Remarks at the White House Event

Bread for the World
Monday, 6 November 2000

Thank you, Mr. President. I want to talk about three aspects of the work we have been doing together for debt relief: bipartisan cooperation, the role of people of faith at the grassroots, and where we go from here.

This has been a thoroughly bipartisan initiative. Spencer Bachus, John Kasich, and many other Republicans and Democrats have played crucial roles. This spring, Senator Jesse Helms moved debt relief through his committee. Just a few weeks ago, the President and Mr. Kasich organized a wonderfully bipartisan meeting here in the Cabinet Room. I was honored to be part of that historic meeting. Mr. President, I want to thank you for reaching out across party lines and getting this job done. It will help many of the poorest people in the world, and, in the end, it will be good for our great nation, too.

All along, the soul of this campaign has been the religious faith of people at the grassroots. People of faith insisted that their members of Congress approve debt relief for the world's poorest countries. In Birmingham, Alabama, for example, it was Father Martin Muller at Our Lady of Sorrows Church—and over at Independent Presbyterian Church, it was Pat Pelham and Elaine Van Cleave. They brought this issue to the attention of Spencer Bachus. In the end, Bread for the World members generated more than a quarter million letters to Congress in support of debt relief. Not since Dr. Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement have religious people at the grassroots been so clearly responsible for raising a justice issue and winning change.

At the end of the Cabinet Room meeting, President Clinton suggested that the Jubilee campaign for debt relief could be the start of something much bigger. Mr. President, you urged us to build this bipartisan, grassroots coalition into an even stronger, long-term alliance. If we can win a sustained shift in our government's priorities, I think we could cut world hunger and poverty in half by 2015. Wouldn't that be a great Jubilee? Mr. President, if you will continue to provide leadership on this after you leave the White House, I think we can make it happen.

Lots of groups worked together for debt relief. I'm now delighted to introduce the head of the Washington office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Eleanora Giddings Ivory.

Rev. David Beckmann, President
Bread for the World

For more information, or to contact Bread for the World, see their website at: www.bread.org