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Bret Schundler Media Archives

From Entitlement to Empowerment:
Charting a Course for American Renewal

July 1, 1993

Second Inaugural Speech

Bret Schundler

Jersey City, NJ
We are gathered at a site historic for new beginnings. Millions of our immigrant forebearers traveled through Ellis Island and this train terminal as they began new lives in America. A goodly number of them made Jersey City their first home on these shores. It was here, in Jersey City, that they learned to be Americans.

Jersey City is still "The City of New Beginnings." We are not just celebrating a new beginning for Jersey City today. We are celebrating a new beginning for America; because I am convinced that the renewal which we begin here will not end here. This city, which taught our forbearers how to be Americans, will now teach their descendants, throughout the United States, how to rejuvenate America's soul.

Something BIG Is Happening In Jersey City!

I know this is a bold statement, but something big is happening in Jersey City. It must be. Look at who is on this podium: former Cabinet Secretary Jack Kemp former Governors Brendan Byrne and Thomas Kean; Governor Jim Florio and Christine Todd Whitman; Democrats and Republicans, sitting side by side.

You know, I told an aide, who helped me prepare for this day, that I wanted this ceremony to be bi-partisan, and that I wanted both the Governor and Ms. Whitman to join me as a visual symbol, like the lion sitting with the lamb, of bi-partisan harmony. My aide said that's fine, but he asked me which one's to be the lion and which one's to be the lamb?

I don't know, but I want to thank each of you, Governor Florio and Ms. Whitman, for joining me today. You are to be saluted for giving so much of yourselves, often sacrificially, in committed pursuit of what you believe will renew New Jersey and America.

Now I would like my wife, Lynn, and our parents to stand; and I would like the rest of our two families and my City Council members' families to stand. From all of us to all of you, thank you for your steadfast support. You have been there for us, and we love you!

Finally, I would like to thank all of the rest of you in the audience. You are the true heroes of hope. It is your love for and faith in Jersey City that has made today possible. Thank you for what you have done and are doing, and please give yourselves a hand!

History is being made here. Not because I, a Republican, have won in Jersey City. But rather because here, in this most diverse city in America -- where fully 41% of our citizenry speaks a language other than English at home; where 25% of our citizenry is foreign born; where 14% of our citizenry has immigrated to America in only the last 10 years -- here, of all places in this country, amidst this great diversity, we have found the common ground which, as human beings, unites us all!

Here, in this "City of Nations," we have united our people across lines of ethnicity, class and religion, and even across the great divide of Party. Almost 70% of Jersey City residents are Democrats, and yet I, a Republican, received almost 70% of their votes. This doesn't suggest a victory of Party. It suggests a transcendence of Party and a victory for the people. It proves that people do not dream partisan dreams. They dream human dreams --dreams which transcend nominal divisions and enable us all to come together and agree on the common good.

What are the things that all people want? Whether rich or poor, native or foreign born, homeowner or housing project tenant, the people of Jersey City have spoken with one voice in expressing their desire for increased order, empowerment, and work.

First and foremost, you told me that you want a return of order. You are tired of drugs and crime ruling our streets. Your spirits are weighed down by litter and graffiti, by weeds growing where flowers should be planted, and by glass glittering where children should be playing. You have had enough of loud radios, car horns, and shouts piercing the night. You believe that a poor child raised in a housing project should have the same opportunity to play outside in a safe and orderly environment as does a rich child raised in the suburbs. My City Council members and I have pledged to make our streets safe and clean, and to rebuild the deteriorated buildings which serve as such a symbol of communal decay. You have ratified our proposals with your vote. But I can hear you saying that there is something more you want, something that is more than just another government program -- I can hear in every conversation that what you yearn for most is a re-awakening of the values of common decency and respect. True order can never be imposed from without, you realize. True order comes from within. It comes from people having internalized the values that litter is wrong, that stealing is wrong, and that other people are worthy of respect, and should not be awaken in the middle of the night by playing one's radio too loud. In a thousand conversations on a thousand street corners across this City, you have told me that you fear a generation of our children has already been lost because of having grown up without the social re-enforcement of values necessary for a happy and successful life. You have pleaded that we teach today's children such values before they too are lost. I am here to tell you that I have heard you, that my heart is with you, and that I will fight for you to re-establish community standards of common decency, respect, and order; and to ensure that every child, rich or poor, has the chance to grow up safe and secure within every neighborhood of this city.

The second thing which I heard you say is that you want government to become more responsive to you. Whether the issue is our soaring tax burden or the declining quality of public services, you feel that government no longer responds to the people; that is has become captive to special interests. You no longer trust the honesty of politicians nor the benevolence of bureaucrats, and it frustrates you that you are so powerless to ensure even basic governmental integrity. You want government which is of the people, by the people, and for the people -- but you no longer believe that this is the case today. I feel the same way, and let me assure you that I am going to do everything that I can to put governmental power back into your hands so that you can get the quality services and lower taxes you deserve.

The third thing you told me is that you believe in work. You want jobs, not welfare. In fact, you believe that in exchange for government benefits, all able-bodied people have a responsibility to work; and that work should be rewarded, not punished. You have told me that you do not believe that the working poor, who must scrimp and save to pay their own rent, should be taxed to the bone to pay for rent-free dwellings for some who will not work. Nor do you believe that the dependence bred by welfare is either materially benefitting, or spiritually elevating, for those who must accept it. You want jobs for those who are jobless; you want lower taxes on those who work; and you believe that those who receive governmental assistance should be required to work in exchange for that support.

I made these three values -- order, empowerment and work -- the core of my first campaign; the core of my administration these last eight months; the core of my second campaign; and now, having had them overwhelmingly ratified by you once again, I will make them the core of the revolution that we will fashion together in Jersey City these next four years.

We have much to change, because, today, precisely the opposite values reign in America, and our body politic is sick. Symptoms of social decay abound, most visibly in our cities.

As I campaigned in one local housing project, we were stopped at one stairwell by the stench of urine. The halls were dimly lit and the walls were covered with graffiti. Exiting out of the front door we greeted not flowers and grass, but rather rubble and glass. At night, the streets outside teem with drug dealing; and many of our children, to borrow Governor Cuomo's elegant phrasing, hear the cacophony of gunshots before they ever hear the sweetness of a symphony.

All the while, with so much work needing to be done, able-bodied men and women are unemployed and idle.

This is an American tragedy. These conditions should not be accepted as normal, and yet many of our children grow up with this their only experience of life. It is time we move beyond ideological refusal, recognize this sickness in our society and commit ourselves to curing it; because otherwise the cancer will overcome us all!

Let us begin with an honest diagnosis. Despite what the media might have one think, our problems are not the result of the Reagan-Bush era. They have been building for decades. Today's social problems find their root not in growing greed and callous unconcern, but in well-intentioned policies.

The dominant thesis of this Twentieth Century has been the philosophy of entitlement. We social progressives became proud. We marveled at the productive prowess of our modern science and came to believe that we, through an all-powerful, technocratic government, could give salvation to the disadvantaged. It is as if we believe that a technological Millennium had arrived -- that the social necessity for traditional norms had passed away -- and that we, in the place of God, could now ensure that there would be no sickness or sorrow anymore. Moving beyond the notion of a Constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness, we arrogated to ourselves a right to happiness itself, and shifted responsibility for happiness from the individual to the State. We made our license into an entitlement, with government the guarantor.

The core of this philosophy of entitlement, which is still very powerful today, is that personal and social salvation is to be achieved through the simple elimination of deprivation. Values do not matter. Personal striving does not matter. Justice became not equality of opportunity, but equality of outcome. The hungry can be saved just by giving them food. The psychologically oppressed can be uplifted just by gratifying their desire. "Go on and do it!" became our mantra. "You are entitled."

The problem with all this is that in its secular sophistication it forgets that "man does not live by bread alone." It forgets that man has a soul. It forgets that beyond mere physical sustenance, men and women have a need for meaning.

It also forgets that mankind is fallen. "Power corrupts," said Lord Acton, "and absolute power corrupts absolutely." In centralizing power in the hands of politicians and governmental bureaucrats, this philosophy of entitlement has invited public corruption even as it makes us, the people, powerless.

Thirty years ago, this entitlement thinking led our cultural elites to expound on the Age of Aquarius, sanctioning the sexual revolution and experimentation with drugs, while de-emphasizing respect for law and established values. Traditional values, the most radical argued, are not just innocuously irrelevant, they are tools of oppression.

This thinking also led our policy makers to propose a Great Society where if one was without a home, a home would be given, and where if one was destitute, welfare would be provided -- without even asking for work in return.

Of course, now we know that this philosophy's presumption as to the Millennium was premature. Our well-intentioned welfare policies and the centralization of power have led to destructive dependence. Our sexual promiscuity has led to deathly disease and to children having children. Our "do you own thing" ease about drug experimentation has led to addiction.

I believe that it is time to turn to a new philosophy of government which responds directly to our desire for order, empowerment and work. It is time for a philosophy which takes account of both our body and our soul, including our human need for meaning; a philosophy which regards values instead of disregarding them and emphasizes empowering the people instead of centralizing power in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats; a philosophy which values job creation and work over welfare; a philosophy, it seems to me, already on the ascendancy throughout America, taking shape slowly but surely through the efforts of individuals like my guest today, Jack Kemp, and representing a new zeitgeist ready for the dawning of a new century; a philosophy which is coming to be called "empowerment."

According to the philosophy of empowerment, the first goal of government is to establish and propagate values which support social harmony and give personal meaning to life. Jack Kemp spoke about this earlier, and his colleague at Empower America, former United States Education Secretary Bill Bennett, has expanded upon the theme in a book entitled "The De-Valuing of America." Bennett writes:
Nothing more powerfully determines a child's behavior than his internal compass, his beliefs, his sense of right and wrong. If a child firmly believes, if he has been taught and guided to believe, that drugs, promiscuity, and assaulting other people are wrong things to do, this will contribute to his own well-being and to the well-being of others. And if this lesson is multiplied a million times -- that is, taught a million times -- we have greater and broader well-being, fewer personal catastrophes, less social violence, and fewer wasted and lost lives. The character of a society is determined by how well it transmits true and time-honored values from generation to generation. Cultural matters, then, are not simply an add-on or an afterthought to the quality of life of a country; they determine the character and essence of the country itself. Private belief is a condition of public spirit; personal responsibility a condition of public well-being. The investment in private belief must be constantly renewed.

I think Bennett is on to something. Teaching values does not mean teaching religious dogma. It simply means that in the same breath that we, as a democratic people, establish certain actions to be illegal and punishable, we should also declare them to be wrong; and that there are other, arguably naturally determined, human values -- such as teaching respect for the goodness of life, and teaching respect for others -- which we should declare to be good.

The moral relativists of the philosophy of entitlement may have trouble with teaching values, but some foundation of shared values is necessary for a civilized society. For instance, it is necessary that we not only say that murder is illegal, but that we also say that it is wrong because if we do not say that it is wrong, then the power we bring to the deterrence of murder is nothing more than majoritarian oppression -- it has no greater legitimacy.

This country was founded upon the precept that certain truths are self-evident; and we, as people, must come to some democratic agreement on basic values of right and wrong, so that we can lay out for our children some notion of what it means to live the good life.

How can we determine what our basic values should be? The wise psychologist Abraham Maslow said that if you want to know what leads to self-actualization, study self-actualized people. Examples abound of millionaire movie stars who have blown out their brains, or lost them on drugs, because their lives held no meaning for them. Examples similarly abound of humble people rich in spirit and joy because they have made a commitment of faith to affirm their lives -- in spite of tough circumstances -- and to love others as they may.

The teaching of almost all human civilization throughout almost all time, as best represented by the world's great religions -- the collective wisdom of the ages -- has always been that the key to personal and social salvation is not simply the elimination of deprivation, but also, and even more importantly, a faithful affirmation of the life lived in service to others.

Values which focus on respecting others are rooted in human truths that are grounded in the laws of nature. We can ignore such truths, and the values they imply, only at our peril.

So it is time we being to teach them to our children!

After establishing values, the second goal of government according to the philosophy of empowerment, is to empower people to lead contributing lives. In other words, once we have said that more than physical comfort, life is about making some kind of contribution, we must also help people develop their skills so that they can make a contribution.

Life can be overwhelming. What true opportunity to contribute does a child have if born to a drug addicted mother living on the streets? The answer is very little, if we do not accept the moral responsibility to help. The basic essentials of opportunity are clear: they are affordable health care, housing and taxes; safe and clean streets; quality day care, schools and recreation; and, of course, jobs.

This may sound very much like the agenda of the Great Society -- this time with "meaning" -- but there are huge differences between empowerment and entitlement. That difference concerns not only their relative respect for values, but even more importantly, where they locate power.

Unlike the philosophy of entitlement, which focuses power in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats, the philosophy of entitlement believes that power should remain in the hands of the people.

Today we spend nearly $9,200 in taxes for every child in our Jersey City public school system, and yet a majority of our students drop out before they graduate. If we gave those of you who are parents $9,200 to educate each of your children, I believe you would be able to find specialized schools able to meet your children's special needs. Whether publicly or privately administered, schools would cease trying to fit all children into the single mold dictated by bureaucratic centralization. Instead, small specialized schools would proliferate, which, like the private Kenmare School here in Jersey City, would be able to succeed with students who have not done well within the current system; and we would see the success rates of our schools soar, together with the dreams of the children they teach.

My school voucher proposal does not endeavor to dictate the ideal school. There is no universally ideal school. Different children will thrive in different school environments. All that my proposal endeavors to do is to empower parents to be able to seek out the best schooling that is available. It will let you decide which schools are doing a good job, and which schools are not, so that you can be personally assured of a quality education for your children. I think government is here to serve you, and that you should be able to have that power and that assurance. I also think that when you do have the power, when the schools become truly accountable to you, instead of to us politicians, that all of our schools, public and private, will improve.

The National Education Association is committed to fighting my proposal for a school voucher experiment here in Jersey City. It is committed to fighting me, not because it fears that this small experiment with vouchers will fail It is committed to fighting me because it fears that this experiment will succeed. It fears that it will lose the nearly dictatorial control that its political power gives it over the current system, once schools become accountable to parents, instead of being accountable to us politicians.

The State has tried changing all of our public school administrators. The State has tried pumping an extra $100 million dollars in educational aid into Jersey City. Yet, still, a majority of our public school students do not graduate. There are music teachers, and gym teachers, and football coaches in Morris, and Middlesex, and Monmouth Counties who are losing their jobs because the State is re-directing State educational dollars away from their communities to ours -- to little evident result. I wonder, why not give us what we really want: the power to send our children to schools which we can see are succeeding, not because they spend a lot of money, but because they have strong, independent leadership, and are free of the bureaucratic strangle hold destroying our public schools?

My friends, it is time that we the people ask our political leaders these questions: how many of our children will have to be failed by the current system and drop out; how many will have to find that without an education that they are unable to get a job and have no future; how many will have to have their spirits crushed with despair and become lost to drugs, or to crime, or to prison, or even lose their lives, before we realize that the poor, and the troubled, and the otherwise disadvantaged deserve true opporutnity too, and we finally become willing to try a little experiment that just might work?

It is time that we give our children true opportunity through giving empowerment and school vouchers a try.

The third goal of government according to this new philosophy of empowerment, is that consistent with our human values, government must demand that citizens obey the law; and that in exchange for empowering assistance, government must demand that citizens work and give something back.

Many neighborhoods in Jersey City are plagued by litter, graffiti, and children dealing drugs. We do not help these neighborhoods by letting this go on; and we do not help these children when we turn a blind eye to their crime, or arrest and release them without punishment, because they are under age. Instead, by not punishing them, we teach them that it is okay to break the law. We must begin to enforce our laws so that crime is not an option.

Similarly, people living on the streets, who have lost all faith in their productive worth, will not be helped if we just give them a tax supported apartment. They need to be challenged to work, so that they can see themselves making a contribution in exchange for their housing, come to believe again in their productive capacity, and rise above their dependency.

What I am proposing here is not just a move from welfare to workfare -- it is more than that. It is government enforcement of the fact that with rights come responsibilities. Once we have blessed our people through propagating values that can help to give life meaning; once we have committed ourselves to empowering people so that they can develop their abilities and lead fulfilling lives; then we must still take the final step, and spur our people on, through establishing rewards for right actions and corrections for wrong. We must punish crime, so that no one is tempted to take the destructive path of crime, and we must demand work in exchange for governmental benefits, so that no one is encouraged to fall into welfare dependency.

No society has ever been more grounded in love than the intentional communities of the early Christian church. In the Biblical Book of II Thessalonians, Saint Paul addresses a first century communal church whose members had sold all of their possessions to realize a beatific vision of beloved community: "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." What are Saint Paul's instructions to these radically egalitarian and social justice-minded Christians? "If a man will not work, he shall not eat," writes Saint Paul. "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."

Let me ask each of you here today, what has truly made you feel fulfilled in your life: bodily comfort? or the fact that somewhere along the way you have been able to help another human being? If you have answered for yourself, as I presume you have, that you have felt most fulfilled when you have been able to help another, then I think it is time that we realize that we cannot save others through what we give to them. If we want to help others experience a fulfilled life, then we must not allow them to be only takers. We must practice the tough love which indeed does say, "If a man will not work, he shall not eat!"

These, then, are the proper goals of a government according to the new philosophy of empowerment: first, to propagate human values which point the way to social harmony and personal meaning; second, to empower citizens to lead fulfilling lives of social contribution; and third, to establish rewards and corrections that specifically encourage citizens to develop their abilities and lead contributing lives.

The sophists of the philosophy of entitlement still tell us that values are relative and that the problem with our society is that there is too much repression of personal freedom and too little government taxing and spending. But, here, in this immigrant city, where the good sense of our citizens -- as people drawn from throughout the world -- literally represents the judgment of an international tribunal of common men and women, we reject this view.

Our people are asking for order, empowerment, and work; and I see the philosophy of empowerment a road map for answering these wants.

In the next four years, here in Jersey City, we will initiate new police programs and beautification programs to keep our streets safe and clean. But even more fundamentally, we will strive to teach our children positive values so that they have positive goals to live for, and so that they are not tempted to break the law or litter in the first place.

In the next four years, we will work to provide every child and adult in this city with the essentials of opportunity: affordable housing and health care; safe and clean streets; quality day care, schooling, and recreational programs for our children; and quality training and jobs. In all of this, we will constantly strive, within the economic limits we confront, to put you in control: to allow you to choose where you will live; to allow you to choose the health care you find most attractive; to allow you to choose the best day care, school and recreational programs available -- whether publicly administered or private -- so that at last you have the power to ensure that for all of the money we are spending, you are at least getting your money's worth in quality services.

Finally, in the next four years, we will also work to turn around a system which not only pays people not to work, but crushes people with taxes when they do work. We will endeavor to replace welfare with workfare, and to reduce taxes and sewerage rates further, so that middle and working class families can afford to own a home again and see some gain for all of their hard labor.

Last year, we were able to cut sales taxes in Jersey City in half because of our Urban Enterprise Zone. The Urban Enterprise Zone is an idea first proposed in Congress almost a decade ago by Jack Kemp, and first implemented in New Jersey under Tom Kean. It became fully implemented in Jersey City only last year, but already it has made a tremendous difference in attracting jobs. It is time that a national Urban Enterprise Zone bill for America's cities is passed by Congress so that the entire country can benefit.

When I was elected last November, my opponents said it would be impossible to cut property taxes; but we did cut taxes, and even while doing so, we put more police officers on the street and reduced crime. The problems we are facing in America are not the result of government spending too little money. Government is spending more than it should. The root of our problem is how government is spending our money -- the tremendously low productivity of government spending because of its fixation on bureaucratic approaches. In the next four years we will work to improve the productivity of government spending so that we can reduce taxes and improve services at the same time.

Some will argue that I am accepting too great a responsibility for government. They will argue that if the industrial economy were properly stoked, there would be no need for all of these public and social services. "A job," they say, "is the best social program."

They are right about the importance of job creation, but they are wrong in believing that a strong economy will decrease the demand for public and social services. It will do the reverse. There has been an explosion of industrial productivity in the last ten years. Many industrial jobs have been lost to us forever, not because they have been transferred overseas, but because machinery now does what once involved human labor. We have tremendous labor capacity beyond what is needed by our industrial economy. So the question arises: when one worker at a machine is enough to produce all of the industrial goods for all of the people within a given city, is that heaven or is that hell? It will be hell if we do not discover creative ways to put our other citizens productively to work. But it will be heaven if we discover new opportunities for each of our citizens to make a constructive contribution.

Look at our dirty streets which need cleaning. Look at our children who need teaching. There is no shortage of necessary work to be done. The whole issue is how do we increase the productivity of public spending so that we can enjoy good results for our money? Only when a dollar spent yields a $1.50 worth of benefits is public spending investment. When a $1.00 spent yields only $.50 of benefits, then public spending is waste which does more harm to a society than good.

Let us reform our social service spending through the principles of empowerment, so that instead of enormous sums being wasted on bureaucratic approaches which do not work, we can instead ensure that every dollar spent on enhancing opportunity truly succeeds in helping to develop happier, more highly skilled, and more morally committed citizens.

The Bible says that without a vision the people perish. I have tried to lay out a just, worthy, and achievable vision for Jersey City and urban America; a vision founded on the moral value that the poorest child born in the inner city ought to have the same opportunity to be happy and to make a contribution to society as the wealthiest child in the richest suburb.

I believe that we, in Jersey City, have an historic opportunity to make this vision a reality. This is fitting.

All the people that I know, when they dream of heaven, conceive of a place not all rich or all poor, not all white or all black, not all American, or Asian, or African, or European. Rather, they conceive of a place where all of the world's different kinds of people live together in justice and harmony.

Jersey City already meets the first test: the test of diversity. It is one of the few places in the world that does. Now it is up to us to meet the second test: the test of justice and harmony.

If we can produce heaven here, it will be a great service to the world. As transportation and communication systems improve, the world is becoming a smaller place. Like Jersey City, it is becoming a place where different peoples live side by side. Today the examples of what happens when different people mingle are drawn from Lebanon and Bosnia. If we can make Jersey City a model of heaven, we can show how such mingling can better be accomplished.

On that day, Jersey City, the "City of New Beginnings," will herald a new era. On that day, Jersey City, the "City of Nations," will become a light to the nations.

Here's wishing us success. May God bless Jersey City, and through us bless the world!

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