| In the aftermath of the 1994 congressional election losses, Ron had remained upbeat, lifting everyones spirits with his confident prediction that we were doing the right things on the economy and would win in 1996He had revitalized the Commerce Department, modernizing the bureaucracy and using it to further not only our economic objectives but our larger interests in the Balkans and Northern IrelandHe had also worked hard to increase Uexports to ten emerging markets that were sure to loom large in the twenty-first century, including Poland, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, and IndonesiaAfter he died I received a letter from a business executive who had worked with him, saying he was the finest Secretary of Commerce the United States ever had
Hillary and I drove to Rons house to see his wife, Alma, and his children, Tracey and Michael, and Michaels wife, TammyThey were part of our extended family, and I was relieved to see them already surrounded by loving friends and dealing with their loss by telling Ron Brown stories; there were many worth repeating from the long journey he had traveled from his boyhood home at the old Hotel Teresa in Harlem to the pinnacle of American politics and public service
When we left Alma, we went downtown to the Commerce Department to talk to the employees, who had lost both their leader and their friendsOne of those who died was a young man Hillary and I knew wellAdam Darling was the idealistic and spunky son of a Methodist minister who had entered our lives in 1992 when he made news by riding his bicycle across America to balenciaga yellow support the Clinton-Gore ticket
A few days later, just two weeks before the first anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, Hillary and I planted a dogwood on the back lawn of the White House in memory of Ron and the other Americans who had died in CroatiaThen we flew to Oklahoma City to dedicate a new day-care center to replace the one lost in the bombing and to visit with the victims families who were thereAt the University of Central Oklahoma, in nearby Edmond, I told the students that while we had apprehended more terrorists in the last three years than in any other previous time in our history, terror required us to do more: it was the threat of their generation just as nuclear war had been the threat for those of us who had grown up during the Cold War
The next afternoon we made the sad trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where America brings home those who have died in service to the nationAfter the caskets had been solemnly carried off the plane, I read the names of all who had perished on Ron Browns plane and reminded those in attendance that tomorrow was Easter, which for Christians marks the passage from loss and despair to hope and redemptionThe Bible says, Though we weep through the night, joy will come in the morningI took that verse as my theme for Rons eulogy on Ap-ril 10 at the National Cathedral, because for all of us who knew him, Ron was always our joy in the morningI looked at his casket and said, I want to say to my friend just one last time: Thank you; if it werent for you, I wouldnt be hereWe laid Ron to rest in Arlington National Cemetery; louis vuitton beverly bag by then I was so exhausted and grief-stricken after the terrible ordeal that I could hardly standChelsea, hiding her tears behind sunglasses, put her arm around me and I laid my head on her shoulder
In the awful week between the crash and the funeral, I carried on with my duties as best I couldFirst, I signed the new farm billJust two weeks earlier, I had signed legislation that improved the farm credit system, to make more loans available to farmers at lower interest ratesAlthough I thought the new farm bill failed to provide an adequate safety net for family farms, I signed it anyway because if the current law expired without a replacement, farmers would have to plant their next crop under the completely inadequate support program put in place back in 1948Also, the bill had many provisions I did support: greater flexibility for farmers in choosing what crops to plant without losing aid; money for economic development in rural communities; funds to help farmers prevent soil erosion, air and water pollution, and the loss of wetlands; and $200 million to begin work on one of my top environmental priorities, the restoration of Floridas Everglades, which had been damaged by extensive development and sugarcane growing
On the ninth I signed legislation granting the President a line-item vetoMost governors had the authority and every President since Ulysses Grant in 1869 had sought itThe provision was also part of the Republican Contract with America, and I had endorsed it in my 1992 campaignI was pleased that it had finally passed, and I thought its main utility would fake tiffany heart drop earrings be in the leverage it gave future Presidents to keep wasteful items out of budgets in the first placeSigning the bill had one significant downside: Senator Robert Byrd, the most respected authority in Congress on the Constitution, considered it an unconstitutional infringement on the legislative branch by the executiveByrd hated the line-item veto with a passion most people reserve for more personal injuries, and I dont think he ever forgave me for signing the bill
On the day of Ron Browns memorial service, I vetoed a bill that banned a procedure its proponents called partial-birth abortionThe legislation as described by its anti-abortion advocates was highly popular; it prohibited a type of late-term abortion that seemed so heartless and cruel that many pro-choice citizens thought it should be bannedIt was a bit more complicated than thatAs far as I could determine, the procedure was rare, and it was predominantly performed on women whose doctors had told them it was necessary to preserve their own lives or health, often because they were carrying hydrocephalic babies who were certain to die before, during, or shortly after childbirthThe question was how badly damaged the mothers bodies would be if they carried their doomed babies to term, and whether doing so could render them unable to bear other childrenIn such cases, it was far from clear that banning the operation was pro-life
I thought it should be a decision for the mother and her doctorWhen I vetoed the bill, I stood with five women who had undergone partial-birth abortionsThree of them, a Catholic, an rolex sport watch evangelical Christian, and an Orthodox Jew, were devoutly pro-lifeOne of them said she had prayed to God to take her life and spare her child, and all of them said they had consented to the late-term procedure only because their doctors had told them their babies could not have lived, and they wanted to be able to have other children
If you consider how long it took me to explain why I vetoed the bill, you understand why it was terrible politics to do soI vetoed it because no one had shown me evidence that the womens advocates had been untruthful in saying the procedure was necessary or that there was another alternative procedure that would have protected the mothers and their reproductive capacityI had offered to sign a bill banning all late-term abortions except in cases where the life or health of the mother was at riskSeveral states still permitted them, and such action could have prevented far more abortions than the partial-birth bill, but the anti-abortion forces in Congress killed itThey were looking for a way to erode Roe vWade; besides, there was no political advantage to a bill that even most pro-choice senators and representatives would support
On April 12, I named Mickey Kantor secretary of commerce and his able deputy, Charlene Barshefsky, the new UI also named Frank Raines, vice chairman of Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association, to be head of the Office of Management and BudgetRaines had the right combination of intellect, knowledge of the budget, and political skills to succeed at OMB, and was the first African-American ever to hold the rolex fakes jo |