Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. Is this a great way to start the week, or what? [Laughter] Thank you, Secretary Heyman, Ms. Rimel…”

“Thank you very much. Is this a great way to start the week, or what? [Laughter] Thank you, Secretary Heyman, Ms. Rimel, Mr. Mayor and members of the city council, Mr. Moe. Thank you, Denyce, as always, for being so wonderful. Thank you, Ralph Lauren, for this incredible act of generosity and, I think, foresight. And I want to thank the First Lady for once again creating something of enduring value to our country in this Millennium Project. You know, Hillary mentioned this, but 1814 was not a particularly good year for America, and the British did burn the White House. And we've just finished a 15-year renovation of the White House, and we left two of the great stones unpainted to remind people that it only became the White House after the British burned it. And when the burn marks couldn't be scrubbed off, the beautiful stone had to be painted white to cover the memory of what had happened. It's rather nice, actually, to have a couple of the stones unpainted so that we don't completely forget. Not since that time has the United States been invaded. And so the confidence of all the people who were involved was well-founded. Francis Scott Key wrote ``The Star-Spangled Banner'' in the midst of a very fierce battle. He was standing on the deck of a ship, behind enemy lines, looking into darkness, searching for the fate of the flag. The poem he wrote about it became our national anthem.…”