 President of the United States. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Welcome to the White House complex. It's particularly a pleasure to welcome you, even though I am a little jittery inside because I remember being told very forcefully by a minister once that ministers were the worst kind of audience. But I know that you're some of our nation's most distinguished preachers. The church has a special vet place in American life and it's around the church that America's black communities have revolved. You've long been a source of strength to America's black families. You've given the sustenance of faith, hope, love to Americans who've long needed it to face and overcome prejudice and injustice. It was around your churches that the civil rights movement began, a movement that was to free not only blacks, but all the rest of Americans from the burdens of intolerance and from the pain of not living up to our own ideals. And who can forget that at its climax the leader of that movement, of that march to justice was Martin Luther King, Jr., a young man of God who spoke in the cadences of the pulpit to the conscience of the nation and who reminded us all that America had issued a promissory note for freedom and that note had come due. Yes, you stood for justice and you stood as I said for much more, for family, for patriotism and for belief in a loving and merciful God whose message of love and brotherhood all Americans were put on this earth to seek and find as no other people had ever found before, despite the hardships, despite the temptations and despite falling sometimes by the wayside. And let me add that what you stand for was taught to all America one night some years ago by another young black man. It was in Madison Square Garden at a giant patriotic rally America had gone to war, World War II. There had been many speakers that evening and great entertainers from all over the world of entertainment, many of whom declared in their own appearances that we would win the war because God was on our side. And then this young man, a few words with great wisdom, was introduced. Madison Square Garden was well known to him. Joe Lewis, heavyweight champion of the world. On this night he was private Joe Lewis, United States Army. And he came out and he'd been introduced and stepped up to the microphone and said one simple line that brought that great crowd to its feet. He said something no one else had said that night. He said we will win because we are on God's side. Georgie Gessel, who had introduced him, said, Joe, you have just put a rose on Abraham Lincoln's grave. Well, you know, Martin Luther King used to remind us that black Americans are among our greatest patriots. I narrated a film about a group of such patriots, pilots being trained at the Tuskegee Institute, including one who would go on to become a great general and a national hero, Chappie James. I was only a member of the horse cavalry at the time, but I'm proud to tell you I now am also an honorary member of the Tuskegee Airmen. Today, members of your congregations continue to show inspirational patriotism. They've taken the lead in defending our country. Among qualified black youth, more than four out of ten enter our armed forces, compared to considerably fewer than two in ten of all other qualified youths. These young men and women are also some of our best soldiers, sailors, and airmen. They're much more likely than other recruits to have high school diplomas. And the chances of them re-enlisting are far greater. And they're less likely to be discharged before the end of their tours of duty. I've met many of our young men and women in uniform all around the world. I spoke to a group of them just a couple of weeks ago in Iceland before I left to come home. And let me just promise you, because as I said, I know so many of them are in your congregations. I hope we never have to ask them to defend their country. But if ever we do, I am determined they will have the best equipment and support possible, and that's why I've been fighting. My reason for fighting for a proper defense budget. And that's also why in Iceland I stood firm against Soviet demands that I give up the Strategic Defense Initiative, America's insurance policy for peace. I will never bargain away America's security or the safety of our young patriots. In recent years, black Americans have helped lead our nation, not only in patriotism, but despite continuing problems in economic progress. I'm pleased to be able to tell you that in the three and a half years since our economic recovery began, in fact, over the last several decades, the earnings of black males, for example, have grown significantly faster than those for the rest of American males. And the numbers of black entrepreneurs, black business executives, black professionals and elected officials have risen to record levels. But despite such success stories, we know that millions more still live in poverty out of the American mainstream in need of our help. More needs to be done. But in the three and a half years since our recovery took hold, we have reversed the rise in the poverty rate that started in the late 70s, and we've sent the poverty rate moving down again at the fastest clip in some 18 years. In the last two years, nearly a million black Americans have taken hold of the first rungs of America's once again strong ladder of opportunity and become a part of that American tradition of climbing to the stars as they climbed out of poverty. Unemployment among black youth, however, remains a national tragedy. But even though blacks represent only about 11 percent of our total population, during our recovery, 15 percent of all new jobs have gone to black Americans. Now, I don't think this success is any accident. You see, I believe you have a great deal to do with it. If our history teaches us anything, it is that in this land of dreams, when barriers of prejudice and discrimination are lifted, those who have the power in their wings that comes from strong families, deep faith and good values, those of God's children soar to the sky. You've given that power to the good people of your congregations. I think it's clear that you're among America's greatest forces against poverty and for decency and hope. And yet we know that in the last two decades, there have arisen, particularly in our inner cities, subtle temptations that have lured too many poor Americans away from family, away from community, away from values like hard work, planning for the future, and taking responsibility for one's own actions. It was in the name of compassion that these corrosive temptations became a part of national welfare policy, but well-meaning though they were, their hand up had become a handout. And yes, some of these same decent but mistaken people also told us at one time that drugs like marijuana were not all that harmful to young people, and that getting tough on crime was a veiled form of racism, even though blacks are among the principal victims of crime. And they had no more respect for the right to life of an unborn child than they had for the right of a school child to begin each day the way every member of Congress begins it with a prayer. Well, I sometimes think how much better things might have been if instead of those well-meaning people, you had been in charge. We all know the tragic consequences of these excesses, children having children, violent young addicts or pushers, and their victims. Big government may have made its pushers feel good, but the overdose they gave poor struggling families was almost fatal. That's why our administration has said that the way to fight poverty is not with more government, but with more opportunity, more faith in family, more trust in the values that come from our Judeo-Christian tradition. Today we're looking for ways to reform the welfare system, to make it support, not tear down families. And we're investigating how to incorporate work into the welfare system so that we encourage, not discourage, the development of self-esteem. But welfare reform isn't the only answer. We believe it's time to have a criminal justice system that respects the rights of poor people who are working honestly to lift themselves, and that will put criminals who mug, rape, murder, or rob in poor communities or anywhere else behind bars and keep them there. And it's why Nancy and I have enlisted in the nationwide crusade against drug abuse. We're asking children in our inner cities and everywhere to have the courage to just say no. We've made major progress in our agenda of opportunity this year. Our tax reform bill is the greatest anti-poverty program in the history of our nation. It takes over 6 million poor Americans off the income tax rolls and lets them keep more of the fruits of their labor. For a family of four living at a poverty level, that means a tax cut of roughly $1,300 a year. And if the leaders in the House of Representatives would end their years of opposition, we could also pass our enterprise zone bill. 32 states have already adopted their own enterprise zone programs. From New Jersey to California, state enterprise zones have created tens of thousands of jobs for those who didn't have them before. We're saying it's time for the federal government to pitch in too. After all, it was our idea to begin with, and yet we haven't been able to get it passed. And the states just took it up once they heard about it. All we're really saying is that the road out of poverty is not the old government way, but your way. Not by the main streets or the mean streets of temptation, but by the steep path up the mountain. By hard work, by economic growth, and by faith in family, community, and God. It's not an easy journey climbing that mountain. But the way of the Lord is never easy. Only good, only decent, only right. I received a letter that I've treasured from a 39-year-old black man who wrote to say to me, it's my opinion that your fight against inflation, your war on the drug traffic, your tough stand against street crime, your effort in revitalizing the nation's economy are all of great importance to us poor people and us black people in America. I'm happy to see that more and more, this is the view he made my day. So here's what I've come to say to you today. Let's climb that mountain together so that generations to come can look back on this time and say that in it, all Americans came at last to know America's promise of opportunity. And yes, his truth did go marching on. Now I only have a few minutes I know and you've been here for a long time and I still think though that I would like, because I'm a little self-conscious, more than a little. I was raised in a family, I'm mother and father, there were only four of us, my brother and myself. My parents raised the two of us to believe that there was no sin in the world greater than discrimination against any human being for any reason. And therefore it's been the most frustrating experience of my life to hold this office and see the image makers go to work and create an image that I am somehow racist and am discriminatory and so forth. And it's been against everything I was ever raised to believe or anything that I ever did before. As governor of California, I will be forever proud that I appointed to executive and policy-making positions in our state government more blacks than all the previous governors of California put together. One of them's on this stage here, now still an appointee, Mel Bradley. But maybe for just a few minutes we could take, well, a question. Mr. President, we come from a perspective that the heavens declare the glory of God. And another perspective is that when you pray we say, our Father, I've been trying to find this answer from many people, but maybe you can tell me. When we, for you for instance, represent our country with Mr. Gorbachev, all the leaders of the Soviet Union, trying to bring about peace and your initiatives there. And on the other hand, in Nick Wagner, who are associates and supported by the government, it seems we have a similar but a different relationship there. And I was wondering as we talk about our Father, we have missionaries in Nick Wagner from our church, trying to minister in the sermon to help people there who've been victims of that war. Could you give me something that maybe that I don't know and I've been there to support your policy there in Nick Wagner and your relationship with the Soviet Union which is in other cities? I should try to do it very briefly. Yes, when I meet with all of those other people, I don't meet alone. I've asked somebody to come in with me and help. But with regard to Nicaragua, we know that they had an authoritarian type of government under Samosa, who was something of a dictator. He wasn't a totally dictator as we've seen in countries like the Soviet Union or anything, but he was on a dictator of the right wing. He was a very authoritarian. And finally, the people rose up in revolution. And among the revolutionaries was one organized group, the Sandinistas, and they were definitely a communist organization. When the revolution was over and incidentally what ended the revolution was when the revolutionaries asked the organization of American states if they would persuade Samosa to step down in order to end the killing. And the organization of American states said, well, what are the goals of your revolution? And those goals were the same as our own revolution had been 200 years ago. They were freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and all the things that we believe in, the right to labor unions and all of that. And then, Samosa stepped down and the revolution or the war ended, but the revolution now took place. But as has happened in several other countries where communists are involved, the Sandinistas ended up being already an organization. They took over and gradually, less than gradually, they eliminated other revolutionary leaders that had fought beside them. Some were actually executed. Some were exiled and some took to the hills and are now part of the contra organization that's out in the hills. And they have put in place in Nicaragua a totally communist, totalitarian state. They have limited religion. They have been particularly hard against what they call the evangelistic religions, mainly the Protestant religions, the country being so pronounced Catholic. They were a little less harsh, but since then they have ordered bishops out of the country. They have taken away the printing press of the Catholic Church and they have started a church of their own. In the schools, incidentally, they have a new official national anthem in which it names the United States as the enemy that must be destroyed. Now, we believe that the people of Nicaragua who fought for that revolution have got a right to share in the kind of government that will result from the revolution. And the contras up on the hills are basically that many of them are not to hold over from the Samosa regime. In fact, many of them were imprisoned by Samosa at one time. They were revolutionaries too. And what they're really fighting for is for the Sandinistas to open the door and let them come in and together let the people of Nicaragua determine the kind of government they want. Now, I appeared over at the State Department before the Washington press. They were the only audience. There were three people from Nicaragua, two had previously been officials of the Sandinista government and who walked away from it because of its intolerance and its totalitarianism. And the third had been a clergyman in what they call the Creole community. He was a black and they came in and arrested him just because he was preaching the word of God and they threw him in prison. And one day one of the prisoners told him he was going to have to escape because he said they're planning to kill you. And this man stood there. He was one of the speakers at that appearance over there before our press corps. Nothing of what he said was ever carried in the television news. And yet what he said, well, first he pointed to where his ears had once been. Among the tortures they'd cut his ears off and they had tortured him until he managed to escape across the river into Costa Rica. And yet, as I say, with all of the press present, there was no attention paid to the stories of these three men that were related to them. Mr. President, I am Peter C. Holland from Greensboro, North Carolina, Pastor Church in Canapras, North Carolina. We are in that area are being told that imports are killing us and people are losing their jobs. We're pastoring people and the people who are using drugs are giving drugs to people who have no jobs. And when they give these drugs to these people, it's time they get back to work. They got them hooked that they remain on drugs. And so what we try to do is try to keep them employment. And Cannon Meal being the only meal is there and the only employment that they've ever known in that area. And whenever they lose their job, that's it. This is, there's no question about the imports, but let me also state something about what has been going on. In these 46 months, we have created 11.7 million new jobs. And what is called the Potential Employment Pool in America is everybody, male and female,