We are gathered at a site historic for new beginnings. Millions of our immigrant forebearerstraveled through Ellis Island and this train terminal as they began new lives in America. A goodlynumberof them made Jersey City their first home on these shores. It was here, in Jersey City, that they learnedto be Americans.
Jersey City is still "The City of New Beginnings." We are not just celebrating a new beginningfor Jersey City today. We are celebrating a new beginning for America; because I am convinced thattherenewal which we begin here will not end here. This city, which taught our forbearers how to beAmericans, will now teach their descendants, throughout the United States, how to rejuvenateAmerica'ssoul.
I know this is a bold statement, but something big is happening in Jersey City. It must be. Lookat who is on this podium: former Cabinet Secretary Jack Kemp former Governors Brendan Byrne andThomas Kean; Governor Jim Florio and Christine Todd Whitman; Democrats and Republicans,sittingside by side.
You know, I told an aide, who helped me prepare for this day, that I wanted this ceremony to bebi-partisan, and that I wanted both the Governor and Ms. Whitman to join me as a visual symbol, likethelion sitting with the lamb, of bi-partisan harmony. My aide said that's fine, but he asked me whichone'sto be the lion and which one's to be the lamb?
I don't know, but I want to thank each of you, Governor Florio and Ms. Whitman, for joining metoday. You are to be saluted for giving so much of yourselves, often sacrificially, in committed pursuitof what you believe will renew New Jersey and America.
Now I would like my wife, Lynn, and our parents to stand; and I would like the rest of our twofamilies and my City Council members' families to stand. From all of us to all of you, thank you foryoursteadfast support. You have been there for us, and we love you!
Finally, I would like to thank all of the rest of you in the audience. You are the true heroes ofhope. It is your love for and faith in Jersey City that has made today possible. Thank you for whatyouhave done and are doing, and please give yourselves a hand!
History is being made here. Not because I, a Republican, have won in Jersey City. But ratherbecause here, in this most diverse city in America -- where fully 41% of our citizenry speaks alanguageother than English at home; where 25% of our citizenry is foreign born; where 14% of our citizenryhasimmigrated to America in only the last 10 years -- here, of all places in this country, amidst this greatdiversity, we have found the common ground which, as human beings, unites us all!
Here, in this "City of Nations," we have united our people across lines of ethnicity, class andreligion, and even across the great divide of Party. Almost 70% of Jersey City residents areDemocrats,and yet I, a Republican, received almost 70% of their votes. This doesn't suggest a victory of Party. Itsuggests a transcendence of Party and a victory for the people. It proves that people do not dreampartisandreams. They dream human dreams- -dreams which transcend nominal divisions and enable us all tocome together and agree on the common good.
What are the things that all people want? Whether rich or poor, native or foreign born,homeowner or housing project tenant, the people of Jersey City have spoken with one voice inexpressingtheir desire for increased order, empowerment, and work.
First and foremost, you told me that you want a return of order. You are tired of drugs and crimeruling our streets. Your spirits are weighed down by litter and graffiti, by weeds growing whereflowersshould be planted, and by glass glittering where children should be playing. You have had enough ofloudradios, car horns, and shouts piercing the night. You believe that a poor child raised in a housingprojectshould have the same opportunity to play outside in a safe and orderly environment as does a richchildraised in the suburbs. My City Council members and I have pledged to make our streets safe andclean,and to rebuild the deteriorated buildings which serve as such a symbol of communal decay. You haveratified our proposals with your vote. But I can hear you saying that there is something more youwant,something that is more than just another government program -- I can hear in every conversation thatwhatyou yearn for most is a re-awakening of the values of common decency and respect. True order canneverbe imposed from without, you realize. True order comes from within. It comes from people havinginternalized the values that litter is wrong, that stealing is wrong, and that other people are worthy ofrespect, and should not be awaken in the middle of the night by playing one's radio too loud. In athousandconversations on a thousand street corners across this City, you have told me that you fear agenerationof our children has already been lost because of having grown up without the social re-enforcement ofvalues necessary for a happy and successful life. You have pleaded that we teach today's children suchvalues before they too are lost. I am here to tell you that I have heard you, that my heart is with you,andthat I will fight for you to re-establish community standards of common decency, respect, and order;andto ensure that every child, rich or poor, has the chance to grow up safe and secure within everyneighborhood of this city.
The second thing which I heard you say is that you want government to become more responsiveto you. Whether the issue is our soaring tax burden or the declining quality of public services, youfeelthat government no longer responds to the people; that is has become captive to special interests. Younolonger trust the honesty of politicians nor the benevolence of bureaucrats, and it frustrates you that youare so powerless to ensure even basic governmental integrity. You want government which is of thepeople, by the people, and for the people -- but you no longer believe that this is the case today. I feelthesame way, and let me assure you that I am going to do everything that I can to put governmentalpowerback into your hands so that you can get the quality services and lower taxes you deserve.
The third thing you told me is that you believe in work. You want jobs, not welfare. In fact, youbelieve that in exchange for government benefits, all able-bodied people have a responsibility to work;andthat work should be rewarded, not punished. You have told me that you do not believe that theworkingpoor, who must scrimp and save to pay their own rent, should be taxed to the bone to pay for rent-freedwellings for some who will not work. Nor do you believe that the dependence bred by welfare iseithermaterially benefitting, or spiritually elevating, for those who must accept it. You want jobs for thosewhoare jobless; you want lower taxes on those who work; and you believe that those who receivegovernmental assistance should be required to work in exchange for that support.
I made these three values -- order, empowerment and work -- the core of my first campaign; thecore of my administration these last eight months; the core of my second campaign; and now, havinghadthem overwhelmingly ratified by you once again, I will make them the core of the revolution that wewillfashion together in Jersey City these next four years.
We have much to change, because, today, precisely the opposite values reign in America, and ourbody politic is sick. Symptoms of social decay abound, most visibly in our cities.
As I campaigned in one local housing project, we were stopped at one stairwell by the stench ofurine. The halls were dimly lit and the walls were covered with graffiti. Exiting out of the front doorwegreeted not flowers and grass, but rather rubble and glass. At night, the streets outside teem with drugdealing; and many of our children, to borrow Governor Cuomo's elegant phrasing, hear the cacophonyofgunshots before they ever hear the sweetness of a symphony.
All the while, with so much work needing to be done, able-bodied men and women areunemployed and idle.
This is an American tragedy. These conditions should not be accepted as normal, and yet manyof our children grow up with this their only experience of life. It is time we move beyond ideologicalrefusal, recognize this sickness in our society and commit ourselves to curing it; because otherwise thecancer will overcome us all!
Let us begin with an honest diagnosis. Despite what the media might have one think, ourproblems are not the result of the Reagan-Bush era. They have been building for decades. Today'ssocialproblems find their root not in growing greed and callous unconcern, but in well-intentioned policies.
The dominant thesis of this Twentieth Century has been the philosophy of entitlement. We socialprogressives became proud. We marveled at the productive prowess of our modern science and cametobelieve that we, through an all-powerful, technocratic government, could give salvation to thedisadvantaged. It is as if we believe that a technological Millennium had arrived -- that the socialnecessity for traditional norms had passed away -- and that we, in the place of God, could now ensurethatthere would be no sickness or sorrow anymore. Moving beyond the notion of a Constitutional right tothepursuit of happiness, we arrogated to ourselves a right to happiness itself, and shifted responsibility forhappiness from the individual to the State. We made our license into an entitlement, with governmenttheguarantor.
The core of this philosophy of entitlement, which is still very powerful today, is that personal andsocial salvation is to be achieved through the simple elimination of deprivation. Values do not matter. Personal striving does not matter. Justice became not equality of opportunity, but equality ofoutcome. The hungry can be saved just by giving them food. The psychologically oppressed can be uplifted justby gratifying their desire. "Go on and do it!" became our mantra. "You are entitled."
The problem with all this is that in its secular sophistication it forgets that "man does not live bybread alone." It forgets that man has a soul. It forgets that beyond mere physical sustenance, men andwomen have a need for meaning.
It also forgets that mankind is fallen. "Power corrupts," said Lord Acton, "and absolute powercorrupts absolutely." In centralizing power in the hands of politicians and governmental bureaucrats,thisphilosophy of entitlement has invited public corruption even as it makes us, the people, powerless.
Thirty years ago, this entitlement thinking led our cultural elites to expound on the Age ofAquarius, sanctioning the sexual revolution and experimentation with drugs, while de-emphasizingrespectfor law and established values. Traditional values, the most radical argued, are not just innocuouslyirrelevant, they are tools of oppression.
This thinking also led our policy makers to propose a Great Society where if one was without ahome, a home would be given, and where if one was destitute, welfare would be provided -- withoutevenasking for work in return.
Of course, now we know that this philosophy's presumption as to the Millennium was premature. Our well-intentioned welfare policies and the centralization of power have led to destructivedependence. Our sexual promiscuity has led to deathly disease and to children having children. Our "do you ownthing" ease about drug experimentation has led to addiction.
I believe that it is time to turn to a new philosophy of government which responds directly to ourdesire for order, empowerment and work. It is time for a philosophy which takes account of both ourbodyand our soul, including our human need for meaning; a philosophy which regards values instead ofdisregarding them and emphasizes empowering the people instead of centralizing power in the handsofpoliticians and bureaucrats; a philosophy which values job creation and work over welfare; aphilosophy,it seems to me, already on the ascendancy throughout America, taking shape slowly but surely throughthe efforts of individuals like my guest today, Jack Kemp, and representing a new zeitgeist ready forthedawning of a new century; a philosophy which is coming to be called "empowerment."
According to the philosophy of empowerment, the first goal of government is to establish andpropagate values which support social harmony and give personal meaning to life. Jack Kemp spokeabout this earlier, and his colleague at Empower America, former United States Education SecretaryBillBennett, has expanded upon the theme in a book entitled "The De-Valuing of America." Bennettwrites:
Nothing more powerfully determines a child's behavior than his internal compass, his beliefs, his sense of right and wrong. If a child firmly believes, if he has been taught and guided to believe, that drugs, promiscuity, and assaulting other people are wrong things to do, this will contribute to his own well-being and to the well-being of others. And if this lesson is multiplied a million times -- that is, taught a million times -- we have greater and broader well-being, fewer personal catastrophes, less social violence, and fewer wasted and lost lives. The character of a society is determined by how well it transmits true and time-honored values from generation to generation. Cultural matters, then, are not simply an add-on or an afterthought to the quality of life of a country; they determine the character and essence of the country itself. Private belief is a condition of public spirit; personal responsibility a condition of public well-being. The investment in private belief must be constantly renewed.
I think Bennett is on to something. Teaching values does not mean teaching religious dogma. Itsimply means that in the same breath that we, as a democratic people, establish certain actions to beillegaland punishable, we should also declare them to be wrong; and that there are other, arguably naturallydetermined, human values -- such as teaching respect for the goodness of life, and teaching respect forothers -- which we should declare to be good.
The moral relativists of the philosophy of entitlement may have trouble with teaching values, butsome foundation of shared values is necessary for a civilized society. For instance, it is necessary thatwenot only say that murder is illegal, but that we also say that it is wrong because if we do not say that itiswrong, then the power we bring to the deterrence of murder is nothing more than majoritarianoppression-- it has no greater legitimacy.
This country was founded upon the precept that certain truths are self-evident; and we, as people,must come to some democratic agreement on basic values of right and wrong, so that we can lay outforour children some notion of what it means to live the good life.
How can we determine what our basic values should be? The wise psychologist Abraham Maslowsaid that if you want to know what leads to self-actualization, study self-actualized people. Examplesabound of millionaire movie stars who have blown out their brains, or lost them on drugs, becausetheirlives held no meaning for them. Examples similarly abound of humble people rich in spirit and joybecause they have made a commitment of faith to affirm their lives -- in spite of tough circumstances --and to love others as they may.
The teaching of almost all human civilization throughout almost all time, as best represented bythe world's great religions -- the collective wisdom of the ages -- has always been that the key topersonaland social salvation is not simply the elimination of deprivation, but also, and even more importantly,afaithful affirmation of the life lived in service to others.
Values which focus on respecting others are rooted in human truths that are grounded in the lawsof nature. We can ignore such truths, and the values they imply, only at our peril.
So it is time we being to teach them to our children!
After establishing values, the second goal of government according to the philosophy ofempowerment, is to empower people to lead contributing lives. In other words, once we have said thatmore than physical comfort, life is about making some kind of contribution, we must also help peopledevelop their skills so that they can make a contribution.
Life can be overwhelming. What true opportunity to contribute does a child have if born to a drugaddicted mother living on the streets? The answer is very little, if we do not accept the moralresponsibility to help. The basic essentials of opportunity are clear: they are affordable health care,housing and taxes; safe and clean streets; quality day care, schools and recreation; and, of course,jobs.
This may sound very much like the agenda of the Great Society -- this time with "meaning" -- butthere are huge differences between empowerment and entitlement. That difference concerns not onlytheirrelative respect for values, but even more importantly, where they locate power.
Unlike the philosophy of entitlement, which focuses power in the hands of politicians andbureaucrats, the philosophy of entitlement believes that power should remain in the hands of thepeople.
Today we spend nearly $9,200 in taxes for every child in our Jersey City public school system,and yet a majority of our students drop out before they graduate. If we gave those of you who areparents$9,200 to educate each of your children, I believe you would be able to find specialized schools abletomeet your children's special needs. Whether publicly or privately administered, schools would ceasetrying to fit all children into the single mold dictated by bureaucratic centralization. Instead, smallspecialized schools would proliferate, which, like the private Kenmare School here in Jersey City,wouldbe able to succeed with students who have not done well within the current system; and we would seethesuccess rates of our schools soar, together with the dreams of the children they teach.
My school voucher proposal does not endeavor to dictate the ideal school. There is no universallyideal school. Different children will thrive in different school environments. All that my proposalendeavors to do is to empower parents to be able to seek out the best schooling that is available. It willletyou decide which schools are doing a good job, and which schools are not, so that you can bepersonallyassured of a quality education for your children. I think government is here to serve you, and that youshould be able to have that power and that assurance. I also think that when you do have the power,whenthe schools become truly accountable to you, instead of to us politicians, that all of our schools, publicandprivate, will improve.
The National Education Association is committed to fighting my proposal for a school voucherexperiment here in Jersey City. It is committed to fighting me, not because it fears that this smallexperiment with vouchers will fail It is committed to fighting me because it fears that this experimentwillsucceed. It fears that it will lose the nearly dictatorial control that its political power gives it over thecurrent system, once schools become accountable to parents, instead of being accountable to uspoliticians.
The State has tried changing all of our public school administrators. The State has tried pumpingan extra $100 million dollars in educational aid into Jersey City. Yet, still, a majority of our publicschoolstudents do not graduate. There are music teachers, and gym teachers, and football coaches in Morris,and Middlesex, and Monmouth Counties who are losing their jobs because the State is re-directingStateeducational dollars away from their communities to ours -- to little evident result. I wonder, why notgiveus what we really want: the power to send our children to schools which we can see are succeeding,notbecause they spend a lot of money, but because they have strong, independent leadership, and are freeofthe bureaucratic strangle hold destroying our public schools?
My friends, it is time that we the people ask our political leaders these questions: how many of ourchildren will have to be failed by the current system and drop out; how many will have to find thatwithoutan education that they are unable to get a job and have no future; how many will have to have theirspiritscrushed with despair and become lost to drugs, or to crime, or to prison, or even lose their lives, beforewerealize that the poor, and the troubled, and the otherwise disadvantaged deserve true opporutnity too,andwe finally become willing to try a little experiment that just might work?
It is time that we give our children true opportunity through giving empowerment and schoolvouchers a try.
The third goal of government according to this new philosophy of empowerment, is that consistentwith our human values, government must demand that citizens obey the law; and that in exchange forempowering assistance, government must demand that citizens work and give something back.
Many neighborhoods in Jersey City are plagued by litter, graffiti, and children dealing drugs. Wedo not help these neighborhoods by letting this go on; and we do not help these children when we turnablind eye to their crime, or arrest and release them without punishment, because they are under age. Instead, by not punishing them, we teach them that it is okay to break the law. We must begin toenforceour laws so that crime is not an option.
Similarly, people living on the streets, who have lost all faith in their productive worth, will notbe helped if we just give them a tax supported apartment. They need to be challenged to work, so thattheycan see themselves making a contribution in exchange for their housing, come to believe again in theirproductive capacity, and rise above their dependency.
What I am proposing here is not just a move from welfare to workfare -- it is more than that. Itis government enforcement of the fact that with rights come responsibilities. Once we have blessed ourpeople through propagating values that can help to give life meaning; once we have committedourselvesto empowering people so that they can develop their abilities and lead fulfilling lives; then we muststilltake the final step, and spur our people on, through establishing rewards for right actions andcorrectionsfor wrong. We must punish crime, so that no one is tempted to take the destructive path of crime, andwemust demand work in exchange for governmental benefits, so that no one is encouraged to fall intowelfaredependency.
No society has ever been more grounded in love than the intentional communities of the earlyChristian church. In the Biblical Book of II Thessalonians, Saint Paul addresses a first centurycommunalchurch whose members had sold all of their possessions to realize a beatific vision of belovedcommunity: "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." What are Saint Paul's instructionstothese radically egalitarian and social justice-minded Christians? "If a man will not work, he shall noteat,"writes Saint Paul. "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
Let me ask each of you here today, what has truly made you feel fulfilled in your life: bodilycomfort? or the fact that somewhere along the way you have been able to help another human being? Ifyou have answered for yourself, as I presume you have, that you have felt most fulfilled when youhavebeen able to help another, then I think it is time that we realize that we cannot save others throughwhatwe give to them. If we want to help others experience a fulfilled life, then we must not allow them tobeonly takers. We must practice the tough love which indeed does say, "If a man will not work, he shallnoteat!"
These, then, are the proper goals of a government according to the new philosophy ofempowerment: first, to propagate human values which point the way to social harmony and personalmeaning; second, to empower citizens to lead fulfilling lives of social contribution; and third, toestablishrewards and corrections that specifically encourage citizens to develop their abilities and leadcontributinglives.
The sophists of the philosophy of entitlement still tell us that values are relative and that theproblem with our society is that there is too much repression of personal freedom and too littlegovernmenttaxing and spending. But, here, in this immigrant city, where the good sense of our citizens -- aspeopledrawn from throughout the world -- literally represents the judgment of an international tribunal ofcommon men and women, we reject this view.
Our people are asking for order, empowerment, and work; and I see the philosophy ofempowerment a road map for answering these wants.
In the next four years, here in Jersey City, we will initiate new police programs and beautificationprograms to keep our streets safe and clean. But even more fundamentally, we will strive to teach ourchildren positive values so that they have positive goals to live for, and so that they are not tempted tobreak the law or litter in the first place.
In the next four years, we will work to provide every child and adult in this city with the essentialsof opportunity: affordable housing and health care; safe and clean streets; quality day care, schooling,andrecreational programs for our children; and quality training and jobs. In all of this, we will constantlystrive, within the economic limits we confront, to put you in control: to allow you to choose whereyouwill live; to allow you to choose the health care you find most attractive; to allow you to choose thebestday care, school and recreational programs available -- whether publicly administered or private -- sothatat last you have the power to ensure that for all of the money we are spending, you are at least gettingyourmoney's worth in quality services.
Finally, in the next four years, we will also work to turn around a system which not only payspeople not to work, but crushes people with taxes when they do work. We will endeavor to replacewelfare with workfare, and to reduce taxes and sewerage rates further, so that middle and workingclassfamilies can afford to own a home again and see some gain for all of their hard labor.
Last year, we were able to cut sales taxes in Jersey City in half because of our Urban EnterpriseZone. The Urban Enterprise Zone is an idea first proposed in Congress almost a decade ago by JackKemp, and first implemented in New Jersey under Tom Kean. It became fully implemented in JerseyCityonly last year, but already it has made a tremendous difference in attracting jobs. It is time that anationalUrban Enterprise Zone bill for America's cities is passed by Congress so that the entire country canbenefit.
When I was elected last November, my opponents said it would be impossible to cut propertytaxes; but we did cut taxes, and even while doing so, we put more police officers on the street andreducedcrime. The problems we are facing in America are not the result of government spending too littlemoney. Government is spending more than it should. The root of our problem is how government is spendingourmoney -- the tremendously low productivity of government spending because of its fixation onbureaucratic approaches. In the next four years we will work to improve the productivity ofgovernmentspending so that we can reduce taxes and improve services at the same time.
five star hotel in Odense Some will argue that I am accepting too great a responsibility for government. They will arguethat if the industrial economy were properly stoked, there would be no need for all of these public andsocial services. "A job," they say, "is the best social program."
They are right about the importance of job creation, but they are wrong in believing that a strongeconomy will decrease the demand for public and social services. It will do the reverse. There hasbeenan explosion of industrial productivity in the last ten years. Many industrial jobs have been lost to usforever, not because they have been transferred overseas, but because machinery now does what onceinvolved human labor. We have tremendous labor capacity beyond what is needed by our industrialeconomy. So the question arises: when one worker at a machine is enough to produce all of theindustrialgoods for all of the people within a given city, is that heaven or is that hell? It will be hell if we do notdiscover creative ways to put our other citizens productively to work. But it will be heaven if wediscovernew opportunities for each of our citizens to make a constructive contribution.
Look at our dirty streets which need cleaning. Look at our children who need teaching. Thereis no shortage of necessary work to be done. The whole issue is how do we increase the productivityofpublic spending so that we can enjoy good results for our money? Only when a dollar spent yields a$1.50worth of benefits is public spending investment. When a $1.00 spent yields only $.50 of benefits, thenpublic spending is waste which does more harm to a society than good.
Let us reform our social service spending through the principles of empowerment, so that insteadof enormous sums being wasted on bureaucratic approaches which do not work, we can instead ensurethat every dollar spent on enhancing opportunity truly succeeds in helping to develop happier, morehighlyskilled, and more morally committed citizens.
The Bible says that without a vision the people perish. I have tried to lay out a just, worthy, andachievable vision for Jersey City and urban America; a vision founded on the moral value that thepoorestchild born in the inner city ought to have the same opportunity to be happy and to make a contributiontosociety as the wealthiest child in the richest suburb.
I believe that we, in Jersey City, have an historic opportunity to make this vision a reality. Thisis fitting.
All the people that I know, when they dream of heaven, conceive of a place not all rich or all poor,not all white or all black, not all American, or Asian, or African, or European. Rather, they conceiveofa place where all of the world's different kinds of people live together in justice and harmony.
Jersey City already meets the first test: the test of diversity. It is one of the few places in the worldthat does. Now it is up to us to meet the second test: the test of justice and harmony.
Germany Hotels If we can produce heaven here, it will be a great service to the world. As transportation andcommunication systems improve, the world is becoming a smaller place. Like Jersey City, it isbecominga place where different peoples live side by side. Today the examples of what happens when differentpeople mingle are drawn from Lebanon and Bosnia. If we can make Jersey City a model of heaven,wecan show how such mingling can better be accomplished.
On that day, Jersey City, the "City of New Beginnings," will herald a new era. On that day, JerseyCity, the "City of Nations," will become a light to the nations.
Here's wishing us success. May God bless Jersey City, and through us bless the world!