Bill Clinton: “Let me say, I'm very sympathetic with what all of you have said about your home environment. It had a big impact on me.…”

“Let me say, I'm very sympathetic with what all of you have said about your home environment. It had a big impact on me. So--I mean, I had a grandfather with a sixth-grade education who was a poor white Southerner who believed in integration. I don't know why. But he did, and he had a big impact on me. So I agree with that. But I want to say again, when you look to the future, you must--and we do all that--you must find a way to organize--that's why I like this Coming Together Project--you must find a way to organize a continuing mechanism where people of good will can come together and deal with this. Let me just give you an example. We talked about old people, young people--Denver is plagued--you've probably seen--with these horrible recent killings by skinheads of people because of their race. Now, Denver is a city that's only 12 percent black, that's got a black mayor. It is not a racist city. It's a remarkable thing. But even there they have this problem. Now, they've got to figure out how they're going to deal with this--and not just go prosecute the people that committed the crime but what's going on in the community, how are they going to deal with it, and how are they going to come together. I'm exhilarated by what I see from all of you today, but you have to make a commitment in some form or fashion to continue this in a disciplined way, because something will come up, things will continue to come up, and this is an ongoing effort. It's not just a one-shot deal. Yes. [A participant raised the issue of social segregation, saying that people should not be comfortable about only associating with members of their own race. Another participant said he hoped for progress to the point that his grandchildren would not relate to the term ``hate crime.'']”