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| | Presidents, citizen speakers brave weather to dedicate Clinton library
Friday, Nov 19, 2004 By David Robinson Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Flanked Thursday by presidents past and present, and witnessed firsthand by numerous international leaders and more than a 100 members of Congress, former President Bill Clinton soberly exulted in the opening of his library. As the rain poured on the otherwise flawlessly executed dedication ceremony, the nation's 42nd president had everyday citizens tell how specific policies during his presidency had helped them. The achievements include welfare reform, mandates to aid the disabled, money to hire local police around the country, new work-leave benefits for people with ill family members and more stringent air pollution standards. "This library tells the story of America at the end of the 20th century, of a dramatically different time in the way we worked and lived," Clinton told an audience of more than 25,000 people, which included 1,300 media representatives. "We moved out of the Cold War into an age of interdependence with new possibilities and new dangers." The library is the 12th in the nation and the only one with a full-size replica of the Oval Office. It is expected to draw about 300,000 visitors a year. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, N.Y., cut her introduction short, but said she can't wait for people to see the museum. "The building is like my husband, it's open, it's expansive, it's welcoming, it's filled with light," she said. Her husband spoke in the center of Celebration Circle, where President Clinton Avenue - an extension of Markham Street - ends in front of the $165 million Presidential Center and Park. "That whole story is here, in 80 million documents, 21 million e-mails - two of them mine - two million photos and 80,000 artifacts," Clinton said. The library is designed to symbolize Clinton's bridge to the 21st century, and while it's heralded by architects as a great achievement, Clinton acknowledged negative references such its appearance as "a glorified house trailer." "I thought, well, that's about me," Clinton said. "I'm a little red and I'm a little blue." The resilient audience, which endured a near steady, cold rain for at least three hours, was seated in an area that soon will be landscaped with trees and picnic sites. As the audience huddled, security was evidenced by officers on the library's roof, in the crowd, on all-terrain vehicles on the Arkansas River bank, and the small, well-armed flotilla of U.S. Coast Guard boats on the river. Clinton said his failure to win lasting peace in the Middle East was his greatest disappointment. "I tried so hard for peace in the Middle East," Clinton said, acknowledging and thanking Shimon Peres and the children of Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak, as well as Israel's current foreign minister for attending the library's grand opening. "I did all I could." To President Bush, Clinton offered encouragement. "I hope you get to cross over into the promised land of Middle East peace. We have a good opportunity and we are all praying for you." Bush, along with his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Jimmy Carter heaped praise on Clinton, each pointing to his rise to the nation's highest office despite a less-than-ideal youth. The current president called Clinton an innovator, a serious student of policy, and a man of great compassion, and said that for those reasons Arkansas had elected him governor in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. "In the White House, the whole nation witnessed his brilliance and mastery of detail, his persuasive power, and his persistence," Bush said. "The president is not the kind to give up a fight. His staffers were known to say, 'If Clinton were the Titanic, the iceberg would sink.'" The elder Bush drew laughs with self-effacing quips about Clinton's besting him in the 1992 campaign. Clinton, he said, grew to become the Sam Walton of national retail politics. "Simply put, he was a natural, and he made it look too easy, and oh, how I hated him for that," said Bush, who served from 1989-1993. While he disliked debating, Bush said candidly, Clinton was in his element. "Through indefatigable determination not only did he lift himself and family up he also went on to touch the lives of millions around the world as president of the United States, giving them hope," he said. "Upon further reflection, maybe it's because with Bill Clinton ideas mattered. Ideas matter to all of us who enter public life." He referred to Clinton as an "activist president in the best sense of the word." This year's divisive, sometimes bitter presidential campaign drew some reflection by Clinton, who talked about the need to break down barriers between the red and blue states, a reference to states that went for either U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., or Bush, the Republican. The elder Bush said Clinton, during the campaign, had been "a little hard" on his son, "but in the spirit of being kinder and gentler, I've long since forgiven him for that." Carter, who served from 1977-1981, said it is significant that such political opposites could join for the occasion. "At the end of a very difficult political year, more difficult for some of us than others, it is valuable for the world to see two Democrats and two Republicans assembled together, all honoring the great nation that has permitted us to serve." Clinton echoed the sentiment. "Today we're all red, white and blue," he said. |
