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McCAIN REMARKS AT THE 2001 IRI FREEDOM AWARD DINNER

October 23, 2001

 

Washington, D.C. – Today, Senator John McCain honored Vice-President Dick Cheney, Mrs. Cheney, and their daughter, Lynn, at the International Reform Institute’s Freedom Dinner.  Follows are his remarks:


 


Thank you.


 


When I asked Fred Smith, to serve as the 2001 Freedom Dinner Chairman, I knew the dinner would be a success.  I am proud to announce that under Fred's leadership this year's dinner is the IRI's most successful fundraising event in its history.  Thank you, Fred for all our hard work in a worthy cause and for friendship.


 


I would also like to thank Dave O'Reilly, the new Chairman of ChevronTexaco, for serving as this year's Dinner Vice-Chairman.  We are sorry that Dave was unable to join us tonight but appreciate the strong representation of their company.


 


I would also like to thank Halliburton, Carl Knobloch and Jerry Perenchio for their generous support of this event.


 


And, lastly, but perhaps most importantly, Mike Kostiw, IRI=s Vice Chairman for his tireless work and dedication to IRI.


 


When Fred Smith and IRI began planning for tonight, we, of course, had no idea of the present national circumstances under which we now convene.  This is a difficult and demanding time for our nation, one that requires every good citizen's concern and courage.  But nothing could validate the importance of IRI's mission more than the events of the last six weeks. 


 


The attacks of September 11th made clear to all Americans the fact that we cannot live our lives isolated from the threats to democracy in the rest of the world.  Americans are now more interested, more focused on events abroad than perhaps they have been at anytime since World War Two.  They want to understand these challenges that confront aspiring democracies, and they want our country to play a leading role in helping to overcome them.


 


While we are currently concentrating on the role of our Armed Forces, law enforcement and intelligence services, there is a role for IRI to play as well.  The brave young Americans who are fighting at home and abroad against terrorism can be supported by IRI working with those patriots overseas who want to build institutions of democracy in their countries, democratic institutions that are transparent, truly representative and that encourage an informed and tolerant citizenry.  Democracies do not knowingly harbor terrorists, and the more democracies we can help build, the more freedom we can encourage, the less refuge will be granted to the enemies of freedom.


 


The kinds of activities IRI undertakes typically focus on training activists in such basics of democracy as organizing political parties, drafting legislation, running political campaigns and conducting polling.  Our efforts even included helping to promote employee stock ownership of state enterprises in China and galvanizing the youth vote in Georgia by staging rock concerts.


 


 


IRI, of course, cannot simply go into a country and impose democracy.  We don't conduct elections or run campaigns.  We teach citizens of the countries we work in how to do the essential work of democracy for themselves.  It is not usually as dangerous as the work we ask our armed forces to do on our behalf, but it is difficult and important work that does contribute significantly to the security of our own nation. 


 


And we could not do that work with out your contributions to our cause, and I want to again thank you all for your generosity.


 


Tonight IRI is honoring what I will call: Team Cheney.  They ARE a team and have  been since their teenage years at Natrona High School in Casper, Wyoming, where Lynne Cheney was the homecoming queen and Dick Cheney was the football captain.


 


They have made their way in this world together, raised a family, and prospered.  But for all the good work of their private lives, it is the public life they have shared together that we honor them for tonight.  Their patriotism has been a shared endeavor, their love of country, a shared love that has redounded to America's great benefit for many years. They have earned a place together in the history of this great nation, and, in the difficult times that we  now confront, the Cheneys together are helping to chart the course of that history, and ensure the continued success of American liberty.   It is a great honor accorded them, but an honor they have time and again proved worthy of. America fights tonight not just for the lives and property of our people, but for our founding ideals, the ideals of freedom and justice that are the object of our enemies' hatred.  It is very encouraging to know that two people who revere and personify the values that made America great are helping to lead their defense.


 


When we were a new nation, many European travelers, in addition to the Frenchman, Alexis De Toqueville, came to America to examine this great new experiment in government by consent of the governed.  Most were struck by the emphasis that democracy put on education.  Harriet Martineau, a British traveler, wrote that in America, Aschooling@  was considered a necessity of life, essential to a democratic form of government. AUniversal suffrage,@ she wrote, Amade education a necessary part of civil duty.@


 


And another, Hungarian Alexander Farkas around the same time wrote that AThe greatest strength of the republic lies in the effort to have the entire population equally well educated and instilled with the knowledge of its laws.  The Americans know well that just as the individual can achieve superiority through education, so can a nation through culture and knowledge rise and stay above the others.  They recognize that where culture and familiarity with the law are acquired by a small class only, there the knowledgeable will easily rule over the ignorant masses, and for that reason they will do everything to educate even the poorest members of society.@


 


All her life, Lynne Cheney has been devoted to promoting education as vital to the well being of a free society.      As Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities under Presidents Reagan and Bush, Lynne launched programs to improve education at every level from elementary school through the university.  She was a national spokesperson for education reform and issued numerous reports advocating historical literacy and recommending the teaching of core knowledge in all fields of learning from literature to science and mathematics.  And she is continuing to do so today as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.


 


Lynne has argued that schools must teach America=s youth the blessings of our democratic system of government;  that to value our rights and freedoms, we must understand America=s democratic origins, the ideals on which our nation has been built, the sacrifices that have been made to preserve them, and the great human advances they have engendered.  And in this time of a national crisis, she has said, it is particularly apparent that we need to encourage the study of our past, to take strength and confidence from our history, and to better see the way ahead.   


 


She is putting those views to work and currently is putting together a patriotic primer for young children.  It will start with AA is for America@.  I suspect the book also may include AD is for Democracy@ and AF is for Freedom@ B for the causes that make us patriots.   


 


Let me read you a quote:


 AUltimately, education aims at cultivating the wisdom that democracy requires: wisdom to make sound political judgments about who shall lead and make laws, and wisdom to make sound personal judgments about how to live a life and know the purpose of one=s days. In a self-governing society, individuals make these decisions; and the conclusions they reach, taken altogether, set the nation=s course.  If education fails in a democracy, hope for the future fades.  If education succeeds, a democratic society can hold a positive vision, can imagine itself progressing until, in William James=s words, >its institutions glow with justice and its customs shine with beauty.=@


     


That quote was from Lynne Cheney 11 years ago.   For the patriotism that supports her eloquence, for her national leadership in strengthening democracy by better educating its citizenry to understand the origins and purpose of the liberty they may some day be asked to defend, I am honored to present Lynne Cheney with the International Republican Institute=s 2001 Freedom Award.


 


As it reads here: AThe International Republican Institute honors Lynne Vincent Cheney for her innovative and dedicated work to improve education both nationally and as a tool for strengthening democracies worldwide.@


 


Mr. Vice President, it is good to see you out again. Having once been held in a secure location myself I can sympathize with your predicament.  And we're awfully glad, as I suspect you are, that you been furloughed this evening.  We're honored by your presence.


 


Since September 11, you have suffered some curtailment of your freedom of movement to protect the continuity of our government from our enemies' reach.   But that only underscores the meaning of what you and the International Republican Institute and our country are fighting for in this world, freedom, the essence of our culture, and a cause you have helped to lead for many years.


 


You have been a leader almost your entire life: in high school; in Congress, in a federal agency; as chief of staff for President Ford; as Secretary of Defense; a CEO of a major corporation; and now as vice president of the United States.  


 


In every endeavor, you have served with distinction, with honor, and with an unwavering commitment to the common good.  You have been the kind of leader America prides herself on producing.  I've known you for great many years, and I have always been extraordinarily impressed by your intelligence, your ability, and your patriotism.  With a little more luck, I might have been able to ask you to be my Vice-President.  But that's a regret that only I need bear.  All that needs to be said tonight is that President Bush couldn't have done himself or the country a better service than selecting you to be his vice president. You are a good and loyal citizen of the greatest nation on earth. There is no greater praise I can offer anyone.


 


For more than three decades, Dick Cheney has worked in public and private life to make the world a better place by bringing to more of its people the benefits and opportunities of freedom.  As a government leader and CEO, he has always helped the fragile institutions of democracy take deeper root in the world.  In the White House and in Congress, he was an advocate and architect of policies that protected peace with strength and fostered greater global understanding by defending the right to sovereignty of nations and man.  He helped end the Cold War and let aspiring nations recover their self-determination and reap for themselves the blessings of democracy.  As Secretary of Defense Secretary, he was responsible for shaping the future of the U.S. military in an age of profound and rapid change as the Cold War ended.  He helped liberate Panama from the tyranny of its corrupt and self-appointed leaders.  And, of course, he led the Gulf War military response to Iraqi aggression that threatened the independence of other Middle East countries.  For his leadership he was awarded the President Medal of Freedom by President George Bush in 1991.


 


Now as Vice President, he is, in effect, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Operation Enduring Freedom Your war to destroy an international army of terrorists who claim the loss of our freedom as their end and the destruction of innocent life as their means.


 


President Bush and Vice President Cheney and our entire nation face a threat we have not faced for a long time.  To the work of many American generations who protected our interests and championed our values abroad must now be added the defense of our own freedoms here at home against a clear and present danger. 


 


We are blessed to have Dick Cheney's leadership in this grave hour.  He has demonstrated time and again the resolve, creativity and patience that will be required for success, and the hard-headed, clear thinking to know that our goal is to vanquish terrorism.  Not reduce it.  Not change its operations.  Not temporarily subdue it.  But vanquish it.  No greater fight for freedom exists in the world today nor one more difficult.  I am, however, completely confident of victory, and all the more so because of our honoree's leadership in that good fight.


 


The International Republican Institute is presenting the Vice President our 2001 Freedom Award tonight for all that he has done in the past for the cause we serve.  But, Mr. Vice President, we want you to know that this award also stands as a down payment on our gratitude for all that we are confident you are going to accomplish today and tomorrow on behalf of freedom.


 


The award's certificate reads:  AThe International Republican Institute honors Vice President Dick Cheney for his determined and life-long work to advance freedom and democracy around the world.@  To that I might add, "on behalf a grateful nation."

 

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October 2001 Speeches