Sunday Salute XXXIV

Bill Clinton is a person who has done some things he cannot be proud of (who hasn't), however in the long haul I find him worthy of a salute because of his work as president, his work with his Foundation since he left office and for the work he did to help Barak Obama get re-elected.  

from Wikipedia

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III; August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation. Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Many of his policies have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance.

Born and raised in Arkansas, Clinton became both a student leader and a skilled musician. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Kappa Kappa Psi and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford.

After he left the presidency

"President Bill Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to improve global health, strengthen economies, promote healthier childhoods, and protect the environment by fostering partnerships among businesses, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and private citizens."

 Again from Wikipedia

his foundation includes the Clinton Foundation HIV and AIDS Initiative (CHAI), which strives to combat that disease, and has worked with the Australian government toward that end. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), begun by the Clinton Foundation in 2005, attempts to address world problems such as global public health, poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict. In 2005, Clinton announced through his foundation an agreement with manufacturers to stop selling sugared drinks in schools. Clinton's foundation joined with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group in 2006 to improve cooperation among those cities, and he met with foreign leaders to promote this initiative

Quotes

America just works better when more people have a chance to live their dreams.

The best social program is a good job.

I do not believe we can repair the basic fabric of society until people who are willing to work have work. Work organizes life. It gives structure and discipline to life.

You don’t have to wait till your party’s in power to have an impact on life at home and around the world.

Frankly, I'm fed up with politicians in Washington lecturing the rest of us about family values. Our families have values. But our government doesn’t.

The most important family policy, urban policy, labor policy, minority policy, and foreign policy America can have is an expanding entrepreneurial economy of high-wage, high-skilled jobs.

The future is not an inheritance, it is an opportunity and an obligation.

The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.

For too long we've been told about "us" and "them." Each and every election we see a new slate of arguments and ads telling us that "they" are the problem, not "us." But there can be no "them" in America. There's only us.

Abortion should not only be safe and legal, it should be rare.

If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person.

I mean, you know, this idea that somebody we disagree with on economic or social policy or something we have to turn into some kind of ogre or demon, I think, is a mistake. I mean, it's like telling the American people or half the American people that don't agree with you they're all fools. That's just not true.

There is nothing wrong in America that can't be fixed with what is right in America.


Previous Salutes
Brad Pitt   The Masons     Barbra Striesand

Sally Field   Sean Penn       Beverly Sills  Jimmy Carter 

Ellen DeGeneres  Edward "Ted" Kennedy  Paul Newman
Michelle Obama  Audrey Hepburn     Princess Diana    Harry S Truman   
John Shelby Spong  Nelson Mandella      Rachael Maddow   Matt Damon  
Jehan Sadat   Jane Goodall    Mohandas Gandhi  
 Eleanor Roosevelt    Lyndon B. Johnson      Michelle Obama
Helen Hayes   Marion Wright Edelman     Bishop Gene Robinson
Bishop Desmond Tutu       Rachel Carson          Helen Keller
Martin Luther King, Jr          Dalai Lama         Dag Hammarskjold