Closing Remarks by Carl Gershman,
President of the National Endowment for Democracy
following the address by President George W. Bush

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Washington, D.C.

October 6, 2005

On behalf of the Board and the staff of the National Endowment for Democracy, I want to thank President Bush for delivering this important address, and for doing so to the NED. His eloquent and forceful articulation, in this and other addresses, of the view that American values and interests are equally served by a strategy to advance democracy in the world has elevated to a new level our nation's historic commitment to freedom and democratic self-government for all people.

I also want to thank Chris Cox and Dick Gephardt for their own remarks, and for their dedicated service on the NED Board. And of course I especially want to thank Vin Weber who has provided such superb leadership as the Chairman of the NED Board, and whose friendship and support are valued by the entire NED family.

The NED has sponsored this address by President Bush in cooperation with its four party, labor, and business institutes, each of which engages an important sector of American society in efforts to build and promote democracy around the world. The challenges we face today are large and exceedingly difficult, especially for the groups on the front-lines in countries ruled by autocracies.

Just a month ago we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the birth of the Solidarity movement in Poland. It is this concept of solidarity that continues to guide our work. Solidarity means standing with people who are taking grave risks in the struggle to build free societies. We're committed to standing with them by helping them in practical ways and also in ways that are moral, political, and symbolic. In so doing, we're contributing our share to a growing spirit of international solidarity that transcends national boundaries and that flows in all directions. It can even flow toward us when our county experiences tragedy.

The President's address today was originally scheduled to be delivered on the occasion of September 11, but it was postponed owing to the national crisis and human suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina. We received many messages of solidarity during those days from people we help around the world. Many of these messages, interestingly enough, came from activists in Africa, where the groups we aid face daunting obstacles, to say the least.

I would like to conclude this event by reading one of these messages. It is from Mariam Hussein Mohamed, the Co-Chairperson of the Dr. Ismail Jumale Human Rights Organization in Somalia. She is known as the mother of the human rights movement in Somalia and was the recipient in 2002 of the NED's Democracy Award in a ceremony in which First Lady Laura Bush took part. This is what Mariam wrote to us:

"The Dr. Ismail Jumale Human Rights Organization and the Somali people are expressing their sadness to the disaster that happened in the United States. We share the sorrow with you and the survivors of those who lost their lives.

"We are sending our condolences to all American people and especially the NED for this misfortune.

"It is really a painful event, but we are confident that the American people together with their world brothers will respond, each in their own way, with sympathy and kindness to this tragedy.

"With God's grace, may the people of America find the strength to endure and transcend this tragic loss."

We stand with Mariam and others like her who are fighting for freedom, as indeed they stand with us. It is in that spirit of human solidarity that we embrace the difficult challenges that lie ahead. Thank you all for coming today.