 special event that occurred today and that is it is the birthday of Mrs. Armand Hammer. So we would like to wish her a happy birthday. Francis, once again Bill Lyon, I'll give him over to Bill Lyon who will take over from here. Bill? Thank you very much Bill. Mr. President and Mrs. Reagan, of course this is a great day for all of us I think here. It's been a beautiful day a beautiful luncheon together and a chance to be together and I would say that I think Willardine and I are most delighted that our children and grandchildren have had the opportunity to meet and be with the president and Mrs. Reagan. I thought it'd be inappropriate today if I talked about how great things have been with this great president and Mrs. Reagan for the past seven plus years. I don't think I should talk about how much interest rates have gone down and I don't think I should mention about how inflation has gone down or how unemployment has gone down. But I do want to talk to you about one piece of positively the most important piece of trivia that you will ever hear in your life and that was when I was graduating from high school when I grew up when I grew up we couldn't afford middle name so I didn't I wasn't blessed with a middle name and when infection that all of us have for the president Mrs. Reagan and what they've done for us long before as governor and then the presidency for the seven plus years has been unbelievable in changing the direction of this country and I'm just delighted to have the opportunity to present to you the president of the United States Ronald Reagan. Thank you all very much. Well again in addition to what Bill Smith said I think all of us are so grateful general William Ronald Lyon and his lovely wife for this particular occasion here I want to tell you when you just told that little story I pinched myself because I thought that you only got somebody named after you you were dead. On occasion I've tried to reassure some audiences that they won't I won't keep them here too long there are few stories that illustrate the problems of that it's I will make it like Henry the 8th said to each of his six wives I won't keep you long you know there's another story about that of the day in the ancient Coliseum in Rome Caesar and all of the multitude was there in the little huddle of sacrifices were down there in the midst and then the twelve hungry lions were turned loose to come roaring down on them and one fellow stepped out of the little group huddled there and said something quietly to the lions and they all laid down well the crowd was furious that they weren't going to see the show they'd paid to see and and Caesar was he had him sent for him bring that man up here and when he came up he said I want to know what is it did you said to them that made them act like that he said I just told him that after they ate there'd be speeches but I can't tell you Nancy and I are well first of all we're just happy to be here to any of you who haven't done it let me warn you that when you decide that you want to live for any length of period of time away from California you will live in a perpetual state of homesickness and we feel that way and it's such a joy to be here and to be among old friends and hopefully to be making some new friends the the cause that brings you here I've had a hard time getting over some self-consciousness about talking about it because it sounds like it's kind of an ego trip or something a library in your name and for encompassing the job that you've had for eight years or so but in reality I make myself look at it the way what it really is and that is that these presidential libraries are an important fact part of keeping available to the people of the land the history of this nation and not according to what you read in the morning times that you can get the innermost secrets and have the papers and that will be true of all of ours and sometimes with the flood of letters that comes in and I don't get to see them all you couldn't possibly read them all but a sizeable package or sent to me so that I have an idea of what what is on the on the people's minds and some of the questions are I mean some of the letters are so wonderful some of them a very great human problem and that's when I look for Fred Ryan and turn this over to him and our private sector initiative has been able to do something for these people and whatever it required this I think is new in our government the private sector initiative I really got the idea sitting beside an ambassador's wife of a European country I won't embarrass them by naming her but at our table the conversation had gotten around to something one of the great charitable things that's going on in our country and that we accept that is done in the various things like Easter Seals or whatever and very quietly she said to me in your country yes and I said well what do you mean what she said you're unique she said in all the other countries including our own she said the government does these things not privately as you do in your country well we started a private sector initiative to find out how many things we where we could help and I think Fred and now nobody expression on your face if I'm telling the truth I think we have in the computer over there now something like 3,000 programs he said yes 3,000 programs that were in some community they have found a way to solve a problem at the private level not turning to government yelling for help as this lady had said to me the government always did these things and so someone has a problem in their community they can contact our private sector initiative and they can ask about this and he can put them in touch with any number of people in communities around the country that have already solved that problem in their community and how they did it and they can actually contact the people for help in setting it up in their own community and just a short time ago there was a meeting in Paris France and that meeting there were Americans attending there they were all participants in private sector initiatives in our country and this was a meeting brought about by European countries that wanted to learn how do we do it and we went over and today private sector thing are in every one of those countries and when we went to the economic summit in Vienna no I mean Venice I always get the wrong country there in Venice I left one of our meetings to go over and appear at a group that was meeting and I looked at some familiar American faces out there in the group yes this was Italy setting up their entire private sector plan last year you people the people of America you contributed to education to charity to good all kinds of worthwhile programs eighty four billion dollars if the federal government had tried to do all those things instead it'd be eight hundred and forty billion dollars well I'm talking longer than I intend to do because I want to get back to what I started on and that was this library that all of this and all of the records and all of those those letters that personal correspondence and so forth all of that will be available for scholars and for people interested who want to come and find out what really did happen with regard to some of the things that are portrayed in in the media and so it is a worthwhile a worthwhile thing that I think perpetuates what we have in this country that is so unique you can't understand the thrill it is to stand up in front of a student audience and talk to them about the Constitution and they're looking a little vague at you when you're telling that there's every country in the world's got a Constitution I've read a lot I've read the Soviet Constitution it's got a lot of the same things about right to assemble and so forth these others have and then I'm able to say to them but the difference between our Constitution and all those other countries constitutions is so tiny it's overlooked but it is so great it tells the whole story and it's done in three words we the people all those other constitutions are documents in which the government tells the people of those countries what they can do our Constitution is by the people and tells the government what it can do and it can do nothing other than what is prescribed in that Constitution and does get their attention a little bit but the fact that you are so willing to help and to be a part of this movement and those that you've been introduced to you was participating in the on the staff and all it it isn't just a compliment to a an individual you know some people think they become president you don't really you're given temporary custody over an institution called the presidency and it's a very great honor but at the same time it's a very great responsibility and then this record will be there forever more unchangeable in the original documents and all the information and all that took place and I've talked a lot longer than I intended to talk and should have talked but sometimes you get a question about is it fun and then do you enjoy being president in moments like this hell yes but then you remember every once in a while when you're back in Washington what Lincoln said about the road to hell he said it's only a mile long down to a building with a dome on top somebody somebody once accused Lincoln of being too ready with jokes and so forth and laughter for the serious office that he held and Lincoln answered them very properly he said if I couldn't laugh I couldn't stand this job for 15 minutes so well I'm trying to think of a good get-off line here but I don't yes I do have have one our secret service agents sent me as a as a birthday gift a book and it is a compendium of everything Irish and it's gotten songs it's got poems it's got stories and true stories and jokes that they tell and everything of the Irish and one was a true incident of a little Irish girl six years old who came home from school with a note from the teacher and she'd been naughty and that night at dinner the family gathered around the dining table but she was at a little table with her back to them over in the corner of the room for being naughty and then they overheard her saying grace and pardon me Reverend for this they heard her saying thank the Lord Jesus for preparing a table before me in the presence of my name is the last time I told that story was at the Speaker of the Congress Jim Wright's table in the little party that he gives for st. Patrick's Day and I was invited there and I had to say a few words and looking around my table at Teddy Kennedy and a few other individuals I thought it would be suitable to tell that story