Bill Clinton: “Good morning. I always like to hear from young people across our country. After all, they're at the heart of our efforts…”

“Good morning. I always like to hear from young people across our country. After all, they're at the heart of our efforts to build America up, to face the demands and the challenges of the 21st century. The responsibility of my generation is to leave those young people a better world and to make sure that they're prepared to succeed in that world. I was especially touched by a letter I recently received from a 15- year-old girl named Melissa, who lives in a small town in the Midwest. Even though she's only 15 and she lives in America's heartland, she's a recovering drug addict. She's been drug-free for 2 years now, but she still sees other children going down the road to drug abuse, and she's very worried. This is what she wrote to me: ``It seems there's just not enough help, and when there is help, there's not enough money to do what needs to be done. Let's help this problem so it's not so big for the next generation.'' We ought to listen to Melissa. From our smallest towns to our biggest cities, millions of our children face the temptation of illegal drugs every day in their schools. Surveys show that unfortunately more and more of our adolescents are using illegal drugs. Kids today are somehow not getting the message. They are beginning once again to think that it's all right to use drugs, that they're not really dangerous. But they're wrong. Too often, they're dead wrong. Now, think about what this means for our communities and for our country, for all the rest of us.…”