For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 31, 2002
President Calls for 100,000 New Senior Corps Volunteers
Remarks by the President to Senior Corps Volunteers
Volusia County Fire Services Training Center
Daytona Beach, Florida
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very
much. Please be seated. Well, it's good to be
here with my little brother. (Laughter.) Last
night when we arrived, I had the honor of saying hello to it looked
like a couple thousand citizens there. And I said I always
like to go to states that have got a really good
governor. (Laughter.) And I
did. (Applause.)
I want all the moms here to know that any success I've had, any
success Jeb has had, is the result of having a strong
mother. (Applause.) So my advice to the young in
Florida is, always listen to your mother. (Laughter.)
Jeb and I know one thing, and that is that America can change, one
heart, one soul at a time. We understand that a
compassionate tomorrow and a safe tomorrow requires Presidents and
governors and mayors and county officials to rally the true strength of
the country, which is our people.
You know, the enemy hit us the other day, a while
ago. They didn't understand America. They thought
we were weak and materialistic and soft. Instead, they have
found a patient, determined, compassionate nation that stands in the
way of their efforts to spread evil. (Applause.)
In my State of the Union address the other night, I chose to spend
time talking about the spirit of unity in our country. To
me, it is one of the most -- as I said, I stand in awe of the American
people, individually and collectively. I know -- I know how
strong we are as a nation. And now our job is to take that
spirit and extend it for years to come.
I like to describe it this way: Our culture has said,
"if it feels good, do it." Our dream, or my dream for the
country is that we usher in a culture that says, each of us our
responsible for the decisions we make in life. We're
responsible for loving our children -- (applause) -- we are responsible
for serving goals greater than ourself. And that means
becoming involved in the communities in which we live.
And so we're here today in Volusia County to herald a Senior Corps
program that embodies the spirit that I was defining in my speech -- a
program that recognizes the power of recruiting volunteers to work side
by side with police and fire and emergency rescuers, to make sure that
this county is more secure in its future.
I want to thank Terry White, who is the Florida Secretary of Elder
Affairs. I mention the Florida office because we understand
at the federal government, since I had been a governor, that sometimes
the federal government can help, and sometimes it can get in the
way. I want to be -- I want to have an administration that
helps, and doesn't thwart the efforts of local people. So I
look forward to working with your Governor, and I look forward to
working with the Cabinet he's put together, to pass power out of
Washington to local governments. The government that's
closest to the people is that which works the best, as far as we're
concerned.
And somebody who understands that is Congressman John Mica, and I
want to thank John for being here, as
well. (Applause.) I want to say a word about
John. One of the -- obviously, right after the attack we
realized the federal government had a responsibility to make sure our
air travel was more secure. And as a result of his
leadership and the leadership of others -- but John had a major role to
play -- I was able to sign a good airline security bill that made
traffic as secure as it possibly could be.
And, thanks to the result of our efforts, brother was informing me
today that people are beginning to travel more, coming back to this
great destination state called Florida. I'm glad they're
traveling more. I hope they travel more to
Florida. It's good for our economy and it's good for our
nation when people do that. But, John, thank you for your
leadership on this important issue. (Applause.)
I also am so glad the Chairman for the Corporation for National and
Community Service is with us, the former Mayor of Indianapolis,
Indiana, a man who understands what compassionate conservatism is all
about -- a guy who did a fabulous job of revitalizing Indianapolis
through a faith-based initiative that was strong and powerful and
locally derived, and now a man who is in charge of making sure that the
initiatives I'm outlining get instituted, and that's Stephen
Goldsmith. Thanks for coming, Steve. (Applause.)
And with him is the CEO, Les Lenkowski. In my speech, I
talked about making sure AmeriCorps and Senior Corps
expand. Les's job is to follow through. I'm one
of these accountability guys. I understand sometimes in the
political process all you hear are words. I like to back
them up with action. I like it to be known that --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You bet!
THE PRESIDENT: You
bet. (Laughter.) I like to know that it's one
thing to lay it out, it's another thing to follow up. I'm a
follow-up guy. Les understands that. And so, when
we say we're going to have an active effort to recruit, I will be
asking Les and John Bridgeland, who is now working for me, head of the
USA Freedom Corps -- what are the results? Have we been able
to deliver what we said? And I'm confident we will,
particularly since the spirit in this country is so strong.
I'm confident -- when I stood up in front of the nation and said, I
ask you to dedicate two years of your life, 4,000 hours for the rest of
your life, to service for your country, a nd I believe America will
respond. I truly believe it. One thing we've got
to do is make sure that people understand how to respond.
Now, don't get me wrong. I understand there are
thousands of Americans who are now volunteering in
America. And for that, I am incredibly
grateful. I know there are hundreds and thousands of
man-hours being given to make sure communities are better off, and we
applaud those efforts. What I'm saying is, to those who are
already volunteering, keep going, we need your help. And
some aren't sure where to go. You see, some aren't sure how
to help. And so we set up the USA Freedom Corps.
And I want people to understand that if they want to help, they
need to call 1-877-USA-CORPS. If you want to be a part, just
call that number and we will help direct your heart to a program that
needs your help. Or if you happen to be an Internet surfer,
we've got a web page, usafreedomcorps.gov -- usafreedomcorps, spelled
c-o-r-p-s, .gov. It will give you a chance to find out what
we're talking about. It will give you a go-by as to how you
can help.
And there are some fantastic programs right here in Volusia County
that others ought to recognize, that work. One is Citizens
on Patrol. We basically -- we, the county, and the state,
have said there are numerous seniors who have got a lot to offer --
people who might be retired, but their brains haven't retired, and
their experience hasn't been retired. So let's figure out
how to get them involved in the community.
So they've got a program called Citizens on Patrol. More
than 200 volunteers put in 51,000 hours in the year 2001, to help serve
as eyes and ears of local law enforcement. If a child is
missing, they help look. If something is odd, they help
notice. I don't know if you remember, but I talked about,
digging into those al Qaeda caves in Afghanistan, we found some of
their aspirations, in terms of creating harm for
America. For example, they targeted some of our cities, or
some of our infrastructure. Citizens on Patrol here in
Volusia County patrol the water treatment plants and water treatment
facilities in this county.
I was up in Maine the other day, and I was informed that as a
result of a collaborative effort with the Coast Guard and the FBI,
lobstermen now patrol the coast of Maine, looking for something
unusual. Part of having a homeland defense is to have people
on alert. And I appreciate this program. So if
people in this part of the world want to help be a part of the first
defense on homeland security -- and that is, help patrol neighborhoods,
or patrol areas, or industrial complexes, to make sure nothing unusual
is happening -- a great program is Citizens on Patrol, right here in
Volusia County. (Applause.)
Part of the homeland security initiative that I outlined is to make
sure that there is a proper strategy in place for responding to an
emergency. That's why we're focusing resources on
bioterrorism, airport security, a better border -- better border
programs. We've got to understand who's coming in and who's
coming out of the country in a better way, it seems like to me.
But one of the things we also need to do is to have emergency
response strategy. If something were to go wrong, there
needs to be a collaborative strategy between city and county and all
jurisdictions within that will be able to respond properly.
One of the interesting programs here through Senior Corps and the
senior programs in Volusia County is the Community Emergency Response
Volunteers, CERV. They have got lists of seniors who they
call if there's an impending emergency. They help put kits
together to make sure that if there's an emergency, people are
well-treated. They have been assigned schools to go to if
there's an emergency during evacuation.
All this, by the way, is transferable to our war against terror, is
to make sure the homeland of the United States is more
secure. And so I want to thank the seniors in this
county. And the innovative entrepreneurial spirit of
convincing people of how to volunteer in a constructive way is so good
here.
And America -- Americans are asking how you can help, here's
another way you can help, to serve your nation by being a part of an
emergency response team. There are retired doctors, retired
nurses that can help hospitals, there are retired policemen and firemen
that can help fire -- there are people that want to help, here's a good
way to help. (Applause.)
And finally, one of the things that -- the incredible parts of 9/11
is that the nation understands how important compassion
is. I mean, the way I view this is that we're fighting
evil, and I don't see any shades of gray. And the
best way to fight evil is with acts of kindness. The best
way to fight evil is for people to love their neighbor.
People say, well, I want to be a part of the war on
terror. Okay, go love a child. Find somebody who
needs help. One thing we ought to do in the nation is to
find those children whose parents may be in prison, and team them up
with a mentor, so that that child understand there is at least somebody
in our society that says "I love you." (Applause.)
And there is an important role for seniors, people who understand
the importance of love. And so, there's a foster grandparent
program here, as a part of Senior Corps. It's a program that
says, if you care for children -- and most foster grandparents
obviously have had a little experience with raising children -- please,
we want your help. We want you to serve as a
mentor. We want you to provide a part of a hopeful future
for a child.
I'm fully aware of the importance of Senior Corps for the future of
the country. That's why I'm here -- to herald successful
programs within the Senior Corps fabric.
Our goal is to recruit 100,000 new Senior Corps
volunteers -- 100,000. We've got a
web site, we've got a phone number you can call. Please pass
the word. It is an initiative that will help really solidify
the spirit of compassion, a responsibility era that's beginning to
emerge in our country.
I leave here to go to Atlanta, Georgia, to talk about the need for
us to recruit teachers in classrooms. Part of fighting
terror is to make sure our children are educated. And we
need more teachers, and particularly hard in neighborhoods where some
teachers may not want to teach. And so I'm going to herald a
great program later on today that's as successful as the Senior Corps
program here in Volusia County.
Obviously, you can tell that I've got great optimism for the
country, a great hope for our future.
My most important job as the President is to protect
America. (Applause.) Is to make sure that we've
got a homeland defense that's well-coordinated and
active. And even though the enemy thinks they're going to
hit us again, you need to know your federal government is doing
everything we can to stop them.
We are on full alert. Our FBI, for example, has got a
new mission, and that is to prevent attack. Oh, they've got
their other jobs to do, but their primary focus is, what can I do, what
can I do as an FBI agent to gather as much intelligence as possible to
prevent a possible attack from happening.
Another way, we've got to make sure we share information with local
authorities. When we get a piece of information, I can
assure you we'll be on the phone notifying people about the appropriate
response. But we're looking and we're listening and we're
active. And the enemy knows that they have awakened a mighty
giant.
But the best way to make sure we secure our homeland, the best way
we make sure that children can grow up in a peaceful world, a world
that understands the power and promise of freedom, is to find the enemy
where they hide and bring them to justice. And that's
exactly what this nation is going to do. (Applause.)
Oh, I know some of the people around the world are saying, well,
you know, he can't possibly mean that, now that they've looked like
they're successful in Afghanistan. Gosh, don't you think
it's about time they just kind of go on
home. No. It's now time to stand for freedom and
to make it clear to terrorists and/or nations that are willing to
develop weapons of mass destruction that could be used against us that
we will not tire and we will not falter.
This great nation has been given a chance in history to make the
world more free. And I promise you we'll seize that
opportunity. (Applause.) We'll be wise and
deliberate about how we pursue our grand objective. But
we'll pursue it.
Time isn't on our side. As these nations develop these
sophisticated weapons, they need to know -- not how, but our intention
is to hold them accountable. And the rest of the world needs
to be with us, because these weapons can be pointed at them just as
easily at us. And we cannot let terror and evil blackmail
the United States or any other freedom-loving country in the
world. (Applause.)
I'm proud of our country. I'm proud of the spirit of
America. I am proud to be the President of the greatest
nation on the face of the Earth. (Applause.) I
said in my speech that one way we'll overcome evil is through the
gathering momentum of millions of acts of kindness and decency and
compassion. And I'm proud to be in a room of part of that
momentum.
May God bless you all, and may God bless
America. (Applause.)