Bill Clinton: “Well, I feel better about my country than I did before we started. And I think all of you do, don't you? [Applause] I…”

“Well, I feel better about my country than I did before we started. And I think all of you do, don't you? [Applause] I want to applaud the panelists for their candor and their honesty. I want to thank the members of the audience for the questions that were asked. I want to say just two things. Number one, I think it's obvious that athletics in a way is leading America toward a more harmonious, united society, but we still have work to do--in the coaching ranks and the management and the scouting and all of that. We ought to keep working on it. The second thing I'd like to say is, I hope that everybody who's in an athletic program also learns good life skills to make good choices, good decisions; can take something out of the teamwork, the rules of things that you get from being in athletics so that if they play in high school but not in college that they're still better off and they're better citizens. The same thing if they play in college, not in pros. The same thing when they finish their pro career. We didn't talk much about that tonight, but I think that's important--that the lessons learned from athletics carry over into good citizenship, including attitudes about people of different races. If that happens, we're going to be a lot better off.”