Bill Clinton: “Well, first of all, I appreciate the honesty of the interchange and that shows basically the--actually the progress…”

“Well, first of all, I appreciate the honesty of the interchange and that shows basically the--actually the progress that's been made on this issue in athletics. Why? Because I basically--I agree with the point Jim Brown made, but I respect what John Thompson said. That is, if you have personal experiences with people who have helped you to achieve their goals, even if they're of different races, and you're not going to turn around and abandon your friends and abandon people who are doing a good job for you. And that's good. The point Jim is making, however, is a different one, and I'd just like to sort of--because when we get to the last section, there's another issue I want us to get to, which is related to this--but what he's pointing out, there's still a huge opportunity gap in our society by race in terms of economic standing. That's the only point he was making--and that if we want a stable society, we want large middle classes among African-Americans, large middle classes among Hispanic-Americans, large middle classes among Asian-American immigrants--first generation immigrants. That's the point Jim's making. And that if a group, a certain group within the African- American community, let's say, has amassed this wealth and then has to reinvest it, to the extent that they can also help to create this larger middle class while helping themselves and doing something, that's a good thing. I think you can say that and still respect John's decision, which I think we all do, and respect any other individual decisions that would cross racial lines. But the effort to create a middle class, people whose names will never be in the newspaper but who helped to build a big, stable society, I think that's a very important goal for us here. Mr. Ley. Do you think athletes have a special responsibility to have a social conscience to act, to be involved in the communities, or is that unfair?”