Wabasha, Minnesota Remarks on Arrival at the City.

THE PRESIDENT. There is no doubt in my mind that all of us enjoy the privilege of living in the greatest country on Earth. We are a nation which has indeed been blessed by God with blessings which exceed those of any other peoples on Earth. We're a nation of freedom. We're a nation of strength, of courage, of vitality. We're a nation which has always been able and eager to meet any challenge, no matter how difficult it might have been, to solve any problem, no matter how complex it might be, or to answer any question which confronts the people of the United States of America.

I'm very proud to be the highest elected official in the greatest country on Earth, and I think what you've done here this morning in Wabasha, Mayor Meisch, and all of you, is a tremendous testimony to what our country can be in the future if we are indeed united.

Sometimes we tend to forget the blessings of freedom and the blessings of living in a democracy, where every human being is important, where each one of us bas a right to be different, to live where we choose, to worship as we choose, to have equal opportunity, no matter what language we might speak or how long our family may have been in this country or what color our skin might be or how wealthy our families might be, either. These kinds of differences don't make our Nation weak. They make our Nation stronger.

We have people in our country from almost every race and every nation on Earth. We have ties to all the rest of the world, and when we are faced with a tremendous challenge, like World War I or World War II or the Great Depression-when I was a young man, those challenges were easy to see and easy to understand. We felt that our Nation was threatened and our future was not certain, and with that threat our families were drawn closer together and our communities were drawn closer together, and our Nation enjoyed a high degree of unity, because we knew that our Nation was under a threat. That was when we were strongest, with a mutual commitment, because we knew that each person was important. And we had to have faith in one another, and we had to have faith in the future.

Recently our country has been faced with a series of problems which we couldn't quite understand—the Vietnam war, the Watergate scandals, 10 or 12 years of inflation, and a shortage of energy which has caused us to turn too much to foreign nations for oil. It's made our Nation overly dependent on uncertain supplies of oil from the Middle East and other places, and it's let us realize for the first time in our great country that we do have limits, and we cannot afford to waste any more, as we have wasted, what God gave us in the past.

This is not a problem that we cannot solve. It's not a question that we cannot answer. It's not an obstacle that we cannot overcome, if we are united. But we must do two things. First of all, we must conserve energy. We must quit wasting energy. And secondly, we must increase the energy that we produce in our own country—solar energy; increased use of coal; more production of oil and gas from our own wells; the production of new kinds of energy; synthetic oil from shale rock, from coal.

These kinds of things are a great challenge to its. But they ought to unite us and not divide us, one from another. It's very important for you to have confidence in your government—in your mayor, your county officials, your State officials, your Federal officials, your President. Regardless of whether you might be Republican or Democrat or Protestant or Catholic or Jewish, that doesn't matter. In a time of stress and trial, that's the time we need to unite with a common effort.

When elections come, vote how you choose, but when our Nation is faced with a problem, every single American must say, "What can I do to make my Nation stronger and greater and more united to face a common challenge?"

There is no doubt in my mind that we can resolve our energy problem and give our Nation security so that no matter what happens in the Middle East, our Nation will not suffer, so that we can be reliant on ourselves. We now have before the Congress proposals that will solve these problems if Congress acts. A windfall profits tax will give us money derived from taxing the oil companies, to help poor families pay the increased cost of energy, to give us a way to conserve energy and to weatherize homes, to make automobiles more efficient, to give us mass transit systems, and to produce synthetic fuels.

We have the means in our hands to solve our national problem, but the most single important tiring is for us to have confidence in one another, faith in ourselves, and to be unified in facing the future.

You have really thrilled me this morning and inspired me and, I think, all Americans who will see this on television and read about this in the newspaper and hear this on the radio, to know that the people in Wabasha have come here—a lot more people than live in Wabasha; I don't know where you all came from- [laughter] —to show that you believe in the strength of our country.

How many of you believe that we live in the greatest nation on Earth? [Applause] Very good.

How many of you believe that we can have energy security in the United States of America? [Applause]

This is the most difficult question: How many of you are going to do your part and a little more to save energy and to make sure our Nation is secure in the future? If you'll do your part, would you let me know? [Applause] Very fine.

One other question. How many of you think that even though we live in the greatest nation on Earth now, we're going to all combine our efforts to make it even greater in the future and have the United States of America be an even more wonderful place to live in years to come? How many of you believe that? [Applause] Very good.

Well, you've made me very happy, and I know that Rosalynn would say this is the best birthday party she has ever had. Thank you very much.

MRS. CARTER. I want to thank you, too, for this wonderful welcome, for all your birthday wishes, and for your prayers. And I want to thank you for the birthday cake, too, with the energy pledges, because as Jimmy has said, every effort helps. And when you save energy, you help not only yourselves and your community, but you help our whole country.

I'm very proud of you and proud to be here today. Thank you very much.