And I would like to welcome you all to the diplomatic rooms of the Department of State. We had a reception here last Friday night for the donors who make this possible, because this magnificent room, and the rooms that I hope you will wander through and take a look at while you are here, have all been redecorated, changed from that 1950s style you see in the lobby downstairs, to this wonderful federalist style. You come up eight floors and you go back 200 years. (Laughter.)

But all of this was done with not a single dollar of federal money. It's all done by people who care about our history, who care about our heritage, and were willing to allow us to have these beautiful rooms that you are enjoying here this evening.

And this is quite an exceptional audience gathered here this evening -- ambassadors, educators, partnership coordinators, and a host of others. For two and a half days, you meet to explore, examine and discuss what I might say is one of President Bush's favorite themes, that of education, and particularly to examine ways in which you can accomplish something that President Bush and so many of us talk about all the time, and that is to make sure that every child, every child in America, is given the ability to get ahead through education. And your particular focus expands on that goal with the proposition that every college-capable young man or young woman should not be left behind either, but get the chance for a college education. And no one labors toward that goal, that expanded goal of college education for all of the youngsters in America and throughout the world who have the capacity to reach college, nobody labors toward that goal more than my good friend, Bill Gray, who I was privileged to serve with on the college board of governors, but also in Congress when you used to spend a great deal of his time cutting the defense budget. (Laughter.) The brother was bad. I mean, he would never understand why we needed all that money.

And so I know that you join with me in thanking Bill seriously for his many years of service to young people, and I know that you thank me also for Liz Lowe's Special Programs Corporation, and how this corporation has become a vital part of the college fund's tremendous effort by promoting both education and development, and by doing it on an international scale. For example, since 1998, the corporation's partnership with one of my organizations, the United States Agency for International Development, has helped bring together diverse institutions, people and communities to solve problems and meet challenges at the local level where it's most important for these challenges to be met, whether it's development assistance, international partnerships, public policy, higher level education assistance in South Africa, putting first class science and technology education within the reach of minorities, or whether it has to do with that great catastrophe that's on the face of the earth today, and especially in sub-Saharan Africa, HIV-AIDS education, the Special Programs Corporation delivers the bacon that we need to be delivered in order to deal with this kind of crisis.

On HIV-AIDS, I might mention that this is going to be a special priority of the Bush Administration, a special priority of mine, and a special priority of the entire Administration, not only me but Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. The two of us have been designated today by President Bush to be leaders of a task force that will bring all the assets of the United States Government together, the State Department on the international stage, and Health and Human Services within the United States, bringing in all the other parts of government, whether it's the National Institutes of Health or whatever it might be, all coming under this cabinet task force. And as you may also have noted today, President Bush announced a White House Coordinator for HIV-AIDS Policy and we're looking forward to working with Mr. Evertz in the weeks and months ahead.

I look forward to working in the future with the Special Programs Corporation and the many other soldiers in this struggle to defeat this devastating disease, which is not just a health crisis; it's a cultural crisis, it's an economic crisis, it's a destroyer of nations. And all of us have to come together with respect to education, with respect to prevention, with respect to the treatment, until the day when we find a cure for HIV-AIDS. And I know that I can count on your support.

I know that the aims for this global partnership conference are to take the lessons learned and the valuable insights you've gained from each other about delivering first class education development assistance and move these lessons and insights across boundaries, across the world, so that you can share this information with everyone.

I know also that you want to highlight the international activities of America's historically black colleges and universities, which is a deep pool of talent, a deep pool of talent that we can draw upon to help us carry the message across the world about what this corporation is all about.

So you have my best wishes and my full support for both endeavors of yours as vital work for all of us, and so I encourage you to keep up the good work. In fact, your work is so vital that the State Department wants to scale up its participation in what you're doing. The Bush Administration, through USAID, is exploring ways to develop a more innovative partnership, a partnership with US universities, with nongovernmental organizations, with foundations and with corporations. We want this new partnership to be a catalyst for change in bringing together people, technology and resources to meet the development challenges that you face overseas. And the efforts should take full advantage of the HBCUs and the skills and expertise that are contained within those institutions. And when the times comes -- and it will soon happen -- I will ask for your help in making this happen and working with the HBCUs.

I am not speaking of the education really or the enlightenment of the well-to-do and comfortable, as important as that may be. Those who are privileged in life will find a job. They'll get an education. They are on the path to success. I'm talking about young people who are not able to realize their dreams, the young people that I worked with for the last several years, young people who see all this wealth, see all this success here in the United States and other parts of the world, and wonder if they are going to be put in a position to taking advantage of that wealth and success.

And what we have to make sure we do with all of our efforts, that we leave no child behind and that no youngster anywhere in the world is denied the education and the opportunity that God has given them by putting them on earth to reach their dreams and to reach their ambitions. We all have to work together on that.

And no place is this more important than in bridging that thing we call the digital divide. I worked hard on it here in the United States to put it into Boys and Girls Clubs and the YMCAs so that every youngster had access to computers, access to the Internet. We've got to do that around the world. It's the way we can educate youngsters across the world, using distance learning techniques and other ways of using the Internet to make sure that children, children everywhere, have access to this powerful new technology.

So I encourage you in your efforts, and there are many things that I want you to do. I need increased participation in the programs that the State Department runs with respect to outreach, with respect to Fulbright Scholarship programs. I need more help from the HBCUs represented here tonight in getting minorities moving in the direction of the State Department. I don't have enough foreign service officers of minority background to help me take the message of America across the world. I want the world to see our embassies look like America. I want the world to see when they look at one of our embassies, that is what America is all about, that great melting pot where all come together and they become Americans.

But to do that, I need your help -- those of you who are representing HBCUs -- to send your youngsters in our direction. They don't all have to go make a zillion dollars on Wall Street. They don't all have to go out there with Bill Gray somewhere and make a million dollars. (Laughter.) You need to turn these youngsters on to the potential of service to the nation, to the potential of service to the nation overseas. I need them to carry the message of freedom and democracy and the free enterprise system across the world as members of the State Department. We are working hard on it. We have created a cooperative program with Howard University. We are working on a Hispanic action plan. We're doing everything we can to draw more minority youngsters into the State Department.

We also need your help in helping us send cultural exchanges across the world so that the best of American culture appears in places all over the world. Danny Glover, the great actor, recently went on a tour of Egypt and other places in Northern Africa, and Danny shows up and they just go nuts over him. And he is the best of America, and we only paid the brother $250 a day. (Laugther.) I mean, this is a heck of a deal. I called him the other day and said, "Danny, are you really doing this for $250 a day?" He said, "I'm proud to do it. I love doing it." Well, I need your support to encourage more and more people in that kind of business to support these kind of educational activities, more Fulbright scholars, more people going out on educational exchanges. All of that carries the message of America to the rest of the world.

A lot of the rest of the world is represented here tonight, with so many distinguished ambassadors and other leaders from around the world. America is not here to preach to anyone, to lecture anyone. President Bush talks about this all the time. He says we are a powerful nation, we are a superpower, we have military might never dreamed of before. But we have, more than all of that, is a moral example, moral power. And we want our moral power, our moral influence, to be available to the world, not to tell anybody how to behave or act, but to show that if you believe in freedom and democracy you can create a better life for the people that you serve, the people in your countries. And that is the way we are going to go about foreign policy in this State Department in this Administration.

We are now in the age of globalization. The days of the red and the blue side of the map with the American and the Soviet Union facing off are over. We are now in the days of globalization, and globalization is both a blessing and a curse: a blessing for those who have access to education, for those who have access to the opportunities that will create wealth; but at the same time, we know that globalization can be a curse because those who are stuck in abject poverty, who do not have a way out, will see globalization as an enemy, not as a friend.

It is our mission to make that blessing real for all of these people around the world. That is what you do. That is the role that you play. That is the role of this corporation. That is the role of this conference. So I hope you will go forward in the next couple of days, recognizing the responsibility you have to the children of the world to make sure that they understand that we are going to do everything possible to make them successful members of new societies based on freedom and democracy. Children have no past; they only have a future. And it is your responsibility, my responsibility, working together, to make sure that future is a bright one so that they can achieve the dreams that God has laid out in front of them.

Thank you very, very much.

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