 President of the United States and the Attorney General. Mr. President, it's a great pleasure for me to present to you the United States Marshals of the country. As you also see here, we have many of the law enforcement leaders of the Department of Justice here. As a matter of fact, at least as far as the federal government is concerned, the law enforcement activity of the nation has come to a halt while we listen to your words. It is a pleasure, though, for me, as head of the Department of Justice to mention to you the President of the United States. Thank you. Thank you very much. Please. Thank you, Ed. And thank all of you. I can assure you this will be very brief on account of I'm doing Rawley, North Carolina, at North Carolina State University very shortly. But I early learned, and maybe some of you've heard me tell this, I early learned in my speaking days about the importance of brevity in the speech. I was talking to a longtime friend of Bill Alexander, who was a minister out in Oklahoma, and Bill told me about his first sermon. He said that he had worked long and hard. He was invited to speak or preach at a little country church at an evening service. This was his first service after being ordained, and he worked for many weeks on that sermon. And then he went out and stood up in church and faced an audience of only one man out there in the middle of all those empty pews. So he went down and he said, my friend, I'm just a young preacher getting started, and you're the only member of the congregation that showed up. What do you think? Should I go through with it? And the fellow said, well, I don't know about that sort of thing. I'm a little little cow poke out here in Oklahoma. And he said, all I know is if I'd loaded up a truck, load a hay, took it out in the prairie, and only one cow showed up. I'd feed her. So Bill took that as a cue, got back up in the pulpit, and about an hour and 20 minutes later, he said, amen. Went down and said, my friend, you seem to stuck with me. And like I told you, I'm a young preacher getting started. What did you think? And the fellow said, well, like I told you, I don't know about that sort of thing, but I do know this. If I loaded up a truck, load a hay, took it out in the prairie, and only one cow showed up, I sure as hell wouldn't give her the whole load. And I appreciate this opportunity to spend a few minutes with you. I feel right at home with all of you. You see, I once played a deputy United States Marshal in a film entitled Law and Order, and the fellow I played was named Fram Johnson, and the story was set in Tombstone and Cottonwood, Arizona. Now, I know that there are some people who suggest that in those old pictures, we portrayed things in a rather simplistic manner, making it a choice between the good guys and the bad guys. Well, that may be too simple, but I think it's important to reaffirm there are good guys. And I'm proud to say that the United States Marshal's are among the best. I also played in a half-hour television show as a Marshal, and it was a true-life character. He had been a New York policeman, and a tragic shootout in New York. He had quite a traumatic experience. He journeyed west, he became a Marshal, and he made up his mind that he was going to act as a Marshal without a gun. It was a 30-minute show, as I say, and that was the character I played. I was dead in 27 minutes. So there are also bad guys. I think every American should be grateful that today we have on the front lines, battling the criminal element, the finest crop of law enforcement professionals in our country's history. Coming to grips with America's crime epidemic has been one of our top priorities since getting to Washington four and a half years ago. We've done our best to appoint judges who understand that the purpose of the criminal justice system is supposed to be the protection of the innocent. In past years, it began to appear that the victims' rights were not as important as the rights of the criminals. That twisted logic ignited an explosion of crime, crime often committed by individuals who've been arrested over and over again. Well, I'm proud of the part that we're playing in pushing the pendulum back in the right direction. I think Attorney General Meese has made and will continue to make an enormous contribution in this vital area. But even before Ed's appointment, we worked with our friends up on Capitol Hill to pass needed reform. And last October, it was my pleasure to sign into law the most wide-ranging proposal in recent history, strengthening the Federal Role in Criminal Justice, the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. But all the laws mean nothing unless the people are behind us. We've been building a new spirit of cooperation between the public and law enforcement. I think there's every reason for optimism in this all important area. Change, of course, is the name of the game in law enforcement, just as it is for endeavors in the private sector. Already, your job compares to the Marshall of the Old West in about the same way the space shuttle compares to the stagecoach. You've kept your honorable traditions, but today you are fulfilling your responsibilities with modern skills, technology, and innovative thinking. I especially would like to congratulate you for some of the creative methods that are being put to use in apprehending criminals. I have to hand it to the Marshall who thought of luring criminals with free vacation trips and tickets to concerts. There's an old saying about catching more bears with honey. Those you've been catching are more elusive than bears. Today, you are in a central position in the Federal Justice System. Virtually every federal law enforcement initiative involves the Marshall service. The custody, care, and transportation of federal offenders is your responsibility. If a federal criminal jumps bail, violates parole, or escapes from prison, tracking him down and recapturing him is your responsibility. When an order is issued by a federal court, it's your job to see the order is carried out. You're protecting the courts, judges, attorneys, and witnesses, and overseeing a dozen other tasks essential to the functioning of the justice service. This all adds up to a heavy burden of responsibility. I can tell you, it's a lot more than I had to do when I was Marshall frame Johnson. Seriously though, I'm happy to see you're here in the nation's capital honing your skills and learning new techniques. I want to take this opportunity to personally congratulate Stan Morris for the fantastic job he's done, and thank him for the leadership that he's given to you fine men and women. We can see the results, and thank you, all of you, for your hard work, your dedication, and your courage. We're all counting on you, so keep it up, and thank you, and God bless you all. Before you leave, you pointed out that you played a Deputy United States Marshal in the film Law and Order. We all know that because almost every Marshal and Deputy has a picture, which makes you kind of a part of this agency. But the thing that has been concerned to us for some 30 years is that you're a Deputy U.S. Marshal. And although in the film, you did win the lady, and you did save the town, you didn't get the job. And we think after this period of time, Attorney General and I would like to make you a United States Marshal. Well, thank you very much. I thank you all. I'm greatly honored, and I want you to know I just read in the paper this morning what Tip O'Neill said about me. Now I'm going to go after Tip O'Neill.