RESIST, INSIST, PERSIST, ENLIST.” - HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
The 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama will visit John F. Kennedy's gravesite and honor two of Kennedy's lasting initiatives as the nation observes the 50th anniversary of his assassination in the coming week.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, will be accompanied by former president Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, at a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon. Also that day, Obama will be joined by scores of prominent Americans who have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in paying tribute to Kennedy's legacy.
Remarks at the 35th Annual Kennedy Center Honors
RemarksHillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of StateU.S. Ambassador Kenneth MertenBenjamin Franklin RoomWashington, DCDecember 1, 2012
Well, we’re going to give everyone a minute to get back from taking a break or sitting down or coming off of the terrace outside. As we begin the program for this 35th Kennedy Center Honors, one of the highlights of the year here in Washington by any measure, and especially exciting this year as we honor a group of legends and icons as diverse as they are talented. We have in our group of honorees tonight a broad cross-section of talent and energy from comedian to chameleon, ballerina to bluesman, and three men so synonymous with rock and roll they need no more description than Page, Plant, Jones. (Laughter.) And I am delighted to welcome back one of last year’s honorees who has graciously agreed to be the MC for the evening, Meryl Streep. (Applause.)
You are all in for a treat. I had the extraordinary experience earlier this year at the Women of the World conference in New York of being introduced by Meryl, and I’ve decided to bring her along every chance I get. (Laughter.) Now, of course, two of the people who make this night so special aren’t with us. It’s the first time they’ve missed the dinner in 35 years. George Stevens, who conceived of the Kennedy Center Honors and produces them each year, and Liz Stevens, who chairs this dinner every year, happen to be in Hollywood. Michael, their son, told me that George wouldn’t leave until the rehearsal was over, so we hope they’re in Hollywood, because he didn’t get on a plane until sometime mid-afternoon.
George is receiving an honorary Academy Award for his lifetime of contributions to film and the performing arts, including these awards. (Applause.) They will be back in time for tomorrow’s gala, but tonight we send our congratulations long-distance.
I am sure, like many of you, I am a fan of all of this year’s honorees. Now speaking personally, who hasn’t, among us, fallen in love with Dustin Hoffman at some point or another? (Applause.) In a lifetime of roles, there really is something for everyone – handsome leading man in The Graduate, handsome leading woman in Tootsie – (laughter) – handsome red panda in Kung Fu Panda – but a lifetime of such exhilarating performances, making you cry, making you laugh, making you think. And we are delighted that he and his beautiful family are with us tonight.
Now Buddy Guy – (applause) – actually, Buddy Guy and Led Zeppelin have been part of the soundtrack of our lives. I grew up with Chicago blues and married Delta blues – (laughter and applause) – and I think my husband is especially happy to be here tonight because he may get to say a few words about Buddy Guy. He’d rather be playing with you, but he’ll stick to talking, I hope. (Laughter.) And then of course, when we were at law school, which seems so long ago, back in the 1970s, a decade of terrible clothes but good music, Led Zeppelin was always coming out of what we called in those days “record players.” And even forty years later, there is something about their music that speaks to the unbound joy and possibility of youth.
Now you may remember that earlier this year, Buddy Guy managed to get President Obama to do a few bars of “Sweet Home Chicago.” And now some of you may be looking a little nervous here, because he may be trying to get one or more of you to do a few bars of something. But it won’t be me; not even Stairway. (Laughter.) But it will be a reminder of how well our President sang that night, which I think was worth a couple of points in the polls, myself.
And of course for Chelsea and me, ballet was a big part of her life. She performed in the Washington Ballet, went to so many ballets over the years. And there is such a great sense of anticipation tonight in being able to honor a ballerina that has meant so much to so many. And I was thrilled to see so many of the greats of ballet here tonight. I think that tomorrow should be a special treat for anyone who loves the ballet as we honor Natalia Makarova and what she has meant to the art. (Applause.)
And then there is David Letterman – (laughter) – the big guy, as they call him. (Applause.) David and I have a history. (Laughter.) I have been a guest on his show several times, and if you include references to my pantsuits, I’m on at least once a week. (Laughter.) I wanted to read you a top ten list to celebrate – (laughter) – Dave’s life of contributions, but unfortunately the State Department does not have a desk officer who covers Wahoo, Nebraska, or wherever the home office is these days. But there I was, being gracious, the hostess of the evening, and Dave and his beautiful wife, Regina, came through. And I greeted her and said how happy we were to have her, and greeted Dave and then said, “Look, Dave, I took my pants off for you.” (Laughter and applause.) And Dave without missing a beat said, “I don’t think you meant to say that.” (Laughter.) And Dave, you’ve got to be reminded that what happens here stays here. (Laughter.)
But Dave is probably wondering what he’s doing in this crowd of amazingly talented – (laughter) – artists and musicians. (Applause.) But let me hasten to add we are not wondering. For all of the teasing over the years that you’ve engaged in and some of us have had the fun of engaging with you, we’ve always recognized that talent. It is hard to do what you do every night, and while you always make us laugh, you also make us think.
So these are performers of exceptional skill, matchless ability; but there’s a common strain running through all of their careers, and that is a willingness to take risks. They have refused to be boxed into one genre or category, and in the process, they’ve inspired a whole generation of artists. That is the great beauty of art. It’s a canvas big enough to hold every crazy idea and find a home for all of the boundary pushers. And all who have worn the rainbow laurels of the Kennedy Center Honors have made it here because they refused to accept the world as it is or the limitations that someone or society tried to place on them. They insist on exploring what could be, they challenge our prejudices, and change our perspectives.
Now, art is a calling that not only celebrates doing things differently, it demands it. And I see this in artists around the world, the desire to create rather than conform. The yearning to share the uniqueness we each hold inside is universal. And art is an outward expression of our common human dignity that certainly we here in the State Department work so hard to defend and uphold every day.
Now, in my line of work, we talk often about the art of diplomacy. I really like saying that because so many of the building blocks for art and diplomacy are the same. We have to be willing to try new things, occasionally take big risks. We strive to find a common language, whether that means riffing on an established theme or improvising in the moment, and at base it is always, always about making people’s lives a little bit freer, even a little bit better in some small way.
So the arts and diplomacy actually do go hand in hand. They play out on world stages and reflect our common need to build bonds of understanding with others. Tonight, we honor an artist who actually braved one of the great schisms of the modern world, because when Natalia defected from the Soviet Union in 1970, she risked everything to have the freedom to dance the way she wanted to dance, a freedom that at the time was only available to her in the West.
And when the Kirov Ballet returned to London 18 years later, their first visit since her defection, she was in the audience on opening night, and a few short weeks later, she was on the stage with them. It was a surprise performance, the first time a Russian defector was allowed to perform with a Soviet troop. The negotiations had been in the works for months. It was only approved by the Kremlin at the last minute. In fact, I’m told the Kirov corps had to borrow Swan Lake costumes from the Royal Ballet.
She, of course, turned in a flawless performance. It was an amazing instance of glasnost brought to light. And for all the political overtones and the tensions, it was first and foremost a beautiful human moment. After a thunderous ovation, the Kirov dancers gave her the honor of the last solo bow. She then turned around and offered her final bow to her former troop. Art and diplomacy, indistinguishable.
So I would like to thank these artists for the moments of connection they have given all of us over the years. Thank you for never stopping to take risks. Thank you for having the courage to create. And so for me it’s a bittersweet night, because this will be my last opportunity to host you here in the State Department, and I want to thank the Kennedy Center for the extraordinary cooperation and partnership that we have had over the years, but particularly these last four years.
And on that note, I want to welcome the Kennedy Center’s chairman, David Rubenstein, to the stage so that he can begin the main event. He’s done a wonderful service for the Kennedy Center, and he’s also done a wonderful service for helping us keep these diplomatic rooms at the State Department so beautiful. And he’s also pretty funny himself. So please join me in welcoming the other
Top row, from left to right: Michael M. Kaiser, President, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; Merle Haggard; Bill T. Jones; Sir Paul McCartney; and David M. Rubenstein, Chairman, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Bottom row, from left to right: United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Jerry Herman; Oprah Winfrey; and George Stevens, Jr. , creator of 'The Kennedy Center Honors'.
Here are Mme. Secretary's remarks.
Kennedy Center Honors Dinner
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of StateWashington, DCDecember 4, 2010
SECRETARY CLINTON: It is such a delight to welcome you back here for this wonderful national tradition. It is, by any standard we can imagine, the best weekend in Washington. (Applause.) And it is the tenth time since I have been involved with helping to host some of the Kennedy Center Honors. For eight years, Bill and I were privileged to host at the White House, and now as Secretary of State I get the great honor of hosting you here.
And it was really extraordinary standing in the receiving line and seeing the genres and generations going by. (Laughter.) The full breadth and depth of American artistry and the diversity of this extraordinary, dynamic nation of ours. I am writing a cable about it, which I’m sure you’ll find soon on your closest website. (Laughter and applause.)
And this year, once again, we have an exceptional group of honorees. But in addition to the honorees, there are so many distinguished American leaders, icons, exemplars, and models here in this dinner. I cannot possibly name and recognize all of you. But it is, for us, a wonderful way to celebrate the arts by having those of us in government and politics and business come together and say to the American artistic community how much we value you and how greatly you enrich our country and how you are – (applause) – really our best exports.
As I travel around the world, I see firsthand the impact of American culture. And in the vast majority of my experiences, it’s exciting, it is inspiring, it’s dynamic; it gives particularly young people in places so far away a sense of freedom in their imagination and their aspirations. And for that, we are deeply grateful.
Now, in just a few minutes, the divine Jessye Norman, whom I was privileged to see receive her Kennedy Center laurel in 1997, will tell you more about the life and work of these five artists. So I will leave that her and our honorees, but I do want to just underscore why this is, for me, an event that stands out during the entire year and one that was worth flying very far to get back for – (laughter and applause) – because the great honor that I have being Secretary of State and going from country to country, meeting with leaders who share our values or, in many cases, reject them, but who all know that America stands for the liberation of the human spirit, who understand that the human drive to create adds texture and truth to our lives, and that it is universal and – yes – irresistible. And it may take decades in order for that to finally be accepted and realized, but we know it will happen. And we see it in our own lives and we see it in the work of so many of you who have brought great joy and challenge to us because of your willingness to go out there, to be vulnerable, to expose yourself, to take a chance, and then to see what happens.
And that is certainly true of the artists that we are celebrating tonight. This evening is not about honoring American artists, so much as it is about honoring artists who have to shape America. And it is an important distinction, not only because one of our honorees is a Knight of the Realm – (laughter) – but because America has always been influenced by the experiences and contributions of other cultures. Now, we certainly have our own signature way of doing things, but we thrive on the influx of ideas from all over the world. And as our nation of immigrants – proudly a nation of immigrants – becomes more diverse and our world more connected, our arts become even richer.
And our artists then, in effect, absorb and play back what is happening in the larger society. They reinterpret and remake all of those influences and create something new – an unmistakably American export that inspires and challenges people beyond our borders. So the circles of inspiration and creation continues, and overcomes the barriers that divide us. As I travel, I don’t just meet with heads of state or foreign ministers, but I try always to meet with citizens, and particularly young people. So I do town halls or other kinds of settings where I say a few words and then let people ask me questions. And there is just such a palpable influence of the American ideal which so often is transmitted because of the work of our artists. And I thank you for that because it does give a common ground, a common vocabulary that is often lacking that can help bring people together and bridge our differences.
The people that we honor tonight are really exemplars of what that means. Bill T. Jones recently won a Tony Award for his stunning choreography of Fela!. And he took the life and work of a Nigerian activist and pioneering Afrobeat composer and showed how it was originally influenced by American jazz and funk, and then went far beyond.
Jerry Herman is an icon of American musical theater – one of our great contributions to world arts. And we know him best for the distinctly American stories he tells through music and lyrics, but it was something that ranges from the story of Israel to Hello, Dolly! and covers a lot of ground in between.
Now, Paul McCartney has practically redefined music over the course of his lifetime, inspiring thousands of others. And I have to confess, Paul, several waves of teen girl hysteria – (laughter). I can still remember – and this really dates me – so there are a lot of young people here, but we used to have three television channels and we had black and white TVs, and every Sunday night, everybody in America watched the Ed Sullivan Show. (Laughter.) And that’s where we first saw the Beatles.
But it is exciting to have you here with us, and to have lived a life that has truly connected people from all over the world. Because our struggles for equality, our optimism about the future, our sense of adventure, is at the core of the American spirit. And no one captures that spirit better than Merle Haggard. He has chronicled the American experience for nearly half a century of ups and downs with great honesty, and poetry, and wry humor, and most importantly, hope. And he does tell us in a time of difficulty in his songs that adversity can be overcome, and everyone does get a second chance. Redemption is always at hand, whether you’re an individual or a nation.
And to say that Oprah influences American culture is like saying Jerry Herman writes a catchy tune – (laughter), or that Bill T. Jones is kind of flexible – (laughter). But her greatest strength is rooted in that heart that she has shared with America for so many years, and her just overwhelming desire to make a difference in the lives of people she will never meet but who feel like they know her. One Saudi woman told the American newspaper, The New York Times, a few years ago that, and I quote, “I feel that Oprah truly understands me…sometimes I think that she is the only person in the world who knows how I feel.” (Laughter and applause.)
So when we say that art is a common language that we share with one another and with people around the world, we’re not just paying lip service to something that sounds good in a speech. But we live it. We know that art changes the way that we think about ourselves, think about our surroundings, think about our country and our world. It opens our minds to new possibilities.
And tonight we are privileged to honor five remarkable people who move us, inspire us, and remind us of what the human spirit is capable of.
And now I’m turning it over to the chair of the Kennedy Center, David Rubenstein, who I heard gave a great speech at lunch. (Applause.) So, David, please.
Remarks at the Kennedy Center Honors Dinner
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Benjamin Franklin Room
Washington, DC
December 6, 2009
Well, good evening. (Applause.) We are delighted to host this annual Kennedy Center Honors dinner here in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department, a room that has seen many distinguished visitors – kings, presidents, just last month, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church. But this may be the most remarkable group yet: a goodfella, a soprano, and the Boss himself. It sounds like an HBO show, and we’re all in it. (Laughter.) It is exciting to have a chance to take just some time here at the beginning of the holiday season to not only honor our honorees, but to spend just a few minutes thinking about the great country that was each of their wellsprings.
Now, the incomparable Carol Burnett will talk more about the life and work of our honorees, but there are just a few points that I think bear making. One is that this is the first Kennedy Center Honors dinner without Senator Ted Kennedy. And I want to recognize the members of the Kennedy family who are here – Vicki Kennedy and Jean Smith and Caroline Kennedy, and so many wonderful memories. We really miss Ted, but we are so pleased that the Kennedy Center and this program continue on, because – (applause) – Senator Kennedy, like President Kennedy, understood that art has the power to lift our spirits, to draw us together, to speak to the deepest human yearnings for freedom and self-expression, and that indeed, art is a potent force for progress in the world. And we have seen that time and time again.
In fact, during the Cold War, the State Department asked Dave Brubeck to be an ambassador for American culture in countries teetering between democracy and communism. Jazz was so subversive. And with its improvisational energy, it represented the vitality of the American experiment. And it’s often remarked to me, as I now hold this position, how important American culture was to the last great burst of freedom with the fall of the Berlin Wall and all the Velvet Revolutions. For the next generation, it was rock ‘n’ roll that surged through the world, giving voice to young people frustrated by their lack of opportunity and by stagnating political and social systems.
When I was in Berlin last month to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I talked with so many people who were veterans of that extraordinary, iconic, historic moment. And they remembered that in 1988, when Bruce Springsteen played before a raucous crowd of 160,000 East Berliners, the idea of freedom still seemed beyond reach. “I came to play rock ‘n’ roll for you,” he told them, “in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down.” And 16 months later, many of those same young people broke through concrete and concertina wire and claimed their liberty.
Now, it was not the first time that art helped to break down barriers, and it will certainly not be the last. Seventy years ago, the great Marian Anderson was turned away from the stage at Constitution Hall because of the color of her skin. Instead, in one defining moment of the Civil Rights Movement, she stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, just a stone’s throw from this building. Her voice, carrying across the Mall, could not be denied. And Anderson would later mentor a young singer named Grace Bumbry. She was also in the first group of artists honored by the Kennedy Center.
So in every time and every culture, artists have lit the way toward progress. They’ve helped to provide a common language, a fabric that weaves us together as human beings. And I remember walking the dust-shrouded streets of Lower Manhattan in the days after 9/11, when a city that prided itself on being the pulsating cultural heart of the entire world, was suddenly silent. We rightly honor the brave first responders who rushed to help their fellow men and women on that terrible day, and celebrate the quiet heroism of New Yorkers who set about rebuilding their lives and their families.
But not enough has been said about the important efforts of New York’s artists to bring life back to their ailing city. One enduring legacy of that movement is Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Film Festival. Only months after the attacks, more than 150,000 people came back to Lower Manhattan to watch movies in hushed theaters and screening rooms, debating their merits over bottles of red wine in sidewalk cafes and streets and parks that had so recently stood empty. New York was alive again. It was creating again. And indeed, in the years that followed, the festival has remained a fixture of the city’s rebuilt cultural life.
Now, this kind of cultural diplomacy has a significant impact on our relations in the world. And of course, one can’t help but think of the ways that Mel Brooks has made us laugh – (laughter) – made us laugh at things that weren’t funny at all – (laughter) – but by doing so, caused us to feel that even in tragedy and horror – Springtime for Hitler, really – (laughter) – there was still that essential element of our common humanity.
So we celebrate some wonderful artists tonight, but we also celebrate this wonderful country. America’s artists have made our country a beacon of opportunity and inspiration in the world today. I don’t think we’re doing quite enough to break through the barriers that exist now. The same yearnings for human freedom and hope fill the hearts and minds of young men and women the world over, but we need a renewed commitment to reaching out to them with our values and our vitality and our belief in the future.
It may be that America doesn’t pay enough attention to our past. But if you travel as I do, that can be a blessing. You go to countries that can’t get over what happened a thousand years ago. You know you’re in trouble when you say, “Well, how are things going,” and they say, “Well, if it hadn’t been for the crusades, everything would be fine.” (Laughter.) And so – (applause) – we need our artists and we need our arts, and the Kennedy Center has been a beacon for both.
And it is now my pleasure to introduce the Chairman of the Kennedy Center, Steve Schwarzman. (Applause.)
