 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. An encore. I'll sing Yankee Doodle while drinking a glass of water at the same time. Well, Bill, Frank Baronowski, Barbara Wells, one of you here in the front row is Megan Lott, National Organization Director, and all of you. This is a great pleasure to be here with you and to see you. And if you haven't thought about this already, let me just say that you leadership is the greatest problem, and all of you have an opportunity to lead a great change of political balance here in this country. Because if you aren't voters already, you will be soon. And if the proportions among your age groups stay the way they are, very possibly you will shortly be leading the majority party in the United States. You know, it's hard to realize, I'm sure it's your age, but for someone who's been around here for this long a time, there was a great change that occurred back in the depths of the Great Depression in the early 30s and then for a half a century. Now and then they would elect a Republican president. Basically, the government of this country has been in the hands of the opposition party. And that party, I think, has, well, I was a member of it back in those 30s and on down until I saw that as it continued in power over the years, it changed the direction of that party to the point that I didn't quit being a Democrat and become a Republican. Democrats quit being Democrats and Republicans began having the proper message. Because would you believe that in 1932 when I cast my first vote for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Democratic platform was to reduce federal spending by 25 percent to eliminate useless boards and commissions and agencies and to return the authority and autonomy to the local communities, the states and the people that they declared had been unjustly seized by the federal government. When you know today there's only one party that can run on that platform. That's ours. I'm not going to do any more making the speech. I haven't got too much time here, they tell me. And I thought that there must have been times when some of you have said to yourselves, if I had a chance, I'd like to ask him. We'll go ahead. Yes. Mr. President, I'm Debbie Schlossel from Southfield, Michigan. I have two questions. First of all, can I shake your hand? First of all, throughout the history of affirmative action, it's gone through our Supreme Court many times, starting with the defunious case then through Backey, Weber, Wigan, finally a few cases that just came up a few weeks ago. And it seems that the Supreme Court has been unable to make a definite stance on affirmative action and what to do in most cases. And I'm just wondering, will this administration be able to take the affirmative action needed to get rid of affirmative action? This is what we're hoping for and what we're trying to do, because what we believe is, yes, we have great problems and things that had to be corrected in our society, unless you'd been around and lived through it. It wasn't just the Deep South. It was every place in the country there was discrimination and it was evil. What we're trying to correct, no matter how well-intentioned they are on the other side, is the idea of quotas, that affirmative action should lead to quotas, because those of us who lived through that other era can remember when quotas were used to promote discrimination. At the same time, they hypocritically would try to pretend they weren't. There would be college and university faculties. There would be staff at hospitals. And, for example, religious prejudice. And a little hometown of mine in Dixon, Illinois, a Jewish doctor come to town, wants to practice at the one hospital in the town, and they could look him in the eye and say, we filled our quota of Jewish doctors. So he couldn't practice. And more recently, to show you that even under our affirmative action, no matter how well-intentioned, evils could be done. A federal housing project, a public housing project, they set a quota in one of our major cities that guaranteed that 33 percent, one-third of the units would be available for minority members, black community, and the rest for the other. Well, that quota filled like that because of the neighborhood, which was located. But units stood vacant. There weren't whites to put in them, but they stuck with that quota and let them stand vacant while there was a waiting list of members of the black community who wanted to move in there. These are the evils that we say, no, let's get down to the business that we started with civil rights, and that is a colorblind society in which we're all human beings. I just want to say that, thank God, you're our president. You've done a good job. My name's Benny Brown from Raleigh North Carolina. It's a pleasure to talk to you. You are great. We all love you here. We recently in North Carolina were shocked when our junior senator took his own life. We were very fond of John East. I'd like to hear your comments about the timing of John East. It was a shock to all of us here in Washington. I don't know of anyone that was more respected and liked than John was. And the burden he carried must have just become too unbearable for him, for him to take that action. But we like the man that the governor is appointed now to fill out that unfinished term, and we hope that he will be elected and sent back for the next six years, Roy Hill, that we want him here. But no, it was a great shock to all of us. I'm going to have to switch over here for a second and be fair. I'm from New York State as president. There's really a lot of things I'd like to ask you, but most of all, I'd just like to thank you for uniting our country, increasing the sense of patriotism that we have, our continued battle that's communism, and it's great to be an American again. And just thank you for putting us on the right track. Let me just say one thing. I came here, and for several years before I came here, I was convinced I traveled the mashed potato circuit quite heavily, after dinner speaking and so forth, and I became convinced getting around this country that there was a great hunger growing in America for when I called a spiritual revival. And I think the people did this. I just tried to get government out of their way. Yes, we're back there. My name is Christina Mangatini, and I'm originally from Connecticut. Mr. President, recently we've had several people organizing programs such as Live Aid, Farm Aid, Hands Across America, et cetera, to increase our patriotism and help other people, including the people in our country. Can you comment on how you feel about that? Yes, I'll tell you how I feel about it. I could sum it up in a little incident that happened one night at a state dinner, and one of my dinner partners at my table was the wife of an ambassador of one of our European allies. I won't embarrass her by telling which country. But I was talking something about the private sector initiative here in this country, what people do privately in supporting worthwhile things. And she interrupted me quietly, and she said, but you're unique. And I said, what do you mean? She said, in your country, yes. But she said, not in other countries. She said, you're the only country where the people see needs and then just go out on their own. Do you know that last year, we set a record 1985, the American people and business concerns, individuals contributed to charity and to worthwhile educational artistic things and so forth just short of 80 billion dollars voluntarily given to good works. And it is true, we are unique. And so these people that are doing this, they're just carrying on what has been a tradition of this country that has grown. And one of my concerns when I was making up my mind to change parties was I had a feeling that government was trying to take over in so many areas that it was almost as if they wanted to shut out these good works that were being done. The United States, and I haven't got the figures for just a reason, but as of a few years ago, the United States supported by voluntary contributions in the field of the arts, in non-profit theater, in opera, in symphonies, musical organizations, things of that kind, supported more of those by private giving than all the rest of the world put together. So this is what's going on and I'm all for it. Mr. President, it is an honor to be in your presence. My name is Stephen Colbeck and I'm from Arizona. And for every great man that I've ever met, and those who have given their service and their time to help their country and fellow humans, I've always asked them a basic and simple question. And that was, what was their key to success? How did they climb the ladder to success and achieve the goals that they wanted to achieve in their life? I wish I had a good, crisp answer for that. I think for one thing, you follow your dream, the thing that I was at, maybe I can tell it with an incident, when I was back your age, I had a summer job lifeguarding at a river beach. And people would come out from the nearby city, Chicago, with their families and stay at a lodge there in this park. I was the only lifeguard and I taught their kids to swim and all. And then the Great Depression came and I was still in school and still doing this in summers. And some of these men had told me, they were successful men, and they'd said, when you get out of school, well, if you come see me, I think I could do something for you and all. And finally it was out of school. And I had to go back in lifeguard the summer after I graduated to get enough money to try and find a job someplace. And one of those men, a lot of them were no longer coming there. They were victims of the great crash also. But there's one told me that yes, he thought there were several lines in which he could help me get a job, start a career. But he said, you're going to have to tell me what you want to do. And he said, someplace there'll be somebody. Well, I went home and believe it or not, after getting out of college and my degree was in economics, really was in extracurricular activities. But I sat down. I hadn't thought about much what he said. But finally I just realized that I wanted the world of entertainment some way. And I thought, you know, back in those days in a little town in Illinois, you didn't say I want to be an actor. They'd throw a net over you. So I said, I thought to myself, radio is the great new thing of that day. Just in a few short years had become the greatest entertainment thing in America. And having been in athletics and everything, I decided I'd like to be a sports announcer. And I thought that would be a beginning, a step into the world of entertainment. So I went back to him and told him. And he said, well, I don't know anyone in that business. There isn't any way I can help you there. But he said, maybe that's best. He said, because if I helped and got you a job as I could in several other lines of activity, he said the favor they would be doing would be to him, not me. And he said, just having given you the job, they'd think they'd done their part and they'd have no more interest in how you progressed. He said, look, some place out there, there's got to be somebody that knows this industry has a future, radio, and knows that you have to have young people come into that business if it's going to flourish and continue. And he said, some place, and he said, remember, a salesman may have to make 200 calls before he makes a sale. So keep trying. And he said, just tell him, don't tell him you want to be a sports announcer. He said, just tell him you believe in radio. You want to get a job in radio and you take your chances on where you go in radio from then on. And I did. I started. And it turned out to be the greatest advice I've ever had. I hitchhiked my way all around the Midwest, getting turned down, but keep on going. Never mentioned sports now. That was the only place he was wrong. Because finally in Davenport, Iowa. WOC. A wonderful old man, a program director there, Peter MacArthur, still with the Scotch Burr in his voice. And he asked me, he says, where have you been for the last few years? He says, we've just had nine auditions for 90 people for announcers and hired one. Well, I didn't dare tell him that I'd been out hitchhiking and hadn't been listening to radio. And on the way out, though, after all the turn downs, I said to myself, how do you get to be a sports announcer if you can't get a job in a radio station? And I went down to the elevator, around the corner to the elevator, and while I was waiting for it to come to that floor, I heard this thumping. He was arthritic, and he had two canes on the floor. And he was muttering, hey, wait up. And so I looked and I waited for him. Thank heaven the elevator hadn't been there because he said, what was that you said about sports announcement? And I said, well, that's what I'd like to be. And he said, do you know anything about football? And I said, I played it for eight years. He said, do you think you could tell me about a football game if I wasn't seeing it and make me see that game if I was sitting at home listening? And I said, I think so. Never tried it. And he said, it took me into a studio, and he put me in front of a microphone. I said, when that red light goes on, you start broadcasting an imaginary football game. And he said, I'll be in another room listening. You won't see me. Well, there I stood, waiting for the light to go on. And I thought, oh, I'm not going to start with the first quarter. And I remembered a game the season before that we won in the last 20 seconds with a 65-yard run for a touchdown on an off-tackle play. And so when the lights came on, having listened to a lot of Ted Hughes-ings and Graham McNamees and so forth, I said, here we are, late in the fourth quarter of this game. I said, the long blue shadow settling over the field and a cold wind coming in through the end of the stadium. We didn't have a stadium. We only had bleachers. And so I took us in all the way up now to that last 20 seconds and then the touchdown, the winning touchdown. And then I said, that's all. It'd taken about 15 minutes to do this. But there was one thing that I also put in there in that broadcast. I was a right guard. And in that era, the guards ran interference. Most plays, you came back out of the line and led the interference. And on this particular play, my job was to get the first man in the secondary. I missed him. I never have known how Bud Cole made the touchdown because I missed that key block. But in the broadcast, that was the first replay. I nailed him with a block. I know, they're telling me, you shouldn't have gotten me in an old story like that. I used up that. Can I take one more? Time for one more. Well, there, right there in the aisle. Mr. President, I'm Scott Armstrong from Syracuse, New York. Perhaps besides the Republican Party, the Boy Scouts of America has done so much to shape my life. Part of your administration, we saw a massive drop in the scouting movement. And I was wondering if you would just give me the scout hand shape with your left hand so I can congratulate you for instilling the patriotism that has given the great rise to the scouting movement in the last six years. Well, I never had the opportunity to be a scout, but I know that I'm the honorary head of the Scouts. We put them down here. But I'm going to take my cute mucus. They didn't tell me about this. Thank you very much. They want me to step down there while they get a picture with all of you surrounding. Really quick in the presence. Well, let me tell you, one more. I presumed on you in answering that question, but the question was very real also about where you go and all of that. And let me just tell you another one and the thing that I never had intended to be in public life at all. And then I made a speech for Barry Goldwater in 1964, and I was literally dragged, kicking and screaming into campaigning. But I was also very fearful about something of that kind when I became governor of California. And remember this, because many of you may consider public life enough. I finally found peace and quiet for myself and could sleep at night when I decided that the only way to go was whenever there was a decision to be made. And I ordered my cabinet and I ordered the cabinet here. Don't tell me any of the political ramifications of that question. Just tell me what you see is good and bad in that particular thing and the decision will be made on the basis of what is good for the people of this country and in that case of the state. And I found that I do sleep very well and we don't say, let's do this because it's politically advantageous. Do what you believe in. That's whatever it is. Thank you all very much. You raised a gun and put it right here in my shoulder and shot. Funny thing, I got here very well. Can you tell us that baseball story, the story? Baseball story, how you made him foul out after that. I asked your autograph. He was the hero of the cop. Do you think it's the baseball story of how you made him foul out or you made him foul so many times? When the wire went out. I guess we made him into baseball games namely the Chicago Cubs and the photographic report. That meant that I had an autograph on the other side of the window and he was tearing Morse code which played a little slip of paper that would come under the window. They say S1C. You can't sell any tweets yelling S1C. So I would say it's a call strike that's what it means. It's like one call and I would say here comes the catch end and he said he's swinging Mrs. Morse code. No, this will be let's go by but it's a strike over the outside corner and so forth. I'll be picking that. I'll be picking that. I'll be picking that. I'll be picking that. I'll be picking that. I'll be picking that. I'll get the lamp, pressing the plate and I saw Curly on the other side of the window start typing. I'll be picking that. So I started a ball on the way to the plate. His dean was picking that. I read the slip, and the slip said the wire is going to get me. So I had a ball on the way to the plate. So I looked at Curly, and Curly just looked blank and I said I had him followed off and then I thought in my opinion in those days there were seven or eight stations broadcasting the same game, teams didn't have their own announcers and so I decided I might take a chance so I had to wipe his hands around the bag and shake off the signs in the classroom, swallow them out on the ground and throw another one on the ground well he followed that one off and I had him follow one that just missed being a whole run by a foot but then I followed, I described the two kids, one was followed down and right back at third and I described the two kids about the front over the wall and this went on but now I'm sweating because he had to set a long record for such a thing and uh all of a sudden when I've been going so long currently started to tighten and I got another ball in the blade in the blade and got the slip and then I started to give up, apparently get it out of the mess he said the land popped out of the first ball pitch the president is going to have to go, we will have autographed cards for you for those of you that did not get the president's signature, he's really run over his time