In focus archive 

Remarks by U.S. Ambassador John A. Cloud

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Opening of Conference:

“Equal Opportunities for All: Policies, Challenges, Dialogue”

Vilnius, Lithuania

(Remarks as delivered)

BEGIN REMARKS:

Minister Blinkevičiute, excellencies, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to help open today’s conference on “Equal Opportunities for All: Policies, Challenges and Dialogue.” This is a vital theme for Lithuania, Europe, and the United States.

This is a topic with which my own nation has had long experience. As a new member of a Europe whole and free, Lithuania must now face these questions as well. It is relevant for Lithuanians who move out into the world as well as for those who stay here, as the world comes to Lithuania.

In our own 230-year history, our understanding of what is fair and what is right has improved over time. Our first founders were exemplars of the 18th century enlightenment.

Nonetheless, when Thomas Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal” in our Declaration of Independence, we know that all men and women were in fact not treated equally in the new American republic.

A Civil War, a women’s rights movement, and a civil rights movement later, our nation stands transformed. As we live even now amidst transformation, the words of our founders still ring clear and true. It is our eternal challenge to build a nation as good as their first vision of a land of equality and opportunity.

Our countries have had their conceptions of nationhood and nationality shaped by history. The United States is a nation of immigrants, and so we define nationality not by ethnicity or religion, but by a common adherence to principles enshrined in our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Americans come in many colors and creeds, but we share a deep pride in our country and what it represents.

Prejudice and discrimination against those who differ from ourselves in superficial ways is a longstanding human vice, and my country has not eradicated these evils within our own borders. I am proud, though, that our civic culture exhorts us to pay heed, as Abraham Lincoln put it, “to the better angels of our nature.” It has not always been easy. We sometimes had to drag holders of more insular views along kicking and screaming.

In my opinion, though, we have succeeded in building a society in which expectations for equality and mutual respect are the norm, and in which diversity is seen as something to be proud of.

By implementing laws that institutionalize the norms of equal opportunity and non-discrimination, we have sought to consolidate the social progress we have made over time. While Lithuania and the United States have had vastly different histories, today we stand together.

We both belong to a broader community of democracies. At the same time that you celebrate your proud nationhood, you seek to broaden your vision of Lithuania in the world.

I congratulate Lithuania. Women, men, Christian, Jew, Lithuanian-speakers, Russian-speakers, Roma, Poles: you all live as free people in a democratic Lithuania.

Thank you.

END REMARKS