they can't get through the ballot box. Now the special interests are determined to pack the Supreme Court and to distort the reputation of anyone who disagrees. Some say they're compromising and demeaning the judicial selection process. I hope we haven't come to a time when good men and women are afraid to accept nominations to the bench for fear of the kind of treatment we've seen the last few weeks. This is no longer a battle over whether the most qualified man nominated in a century is confirmed to the Supreme Court. At stake here is the integrity and independence of the American system of justice. So I hope that before you leave Washington all of you will take time to let your senators know that you want to see Robert Bort on the Supreme Court. Forgive me for taking advantage of this opportunity. Well, there she is. Well, I'll bet you right now she's wondering if I put some sunblock on my face before I came out. I did. She can't hear me. Well, now to get back to the matter at hand. And that means there's a proclamation for me to sign. It's my pleasure to present to you a little token of our appreciation. It's a historic document in its own right, printed in 1770 by the President of the United States, proved beyond the shadow of the participation of German immigrants in the culture and life of the country. It's the German version of the Declaration of Independence. Thank you. German version of our Declaration of Independence. It's a historic document in its own right. And we thought that the President might like to have it as a memento of this day and of our thanks and appreciation for signing the Declaration as the proclamation, which honored German Americans everywhere and German Americans of all times. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of German Americans and especially the Society for German American Studies, which first initiated this resolution for German American Day, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to you for today's proclamation. We would also like to present to you in gratitude thereof a history of the German Americans of Cincinnati since this is the city where the idea was first presented and is symbolic of the many communities in our country that will proudly celebrate October 6th as German American Day. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much.