Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

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Address at the Daughters of the American Revolution Conference

Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs Patricia de Stacy Harrison
Washington, D.C.
July 3, 2002

I am delighted to have the opportunity to be with all of you to participate in the 111th Continental Congress of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.

It is especially significant that you celebrate this milestone anniversary in our nation's capital on the eve of the fourth of July. This is a very special and poignant time for all of us.

Since September 11th, we, as Americans, are reflecting more than ever before on who we are as a people, on what we stand for, and on how we can help our country.

This is what I would like to talk about this morning: the call-to-serve.

Our first lady Laura Bush said, "Everywhere I go people are asking, 'How can I serve? What can I do'?"

President Bush said that we are in a struggle between good and evil, and the fact is, we are.

I know you have heard the words of Edmund Burke who said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men [and I would add 'good women'] to do nothing."

We are not a do-nothing nation. It is up to each of us as individuals, as Americans, to determine how best we can serve.

As a group, you have already answered the call-to-serve as members of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

You have made a decision to serve our country and community for over 111 years - now that is answering the call-to-service.

President Bush believes it is important to build a culture of service for three reasons: it is important to your neighbors, it is important to your character, and it is important to your country.

I am in a privileged position as Assistant Secretary of State because I see service demonstrated every single day starting with a staff meeting led by Secretary of State Powell. Sometimes those meetings deal with very sad issues such as Americans killed while serving their country, which include average citizens, Foreign Service officers, journalists, aid workers, and more.

When you visit the State Department, I recommend you stop to look at the Memorial Wall commemorating Foreign Service officers who died serving their country.

Last May, President Bush nominated me for this position, and I am very honored to serve.

On October 31st, I was sworn in by Secretary of State Colin Powell to lead the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. My goals are: to deploy our resources in a way that will support the war against terrorism; to promote mutual respect between the people of the United States and the people of other countries; to strengthen the ties between the United States and other countries; and to promote international educational and cultural advancement.

Secretary Powell said that as we work to end the scourge of terrorism, let us also work to increase peace, prosperity and democracy. That is the day-to-day mission of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Speaking at St. Petersburg University in Russia with President Putin this spring, President Bush said, "The best international relations start when people care about the other person; when they try to figure out how the other person thinks and what makes the other person's life go forward."

Immediately following September 11th, my bureau, which works with more than 80,000 volunteers in over 100 cities to carry out our educational and cultural exchanges, fielded hundreds upon hundreds of phone calls, e mails, and faxes - all from men and women who were either in our country on exchange programs or were alumni. There was a theme to the calls - "How can I help? How can I serve?" These were calls of sympathy, outrage and heartbreak.

We had a group from Great Britain who was visiting the Capitol when the attacks began. They were having lunch, and when they learned what had happened, their spontaneous reaction was to stand as a group and sing the "Star Spangled Banner".

A group of Fulbright scholars in New York ignored their families' pleas to return home to their own countries and chose instead to stay and volunteer their help.

We received e-mails from people throughout the world, all referencing the time they spent in this country with an American family, at school, or as an international visitor.

An exchange student from Syria, Mohammad al Kahleel, who was studying at the University of Arizona, said that exchange programs are the positive link between the people of his country and the people of the United States. It was his belief that international education was the answer to global terrorism.

Our exchange programs reach over 7 million people in the United States and abroad. At any one time, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is in partnership with over 1,000 organizations throughout the United States. This exchange brings almost 12 billion dollars annually to the United States economy.

We have over 700,000 men and women, including Americans and those from other countries, who have participated in our exchange programs. These are people who, over the course of time, have had the opportunity to experience America on a real level.

They come here as Fulbright scholars or as International Visitors. They come here as part of a Citizen Exchange group, Sister City program, Future Leaders high school program, or the American Council of Young Political Leaders. They can then observe for themselves how Americans are free to worship and how the media works in a free society.

Thousands of young people from the former Soviet Union have come to the United States, and they return with an awareness of our strong and vital volunteer ethic.

They leave with an understanding that we are a faith-based nation of many faiths. They leave us with a sense of their culture and their dreams, which are not so very different from our own.

When they return to their countries, they are able to speak with authority and integrity about their American experience.

One young woman from Turkmenistan came to the United States and worked as a volunteer with a crisis center. She said that in the United States, no one waits for the government to change things - people change things. She said, "When I go back, I will not take 'no' for an answer. I will just do it so I can help people, too."

The call-to-service has no age limit, race requirement, economic status, nor gender barrier - it can and should be answered by everyone.

Almost 20 years ago, a young man from Afghanistan had an opportunity to come to this country as part of the International Visitor program.

This program provides rising leaders with an opportunity to experience democracy through programs that emphasize issues such as rule of law, conflict resolution, democracy and the media, governance, and free markets.

He was able to see, for himself, how the media in a free society is truly free and how small business owners create enterprises. He was able to see that Americans have the right to worship as they please. He observed moms and dads getting involved in Little League, soccer, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, which connect their children to the community at an early age.

He left with a deeper knowledge of the American people and our values.

Now, 20 years later, that man serves as the new president of Afghanistan - Hamid Karzai.

He is working to rebuild his country, and so are we.

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is working with the Women's Bureau at the State Department to help the women of Afghanistan create a better society for themselves and for their families.

As part of an exchange program, we are bringing Afghan women, who bravely taught children despite threats to their lives from the Taliban, to the United States. They are courageous women who put their lives on the line. We will help them update their teaching skills so that they can train other teachers and start to build their country.

In the past 50 years over 200 heads of state, including Margaret Thatcher, Anwar Sadat, and Indira Gandhi, made their first visits to the United States on these exchange programs.

These alumni include over 50 foreign leaders in office today - our partners in the war on terrorism, including the United Kingdom's Tony Blair and Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai.

Since September 11th, I have often heard the question as to why the United States should encourage students from other countries to come here to study.

This is a valid question, and there are many ways to respond.

We can say that we want foreign students to come to this country because they bring value to the campus, to our own students, and to society by expanding the horizons of those they meet - and this is true.

We can say that we want foreign students to come to this country because these exchange programs have produced prime ministers and poets, scientists and senators, journalists and jurists, entrepreneurs and educators, and 28 Nobel Prize honorees - and this is true.

We can say that we want these exchange programs because now we have an alumni base of thousands throughout the world, who are shaping opinions and building bridges of awareness and cooperation - and this is true.

However, the fact is that beyond the headline names, we are investing in unofficial ambassadors for our country.

We are creating a network of men and women who, after their exchange experience, serve as public servants, as leaders of their own countries, as community and business leaders, and as heads of nonprofit organizations. They are scholars and writers. They are parents, and they are entrepreneurs. They are you and I, and they are people of good will.

Each of them is making a difference in their own countries every single day.

Each of them is able to speak with authority and integrity about the real America, an America of churches, temples, and mosques - an America of democracy and liberty.

Now that's a multiplier effect.

Exchanges strengthen and promote the security of the United States in a long-term and sustainable way.

That is why I truly believe that an investment in international education is an investment in homeland security - everyone's homeland and everyone's security.

All of these programs rely on volunteers. These are people like you, who help to house and care for the visitors to the United States. These volunteers number over 80,000 men and women around the country who decided this is how they can serve.

Following September 11th, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs re-directed our resources to support the war against terrorism through educational and cultural exchanges.

Our goal was to increase foreign understanding of U.S. goals; to reach out to more people with accurate information about the United States; to develop a dialogue with moderates in Muslim societies; and especially to quick-start programs, when feasible, in Afghanistan.

This September 11th will mark the one-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

During this past year, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs wanted to take the story of September 11th around the world so that people who could not believe what had happened could see that it did.

We wanted to commemorate the heroes and victims of the terrorist attacks.

We began to work with world-renowned photographer Joel Meyerowitz, who was the only photographer allowed on the site of the World Trade Center following September 11th. Joel took over 5,000 images, and we picked 25 as part of our traveling exhibit.

"After September 11: Images from Ground Zero" relates the destruction of the attacks and the physical and human dimensions of the recovery effort. It graphically and emotionally portrays the threat terrorism poses to all nations.

Secretary of State Colin Powell launched the world tour of "After September 11: Images from Ground Zero" at the State Department with members of the New York Police Department Fire and Arson Squad and the New York Fire Department in attendance. Secretary Powell stated, " We send these chilling photographs out to the world as a remembrance and as a reminder, a remembrance of those who perished, and a reminder of our commitment to pursuing terrorists wherever they may try to hide."

The exhibit is being used by our embassies as a springboard for dealing with a range of issues related to the control of terrorism and has traveled to over 125 cities and 65 countries.

These photos have now been viewed by thousands of people throughout the world.
In London, it was exhibited in the London Museum alongside photos of the Blitz; in Mexico City, the exhibit was presented in a subway station where thousands of Mexicans could view it going and coming from work; and in Istanbul, the exhibit was displayed in the Topkapi museum.

As people look reverently at the photos, they recognize and identify with the images. An example is the face of a wounded and weary construction worker, his cheek damaged by shrapnel, standing in the fading light, refusing to leave his work, even to get aid for his wound.

This could be anyone's father, husband, and son. In fact, he is.

Those who see Joel's photos recognize that terrorism respects nothing, builds nothing, and destroys everything, including hope for the future.

On the anniversary of September 11th, this exhibit will be shown in the House of Representatives.

We are also planning a new education initiative.

In March of this year, I was in Marrakech, Morocco at a policy makers' summit on higher education in the Arab world.

This conference comprised male and female leaders from business, industry, government, and education to talk about the future of young people in the region.

In the Muslim world, the population of Islamic youth under the age of 15 is very high. They are facing a future of unemployment and under-employment combined with a lack of adequate education.

Queen Rania of Jordan opened the conference and spoke of the "hope-gap", a gap that separates the world's peoples, from the earliest age, into those who have a future and those who do not. Those who do not have no hope for work, no hope for a real education, and no hope for a productive life. Young people learning nothing but hate is a formula for disaster.

In fact, a new report by Arab intellectuals warns that Arab societies are being crippled by a lack of political freedom, the repression of women, and isolation from the world of ideas.

The central theme of the conference -that every nation, every society, and every faith should seek a better life for its young people, underscores what can occur when good people decide to do something.

President Bush has stated, in both national and international terms, "Our aim should be to leave no child behind."

Our first lady, Laura Bush, who has demonstrated a life-long commitment to children and their education has said, "The most important gift we can give the world's children is the gift most likely to lead to future peace and prosperity - and that is the gift of a good education."

So, in concert with this theme and in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announced a new exchange initiative that we are calling "Partnerships for Learning".

Partnerships for Learning will officially launch during International Education Week in the fall. It will provide a framework for dialogue between the U.S. and countries in the region to address the "hope-gap", and what we can do about it now.

We are finding people of good will in so many countries who want to be part of Partnerships for Learning and positive change.

These are people who understand that if we do not invest in the successor generation there will be no one to succeed - just a lost generation.

Through Partnerships for Learning, we will be looking for ways to reach younger, wider and deeper. We want to reach younger so that college undergraduates and high school students can have the opportunity to experience another culture. We want to reach deeper so that America's international engagement is not limited to traditional elites. We want to reach wider so that our exchange programs reach more sectors of society and delve into areas and themes that have only had narrow coverage in the past.

An investment in international education and exchanges must be consistent and long-term if it is to produce sustainable results. The return is guaranteed. Not many investments can make that claim.

Secretary Powell said, "We are attached by a thousand cords to the world at large, to its teeming cities, to its most remote regions, to its oldest civilizations, and to its newest cries for freedom. This means that we have an interest in every place on this earth and that we need to lead, to guide, and to help in every country that has a desire to be free, open and prosperous."

As you meet here in this city of great monuments with courage, commitment, and conviction, let me reference another city that is part of our heritage: Philadelphia.

On that hot summer day, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention kept working in that sweltering tiny room despite the heat.

After the signing, Benjamin Franklin was leaving the hall, leaning on his cane, when a woman passed by.

"Dr. Franklin," she said, "what have you given us?"

He replied, "A republic, Madam, if you can keep it."

That is what each of you in this room here in our nation's capital is doing on a daily basis in your own way. You are truly full-time citizens, and through the DAR you are working to keep and strengthen the republic.

We will not flag; we will not fail.

May God bless you and your families, and may God bless the U.S.A.

Thank you.

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