Fw: 1997-10-11 Saturday Radio Address by the President
Sky (palmoni@lcc.net)
Wed, 15 Oct 97 13:56:18 PDT
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| Date: Wednesday, October 15, 1997 09:01:00
| From: The White House
| To: Public-Distribution@pub.pub.whitehouse.gov
| Subject: 1997-10-11 Saturday Radio Address by the President
|
|
| THE WHITE HOUSE
|
| Office of the Press Secretary
| _____________________________________________________________________
| For Immediate Release October 11, 1997
|
|
|
| RADIO ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
| TO THE NATION
|
|
| The Oval Office
|
|
|
| THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. We have worked hard to help
| parents pass on their values to their children, and to protect them
| from bad influences. Today I want to talk about a powerful new tool
| in our arsenal to help parents and to protect our children from the
| dangers of drugs.
|
| Of all the investments we can make in our children's future,
| none is more important than our fight against the greatest threat
| to their safety -- illegal drugs. Under the leadership of our
| national Drug Czar, General Barry McCaffrey, we've fought to
| keep drugs away from our borders, off our streets, and out of
| our schools, with a tough and smart antidrug strategy. Working
| together with state and local law enforcement, we've made real
| progress. But unless we teach our children about the dangers of
| drugs, our efforts will be in vain.
|
| Make no mistake; without our guidance, children are
| more likely to use drugs. Although overall drug use has
| declined dramatically, drug use by our young people has doubled.
| Among 8th graders, typically 13 and 14 years old, drug use has
| nearly tripled. We do not understand all the reasons for these
| unsettling statistics, but we do know this -- while illegal drug
| use by young people has risen, the number of antidrug public
| service ads has fallen by more than a third.
|
| In the meantime, movies, music videos, and magazines have
| filled the gap -- and our children's minds -- too often with warped
| images of a dream world where drugs are cool. We know that the
| media can powerfully affect our children -- for good or ill.
| That is why we acted to protect our children from tobacco
| advertisements, and why we've urged the liquor industry to refrain
| from running hard liquor ads on television. Now we must take the
| next step and give our children the straight facts: Drugs are wrong,
| drugs are illegal, and drugs can kill you.
|
| Young people who have not used illegal drugs by the age of
| 21 probably never will use them. That's why we must reach our
| children with the right message before it's too late. I just
| signed into law legislation that includes $195 million to launch
| an unprecedented high-profile, prime-time media campaign to reach
| every child in America between the ages of 9 and 17 at least four
| times a week. For the very first time, we'll be able to use the
| full power of the media -- from television to the Internet to
| sports marketing -- to protect our children from drugs. Teaching
| our children about the dangers of drugs today can mean saving their
| lives and our shared future tomorrow.
|
| I am pleased that the Partnership for a Drug-Free America
| and the Ad Council will serve as advisors for this vitally important
| project. I'd like to say a special word of thanks to the Partnership
| for a Drug-Free America and its chairman, Jim Burke, for the
| outstanding example they have already set in showing us what good
| ads can do. And I urge business leaders all over our country to
| help us reach our goal by matching the funds that the Congress has
| appropriated. Finally, I ask all Americans to join in this crusade.
|
| Above all, I ask the entertainment industry to do its
| part as well. Never glorify drugs; but more important, tell
| our children the truth. Show them that drug use is really a
| death sentence. Use the power of your voice to teach our
| children, and to help shape our nation's future.
|
| Thanks for listening.
|
|
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