Bill Clinton: “Well, hello, and good afternoon. Let me again thank all of you who are participating and all of you who came to the…”

“Well, hello, and good afternoon. Let me again thank all of you who are participating and all of you who came to the White House yesterday. I know that the event which we just held with the students at Eleanor Roosevelt was shown here, so I have no further introductory remarks. I'm anxious to get to the panel, except to say one thing briefly. In the 12 years that I served as the Governor, when I had the opportunity not only to go to every community in my State but from time to time to travel throughout the country, I saw a modern example of what the framers of the Constitution intended when they set up State governments, and they basically devolved a certain amount of authority throughout our country. They wanted the States and, ultimately, communities to be laboratories of democracy. And they thought, the people who set our country up, that once in any laboratory a solution to a problem was found it would be like science, that that then would be adopted and people would go on to another set of problems. What I think is happening in our country is that nearly every serious challenge we face has been dealt with brilliantly by somebody, somewhere, whether it's in education or in dealing with the crime problem or you name it. The one place where their laboratory of democracy probably fell down is that its human affairs are not like science, and very often, even though things are working well, they're not adapted, adopted, embraced as they should be. So I think that all of you who are struggling and working to find ways to mobilize the energies not only of your communities, but willing then to see it spread across the country, are doing the most important thing you could be doing because it's the second half of what the framers of the Constitution knew we'd have to do in order to meet all the challenges of the future. I mean, they couldn't have imagined the world that we live in now, but they set up a system that requires the second half--and you are that. I thank you for being here. I'm anxious to go forward, and I'd like to begin by having, I think, about four opening statements, beginning with Joe Califano. And I want to begin by just thanking you, sir, for the work that you have done at your center and the work that you have done for so many years now to try to help people deal with all kinds of substance abuse problems. And we'd be glad to hear from you. [Joseph Califano, director, Center for Alcohol and Substance Abuse, discussed the statistical relationship between substance abuse and and other social problems, particularly among adolescents, and suggested methods of treatment and prevention.]”