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REMARKS BY:	DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE:		League of Women Voters of Cleveland
DATE:		August 29, 1998

I sometimes think of the 19th Amendment as the much delayed - and final - victory of the American Revolution, the moment when we finally woke up from 144 years of national amnesia and stated unequivocally that all men and women are created equal.

It is also a great honor to receive an award that bears the name of one of the founding mothers of the women's rights movement. Belle Sherwin was a visionary and an inspiration who even today is helping to make sure that "every woman is an intelligent voter." We stand on her shoulders, just as she stood on the shoulders of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and other early suffragettes.

Last month, I joined Mrs. Clinton and thousands of other women for a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls - and the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments. For me, Seneca Falls is hallowed ground - the place where women began the long and difficult transition from invisibility to equality. From proclaiming our dignity and rights to having those rights recognized and protected. From being moral voices standing at the ramparts, to being voices of leadership sitting at the tables of government and commerce.

What does it mean that the women's rights movement began 150 years ago at Seneca Falls? Was that gathering of our Founding Mothers a moment of light? Or was it the start of a chain reaction that continues to burn a path of progress and change not only for women - but also for our nation?

The answer: A chain reaction. No doubt about it.

And the proof: Just look at what women are called a century and a half after that revolutionary convention in Seneca Falls -- we're still the "everyday revolutionaries."

We are changing how businesses are run. How language is heard and used. How families are structured. We're changing how communities are organized. How children are raised and taught. We're changing how goods and services are conceived, marketed and sold. We're, quite literally, changing the course of human events. That means the world of sports. The exploration of space. The face of our armed forces. The hand of healing. The science of curing. The march of technology.

And that's just the beginning.

Women are "everyday revolutionaries" where laws are written, decisions are made and power is exercised. Women are shaking up the political world. We have more women in Congress. More women in state capitals. More women in the courts. More women in the Cabinet. More women in charge.

And what are all these women doing?

With the dedication of all women who've advanced the cause of Seneca Falls, we are reordering our national priorities. Reshaping our national agenda. Rewriting the definition of "national security." Recognizing the importance of family issues, from the kitchen table to the national stage. Realizing the real needs of women, children and families.

What has the power of women achieved? We've expanded the enforcement of child support. We've defined violence against women as a public health crisis. We've advanced women's health. We've protected children's health. We've supported the breast cancer action plan. We've helped working families succeed. Not only by raising their incomes. But by raising all incomes - by building a stronger economy. All in the human interest. All in the national interest.

Now we're setting the stage for tomorrow's "everyday revolutionaries," our daughters and granddaughters who will stand on our shoulders, who will make families even stronger and healthier than they are today, who will fill Congress with a percentage of women that reflects our share of the population, and who will give our country it's first woman president.

Just imagine if we found a cure for breast cancer, or if every child in America had access to health insurance.

Just imagine if women controlled 51 percent of Congress.

Just imagine a woman president taking the oath of office - and her husband holding the Bible. It must happen. It will happen.

But our dreams for tomorrow must not obscure our declarations for today. Parents want to protect their children from tobacco.

Consumers want Congress to guarantee their rights in the health care system. That's especially true of women.

Families want Congress to help them get child care they can afford and trust. Today, when young parents ask me, `where can I be certain to find good child care,' my answer is "Join the Army." The Army takes protecting the children of it soldiers seriously with high quality child care and unannounced inspections. We need to do as well for all the children of working families. That means small groups of children, in safe facilities, supervised by a staff that has ongoing training - and keeps abreast of the latest child development research.

This is what women want. Because there's no standing still. And there's certainly no going back. In fact, women will never, never go back to life before Seneca Falls, before the 19th Amendment, before the Equal Pay Act and Title IX, before there was a presidential cabinet that looks like America. Unless . . . unless we abandon the sacred right Belle Sherwin and the other founders of the League of Women Voters worked so hard to secure.

Frederick Douglass said when he addressed the Seneca Falls convention in 1848, "Suffrage is the power to choose rulers and make laws, and the right by which all others are secured." In other words, where there's no vote, there's no change, no progress, and most important - no freedom.

Remember, the old saying from the 1960s, `What if they gave a war and nobody showed up?' Well, today maybe it's time we ask a new question, `What if we have the vote and nobody uses it?'

That is not a hypothetical or philosophical question. It is the dangerous road we've begun to travel. Today, the blessings of self-government are not being denied by law, they're being surrendered voluntarily by millions of Americans - women and men.

I won't dwell on the problem. You know it - and fight it - with debate programs to teach citizens the importance of exercising their franchise. So you may know about the Census Bureau report released last week on voter turnout in the 1996 presidential election. It showed that only one in two eligible women voters cast their ballots two years ago. That's the lowest percentage in over 30 years - and only slightly better than men.

Men never had to fight for the right to vote, and don't remember what it's like not to have it. But we should know better. When only 55 percent of women vote, it's hard not to conclude that all the marching; all the petitioning; all the ridicule and time spent in jail endured by our foremothers is in danger of being squandered.

We can't let that happen. We must not let that happen. Because just as we changed the world by demanding and winning the right to vote, the only way to build stronger families, healthier children and a higher standard of living is to march to the ballot box and cast our vote.

That's right - cast our vote. On Election Day. And every day.

When most people think of the League of Women Voters, they think about policy, debates and the importance of going to the polls. But if voting is about choices - which it is - people vote all the time. And they do it with the benefit of far more information than has ever existed before.

The Internet, C-span, 24 hour news cycles, satellite dishes are now all widely used to inform the public - and sometimes even serve as platforms for the public to sound off. With these new lines of real-time communication - not to mention instant polling - we actually have a pretty good idea about what people want.

But as I've already suggested, there is a gap between what citizens are demanding and what Congress is doing. And, frankly, part of the reason why is because the voices of delay and denial have better access - and more money to get their message across. So in the competition for the ear of Congress, money talks. Our job is to make sure that citizens don't walk.

That's a big challenge for all of us.

To hold tight to the spirit of Seneca Falls by making sure that the voices of women and ordinary citizens are heard in halls of power. Not just on Election Day, but all the time. To help break through the din of one-sided commercials by putting all the facts on the table and letting citizens make a reasoned judgment. To not allow differences in policy to descend into partisan bickering that does nothing more than turn off voters - keeping them out of the national dialogue, and ultimately away from the polls. To always appeal to our nation's hopes, not its fears.

One Hundred and Fifty years after Seneca Falls, and 78 years after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, we ought to be able to do better than giving citizens a vote without giving them a say.

Because if voters aren't allowed to speak from the heart about what they cherish most, they'll vote with their feet and sacrifice what we - the spiritual sisters of Belle Sherwin cherish most and celebrate today - democracy in action.

Thank you.