Meanwhile, Donna Shalala and I had already gone far in reforming the welfare system on our own. For example, Václav Havel wanted to hear Lou Reed, whose hard-driving music had inspired Havel’s partisans in Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution. On September 12 an inebriated man who was disappointed with his life broke into a small airplane and took off for downtown Washington and the White House. The legacy would take care of itself, probably long after I was dead.
Lady Bird Johnson, President and Mrs. Bertie was with me in Turkey when we heard the news. On the waffling issue I had a pretty good retort: “I can’t believe he’s accused me of taking two sides of an issue. Soon we would be financing more than half the cost of demining worldwide.
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