Kathianne
10-07-2007, 07:13 PM
Speech by President at Michigan State
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release May 5, 1995
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT CLINTON AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Spartan Stadium
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
1:30 P.M. EDT
http://www.clintonfoundation.org/legacy/050595-speech-by-president-at-michigan-state.htm
...This is a very free country. Those of you in the militia movements have broader rights here than you would in any other country in the entire world. (Applause.)
Do people who work for the government sometimes make mistakes? Of course they do. They are human. Almost every American has some experience with this -- a rude tax collector, an arbitrary regulator, an insensitive social worker, an abusive law officer. As long as human beings make up our government there will be mistakes. But our Constitution was established by Americans determined to limit those abuses. And think of the limits -- the Bill of Rights, the separation of powers, access to the courts, the right to take your case to the country through the media, and the right to vote people in or out of office on a regular basis.
But there is no right to resort to violence when you don't get your way. There is no right to kill people. (Applause.) There is no right to kill people who are doing their duty, or minding their own business, or children who are innocent in every way. Those are the people who perished in Oklahoma City. And those who claim such rights are wrong and un-American. (Applause.)
Whenever in our history people have believed that violence is a legitimate extension of politics they have been wrong. In the 1960s, as your distinguished alumni said, many good things happened and there was much turmoil. But the Weathermen of the radical left who resorted to violence in the 1960s were wrong. Today, the gang members who use life on the mean streets of America, as terrible as it is, to justify taking the law into their own hands and taking innocent life are wrong. The people who came to the United States to bomb the World Trade Center were wrong.
Freedom of political speech will never justify violence -- never. Our founding fathers created a system of laws in which reason could prevail over fear. Without respect for this law there is no freedom. (Applause.)
So I say this to the militias and all others who believe that the greatest threat to freedom comes from the government instead of from those who would take away our freedom: If you say violence is an acceptable way to make change, you are wrong. If you say that government is in a conspiracy to take your freedom away, you are just plain wrong. (Applause.)
If you treat law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line for your safety every day like some kind of enemy army to be suspected, derided and, if they should enforce the law against you, to be shot, you are wrong. (Applause.) If you appropriate our sacred symbols for paranoid purposes and compare yourselves to colonial militias who fought for the democracy you now rail against, you are wrong. (Applause.)
How dare you suggest that we in the freest nation on Earth live in tyranny. How dare you call yourselves patriots and heroes.
I say to you, all of you, the members of the Class of 1995, there is nothing patriotic about hating your country, or pretending that you can love your country but despise your government. There is nothing heroic about turning your back on America, or ignoring your own responsibilities. If you want to preserve your own freedom, you must stand up for the freedom of others with whom you disagree. But you also must stand up for the rule of law. You cannot have one without the other....
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release May 5, 1995
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT CLINTON AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Spartan Stadium
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
1:30 P.M. EDT
http://www.clintonfoundation.org/legacy/050595-speech-by-president-at-michigan-state.htm
...This is a very free country. Those of you in the militia movements have broader rights here than you would in any other country in the entire world. (Applause.)
Do people who work for the government sometimes make mistakes? Of course they do. They are human. Almost every American has some experience with this -- a rude tax collector, an arbitrary regulator, an insensitive social worker, an abusive law officer. As long as human beings make up our government there will be mistakes. But our Constitution was established by Americans determined to limit those abuses. And think of the limits -- the Bill of Rights, the separation of powers, access to the courts, the right to take your case to the country through the media, and the right to vote people in or out of office on a regular basis.
But there is no right to resort to violence when you don't get your way. There is no right to kill people. (Applause.) There is no right to kill people who are doing their duty, or minding their own business, or children who are innocent in every way. Those are the people who perished in Oklahoma City. And those who claim such rights are wrong and un-American. (Applause.)
Whenever in our history people have believed that violence is a legitimate extension of politics they have been wrong. In the 1960s, as your distinguished alumni said, many good things happened and there was much turmoil. But the Weathermen of the radical left who resorted to violence in the 1960s were wrong. Today, the gang members who use life on the mean streets of America, as terrible as it is, to justify taking the law into their own hands and taking innocent life are wrong. The people who came to the United States to bomb the World Trade Center were wrong.
Freedom of political speech will never justify violence -- never. Our founding fathers created a system of laws in which reason could prevail over fear. Without respect for this law there is no freedom. (Applause.)
So I say this to the militias and all others who believe that the greatest threat to freedom comes from the government instead of from those who would take away our freedom: If you say violence is an acceptable way to make change, you are wrong. If you say that government is in a conspiracy to take your freedom away, you are just plain wrong. (Applause.)
If you treat law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line for your safety every day like some kind of enemy army to be suspected, derided and, if they should enforce the law against you, to be shot, you are wrong. (Applause.) If you appropriate our sacred symbols for paranoid purposes and compare yourselves to colonial militias who fought for the democracy you now rail against, you are wrong. (Applause.)
How dare you suggest that we in the freest nation on Earth live in tyranny. How dare you call yourselves patriots and heroes.
I say to you, all of you, the members of the Class of 1995, there is nothing patriotic about hating your country, or pretending that you can love your country but despise your government. There is nothing heroic about turning your back on America, or ignoring your own responsibilities. If you want to preserve your own freedom, you must stand up for the freedom of others with whom you disagree. But you also must stand up for the rule of law. You cannot have one without the other....