Remarks Recorded for a Dinner in Cleveland Honoring Secretary Celebrezze

I am delighted to join with the many friends of Secretary Celebrezze in honoring him in his native city tonight. It is a tribute to the spirit of brotherhood that the people of Cleveland would be willing to hear from one who took their Mayor from them, but we have taken him from Cleveland in order to serve the people of the United States.

Mayor Celebrezze's life, I think, epitomizes all the great qualities which we associate with the word "brotherhood." His desire to serve people, his integrity, honesty, his courage, all these qualities which you in Cleveland know so well are becoming increasingly well known to the people of Washington and the people of our country.

I salute him tonight as a very worthy recipient of a very great honor, an honor which comes on the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the hundredth anniversary of a great effort by a great American to provide equal rights for all people. This is the essence of brotherhood.

Secretary Celebrezze has lived brotherhood, and therefore I think it's most appropriate that you should honor one who by his efforts has honored the rest of us.

I salute you all, and most especially I salute my friend, Secretary Celebrezze.