Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Bill Clinton visits county, gives lecture

Private citizens have more power to do public good than ever before, said former President Bill Clinton Tuesday evening. Clinton was the speaker for the Birkett Williams Lecture series at Ouachita Baptist University. The lecture was part of this week's inaugural activities honoring Dr. Rex M. Horne Jr. as the university's 15th president.

Since leaving the White House in 2000, Clinton has been involved in public service. "The fact that I am no longer president doesn't mean I have no responsibility to the world," Clinton said.

All citizens, no matter how poor or busy, have something to give to the world. "You don't have to be rich" to give to others, he said. "Everybody's got something to give."

Clinton told those who packed the Jones Performing Arts Center that everyone needs to be able to tell the difference between a headline and a trend line.

He told how chickens had to be slaughtered in European countries because they contracted avian influenza, and that medical science has not come up with a cure or a vaccine against the disease or a way to keep it from spreading to humans. That, he said, is a headline because it has global health implications, yet very few people were aware of it. However, many more people know that Britney Spears recently shaved her head. That's a trend line, Clinton said.

People need to put aside their differences for the betterment of the world, he said. He described visiting a Buddhist temple in New York where items were gathered to send to victims of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. "They put aside their religious and political beliefs to help others."

Half of the world's population lives each day on less than $1, Clinton said. One in four deaths worldwide is caused by AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and infections caused by dirty water. Ten million children die every year worldwide from diseases that claim no lives in the U.S.

The lack of clean drinking water is one of many serious health and health care challenges in the world, he said. "We have a moral and economic imperative to fix health care." The costs of adequate health care drive it out of reach for many. In the United States, citizens spend an average of 16 percent of their income on health care. Other countries spend 11 percent or less, he said. Only 84 percent of United States residents have health insurance. Every other industrialized nation provides 100 percent health insurance for its citizens, Clinton said.

Health care costs in the United States are higher because the money is not used wisely, he said. Administrative costs of health care in the United States total 34 percent of insurance premiums. In other countries, only 19 percent of the funds are spent on administration. With all our country's technology and education, the United States is still 34th in the world in life expectancy, he said. "We've got to do something about this."

He said there are inequalities in the world that cannot be remedied until all people work together to conserve resources and share them with others, specifically the world's oil supply. "It's all about the net energy balance." There is oil in sand in Canada, but it takes more than a gallon of oil to remove that same amount of oil from the sand, so it's not efficient.

In the United States, 60 percent of the oil is imported. "We use 70 percent of that oil for transportation, but we don't have to." By using more alternative fuels and more efficient methods, Americans' dependence on oil for transportation can be reduced, Clinton said. The remaining 30 percent is used in the manufacturing of plastics and other goods.

There are other environmental factors, as well, he said, including the reduction of the world's fishing centers. "Ninety percent of the world's fishing centers are understocked," he said. The increase of greenhouse gases, global warming and other factors are changing the food chain and leading to fewer fish.

Clinton said he would like to see the world move toward more integrated communities, locally, statewide, nationally and globally. More integrated communities would lead to a broadly shared sense of responsibility for success and a sense of belonging.

"You have to believe that no matter how important your differences are, your commonalties matter the most," Clinton said. He urged the audience to help whenever possible. "Ask yourself what can I do?" and then do that thing. "Every one of us can make a difference, and because we can, we should."

Responding to questions submitted by students, Clinton said he tries to come home to Arkansas once a month. "If I don't, the people who work for me will tell you I get crotchety. This is home. It matters a lot to me."

He also said his upbringing trained him to be president. "I don't think I'd have been president if things had been different."

Clinton's family didn't have a television until he was 10, he said. "The first thing I watched was the Democratic and Republican conventions. I was hooked on politics from the beginning."

While growing up in Hope and Hot Springs, Clinton said his relatives taught him to respect all people, no matter what their station. "I don't think my life would have turned out as it did" if not for them. "I'm lucky and I know it."