 Ladies and gentlemen, United States. Hello there. Thank you. Well, Madam President, Madam President, Madam Vice President, Faith, and all of you, good afternoon and welcome to the White House. I know that each of you went through a long selection process to come to Girl's Nation, and just like your families and your friends and communities, I'm mighty proud of you too. This week in Washington, you've been preparing to become leaders of our nation. Yet many of you probably just wonder what kind of a world it is that you're getting into. Well, indeed in many or in recent years, many claim that we were living in a world of limits where all nations, even those as bountiful as our own, would have to learn to live with less. And not too long ago, there were people telling us that while there was a report published that was called The Limits to Growth, and that title, Limits to Growth, said it all. When I was about your age, our country was in the midst of the Great Depression of the 30s. Back then, it got so bad that the federal government used to put regular ads on radio, and the ads were telling you, stay home, don't leave home looking for work. There are no jobs. And if there ever was a time to talk about Limits to Growth, it was then. And here we are just a half a century later. The American people are enjoying a standard of living that no one in the 30s could even have imagined. During the past 50 years and every decade, employment in our nation rose on average by about 12 million. That means 12 million new jobs provided every year because of our growth. Real income per person rose on an average of over 30%. Today, more Americans live longer, eat better, and are better able to raise and educate their children than ever before. Young women like you face vast opportunities. Think of the wonders we take for granted that didn't even exist when I was in high school. Things like jet travel, television, television. The movies then were still silent. They didn't even have sound. Computers, of course, and now all those journeys out into space. Maybe this week some of you visited the Air and Space Museum. If you did, you saw Charles Lindbergh's airplane, the spirit of St. Louis, that one little plane in which he flew for the first time across the Atlantic Ocean. Just a few decades later, the single engine spirit of St. Louis has given way to the space shuttle, Columbia, and Challenger, and all the others. Your generation stands on the verge of greater advances than humankind has ever known. America today is leading the world in a revolution that is ranging from tiny microchips to voyages through the vast dark reaches of space from home computers that can put all the great music, film, and literature at a family's fingertips to new medical devices and methods of healing that could add years to your lives and even enable a handicap to walk and the blind to see. There are no such things as limits to growth because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder. And sometimes, I must tell you, having seen that other earlier time, it strains my imagination when a man handed me a little something and told me that this was a part of one of our satellites up there that could put the entire encyclopedia Britannica, reproduce it in three seconds. Now, I can't envision that taking place, but this is the kind of world we're living in. A century ago, oil was nothing but a sticky black mess. It was the invention of the internal combustion engine that turned oil into a resource, and they found out something to do with it, and today that resource fuels our world economy. And just ten years ago, sand was nothing more than the stuff that deserts and beaches are made of. Well, today we use sand to make the silicon ships that run computers and guide satellites. So if I can leave you with one last thought, it is this. In the vast and wonderful world that God has given us, it's not what's inside the earth that counts, but what's inside your hearts and minds, because that's the stuff that dreams are made of, and America's future is in your dreams. Make them come true. Thank you, and God bless you. Mr. President, on behalf of Girls Nation 1984, in appreciation for all the hard work you've done and a job well done, I would like to present you with this plaque. Before you, Mr. President, sit the present leaders, youth leaders, all across the nation. I think I can speak for all of us that you have been an inspiration to us all, now and in the future. Good luck in your campaign, and we'd all love to see you here in the White House for another four years. Mr. President, on behalf of 98 Girls Nation Senators who represent the youth of this country, I hereby present to you a copy of our legislation which we have passed and considered within our session. I bet I like this better than some that I've been getting from you. Thank you all very much. Thank you. I look forward to reading this. I have a nice weekend coming up at Camp David, and I'll take this along so that I can read it. And then you don't mind if I, sort of with a challenging look on my face, show it to the Congress when they come back. It was just saying that it was a nice endorsement, a lovely endorsement that I got. Yes, it was. I appreciate it. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you all.