Conversation 900-021

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Mr. President, come in and pray.

Go pray, sir.

Oh, yes.

How are you?

Good to see you.

Morning, Mr. President.

Nice to meet you, Mr. President and Mr. National President.

How are you?

Good to see you.

Yes, I took your hand in Miami City when you spoke to our National Convention in 1957.

Yes, I did.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Pesky has a presentation here.

Perhaps we can get a picture.

Do you want this in the picture, particularly, or not the actual item that I have to give you?

Well, I'll tell you what.

We, you played the piano.

Yes.

We're having a governor, a past governor of the Kansas district, who is a main woodcarver, who has developed one and retired U.S. United States Marshal, who is in the process of carving this little panel.

And it is finished, but it will be to use very soon.

But thanks.

so i don't know if we want this in the picture or uh or not but because it's just uh well thank you

It's my pleasure to be with you this morning.

Yes, it's, uh, well, we're arguing over that extension of the Capitol.

I don't know whether I'm right or wrong.

I would have guessed it.

uh yeah only cost 60 million oh yeah but what why no i'm against it and i vote against it yesterday so my vote began today and i think i missed that one because you're a woman miss it so i uh where they understand it too to the west uh only about 60 million see i remember a few years ago we're going to extend it to the east because i might actually live too long in scotland i guess we're going to extend it to the east so it's a balance you know the west now we're putting the west and then the balance of the east see

There's too many guys want a little hideaway in the Capitol.

That's the last place I want a hideaway.

All right, Alex, about that.

Tell me about Kiwanis.

You're doing well and good things, as usual.

I know.

We certainly are.

I'm real proud of what Kiwanis is doing, not only in our own country, but around the world.

Before I get into that, I want to present to you a whole thing that my club had made for me this year, a medallion.

And you might be interested to know that my son is president of my local Kiwanis club this year, and they wish you to have one of these medallions.

that struck Lakeland, Indiana.

Yes, East Indiana.

Wow, I saw the word Lakeland.

It didn't look any further than that.

I thought it was Brady.

Oh, yeah.

Of course, it's Indiana.

There's no town to that name.

But the community that we encompass is Lake Erie.

So I live about halfway between here and South Bend.

He's president of my school this year.

So I'm kind of proud of that.

Where is this?

Well, it's about 130 miles north of Indianapolis.

That's about halfway between Fort Wayne and South Bend.

uh we have now chris shingle who's moved back chris and i grew up together and uh so he was not in our community he was on lake so we're all kind of jointly together

President, your family comes from the old Quaker area in southern Indiana.

I'm still in James County.

I'm in Morgan.

And, incidentally, there is a Millhouse Road in West Newton.

Been there for many, many years.

See, the Millhouse, West Newton and Mooresville and Transliter, old Quaker, Plainville, old Quaker settlement there.

I read it the other day.

I thought, Millhouse Road.

I thought, oh, I didn't realize that's called Quaker.

You know, that's Millhouse Road.

Well, you asked about a program, sir.

I'm quite proud to be serving under a theme that we have this year, Share Your Life.

It has really taken a hold.

We have, I think, made in-depthness in our communities that we haven't touched before.

We have been particularly working with young people.

Well, all ages.

We encourage all kinds.

In other words, it's first, you know, you share your life of service.

In the huddle, of course.

And through association, through recreation and exploration.

And we have so many examples.

Just to tell you one about a man who, in his efforts to share the club,

with the club in the community.

He went to a senior citizen's home, and he found a lady there who was depressed and not, you know, to which I'll look on the world anymore, you know, and was rather depressing.

He found that she was complaining about the food.

And so next time he visited, he brought her some plums and little things like this.

And then she began to recognize me.

He found a man sitting there.

He asked him if he watched television much.

And he said, no, he was not interested too much.

He said, do you like football?

He said, I don't understand the rules.

He said, if I buy you a book, he said, would you read it then so you can understand it?

They learned that he liked to smoke Miro cigars, and so he came back, and each time he'd come back, this man was just thrilled.

He learned about football, so in other words, he could watch television and football and something.

So this is where a person shared his life with someone else.

And there's so many examples I could cite that, let me tell you why I'm glad you're working in that field.

So many people, you know, they all naturally think of either the young because they're in the future.

But the saddest thing in the world is the retirement homes, even a good one.

And the problem there with the people is usually not how they eat or sleep or the rest, but nobody pays any attention to them.

They have nothing to do with it anymore.

And they just got, you've got to go talk to them.

They want somebody to talk to other than themselves.

Boy, I think it's great to work with the older people, particularly.

It's just great.

Well, they're saving.

They need that.

And of course, there are people that are in trouble and they're helping here.

We had one in prison.

We had another father who took on a project of any person in the community that were up in years and could not fix little things in their home.

They had a number they called.

The Kowanians.

So the light bulb was...

or something that was taken care of, because this person couldn't climb the ladder to do things.

And the response that they got on that

You know, so it's a whole Share Your Life program.

We're extremely proud of this, and of course, in trying to give a Share Your Life effort, we just happen to have something here.

I have a high pack that I'm wearing, and I'm presenting it to you, which is getting around a little bit this year.

It's rather a fine print, but it's been a long time.

so with this we feel that we're making um an impression in our communities and other things that can be done but then the clubs themselves we feel needs to expand and find out what is needed in their community and i may explore this atmosphere how much you trust

Well, it's been quite a bit.

We just adjourned last Saturday from a 22-country visit completely around the world.

And so my wife and I returned safe.

So we had a very enjoyable trip and found that Kiwanians are the same the world over.

We were with many nationalities.

And so I'm deeply impressed with what Kiwanis has meant to many, many communities.

How about in this country now?

How about in this country?

you get air all the different states do you virtually here not quite see we're divided in 30 districts in the north america oh yeah so uh we will uh visit all 30 districts uh we've been traveling since the first of october and uh we will you gotta spend some time alive that's right yeah have a business to look after plus of course you know

Well, of course, you give most of your time, but you've still got to earn a living.

That's right.

You aren't able to take anything.

That's right.

And we're a volunteer.

And it's all voluntary.

That's right.

That's the greatest of it all.

President, you've been saying, I've been hearing, that the Rotary owns the country, the Kiwanis run it, and the Lions enjoy it.

Ha!

Rotary owns the Kiwanis run it, and the Lions enjoy it.

Yes, I enjoy it.

You know, that's pretty near the...

the fact that both the greatest wealth, you know, is in the Rotary, but as far as acting, we have ever, oh, by the way, the other year, we have a meeting here of all the Kalanis in the Washington era.

And each time, there's more, they check, there's more members in Congress of Kalanis than any other service club.

And of course, the Rotary said, that's what's the matter with the country.

I'll have to remember that.

Now, I've seen the president of Berkeley, I've seen him see all the presidents, and I've seen him watch, too.

I've seen him go here, he's seen Kwanzaa, when the lion comes about, so they enjoy it.

Yeah, they enjoy it.

My son's a lion, and I was almost a charter member of the Kwanzaa Party, although they made me go honorary some years ago, and I said, I want to keep that.

They said, yes, but you're ruining our tennis record.

I sit over here all the time, so I'm still a member of it.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, there's a third one.

You just can't do it.

Because they only meet in the midweek.

I go back to my district every weekend.

I've had that for 27 years, 23 years now.

You go home every weekend?

You've got to do it to keep in touch with your organization.

And after all, if you're defeated, you have no assets.

And it's just a matter you can understand.

What do you do when you go home, Bill?

Well, it's not political meetings, but there'll be communities, yes.

Here they want me to meet.

I'll go down to the Elks, go to the Moose, and there'll be communities.

Tell them I'll stay in Congress for three years.

Well, I don't suppose there's any group that follows the fundamental principle of Americanism that you and I believe in, or any culture in the Kowloon.

Because it's just that group.

You just don't find any brotherhood.

I know they aren't.

I know.

And I think the American service club is an immediate...

I was telling them the other day... People sort of laugh about it.

They say, well, it's kind of, you know, people all, men growing men, getting together, minding each other, goofing it up, and so forth.

But they don't realize at first, that's good, too.

It's good for the leaders to get together and know each other and so forth.

You can call it friendships that are invaluable.

Otherwise, you'd be sitting home in front of your television setter

The other part is that it's good for communities.

It's good for people to have fun.

It's good to hear a speech, even though it's a lousy one sometimes.

Sometimes you go that many speeches for two a year, you get some bad ones.

The other thing is that service clubs are that.

They do a lot of good things for the community.

They develop a spirit.

And by golly, I'm for them all the way.

I never miss an opportunity to encourage them.

We just wish you the very best.

We appreciate your interest in this.

I would like to tell you something that's going to launch this year for the first time, and we'll launch it in Montreal.

This is the new Camelot program.

There's a new international Palace of Sports, which is being headed up by Christian.

It's going to be built in my area.

And the Kiwanis International is taking this on as a project for each club that gives $500 or more for a boy or girl as they graduate from high school as a career award to further their career education.

it's not going to be titled scholarship, which means that they must go to college.

In other words, it's for their career.

And the maximum that any one club can give in that school is a boy and girl.

And this is going to kick off at our International Convention in Montreal the last of June, and it will start the next school year.

And a little later on, I would like to be able to send to you the materials of what this is going to amount to.

I've been sample testing this throughout the world, and more especially in our country here, having traveled more there, to find out how the clubs feel about this.

And they're quite excited.

They'd been giving scholarships before, but for no rhyme or reason, it sort of ran out of gas.

So as a result, this student that is recognized, his name will be inscribed in the International Palace of Sports for all posterity.

Now, there's going to be a king of sports selected every year.

There are 7,200 national sports captains and sports writers who were mailed a ballot the first of January of this year, and the ballot came back and they selected Mark Spitz.

So Mark Spitz will be the first person who's going to be the international king of sports.

So as a result of this, this does not mean the student has to be a sports-minded or an athlete themselves, because the whole criteria will be based on citizenship.

That's the way they earn this and will be selected the boy or the girl.

And those students then, as I said, will be inscribed into this international policy school.

So we're quite excited by it.

It will be the first time that Moana has ever had an international program.

Oh, I see everything.

Everything has been on the local level, right?

This still is on the local level because the monies are raised in the community and it's left in the community.

We're not pulling any money out of that community.

I think it was March 5th in Indiana.

Right.

We're quite excited about this.

Indiana University is coming to me.

Well, I want to...

We wish you well

You can take a lot of the wedding vices and say that I'm for everything you do.

Thank you.

We discussed it.

And I'm sorry I did not bring that piano in person.

That miniature piano.

That's right.

We wish you well.

Get down here and vote right now.

I don't need to tell you that.

No, no, no.

Keep the faith.

I told him I was going to save you.

Keep the faith.

Mr. Buzz is going good.

Mr. Buzz is a very good friend of mine.

Ha!

That's right.