**REMARKS OF COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS**

**THE CENTER FOR CHRISTIAN-JEWISH UNDERSTANDING**

**SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY**

**PARK AVENUE SYNAGOGUE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK**

**NOVEMBER 29, 2007**

Chairman Roberti, Dr. Cernera, Rabbi Ehrenkranz, Rabbi Korn, Members of
the CCJU Board, Distinguished Guests All:  This is really one of the
nicest things that has ever happened to me.  And, I must add, one of the
most moving.  To be chosen for this distinction by people whose life
work goes to the fundamentals of our human condition, whose
understanding of things human and divine gives purpose and direction to
so many millions of lives, is---to use a word my kids often use without
understanding how deep it goes---awesome.  Totally awesome.  And sharing
an awards evening with His Holiness, Pope Benedict---well, it's a little
more than I thought would ever happen when I entered First Grade at
Saint Monica's School in Milwaukee back in the mid-1940s!  So I thank
the Center for this high honor and for the path-breaking work it does to
foster the mission of respect, cooperation and peace between Christians
and Jews.  Your work is a shining example of how education,
collaboration and trust are the standard by which we can all live better
lives together.

I have to tell you this award has some immediate practical effects,
too.  My lovely wife Beth, sitting right there, is parish secretary at
St. Mary's Catholic Church in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.  I think
when her pastor and boss  sees the copy of tonight's program that I'm
going to make sure he sees, listing the Pope's name and mine as
awardees, that will translate into an even better work environment for
her.  So thanks for that, too!

We are all surely honored tonight to have three of our nation's foremost
Congressional leaders come here. Thank you Speaker Pelosi, Senator
Schumer and Chairman Markey for the vision and leadership you give our
nation and for the support you give the Center tonight.

I am also proud to share this stage with my colleague and friend,
Jonathan Adelstein.  As soon as Jonathan joined the Commission in 2002,
we found an amazing confluence of agreement on many issues.  When the
FCC headed down the road of loosening the rules that require our
broadcast media to serve the public interest, Jonathan and I began to
travel the country far-and-wide together to listen to, and learn from,
the American people about how they felt about it.  We have shared scores
of stages since then, given speeches together, sat through hearings
lasting up to 10-12 hours at a time together, broken bread together, and
strategized together about how we can do our part to ensure a better
media environment for our country's future. We have grown so close
together that I think he is seriously thinking about starting to eat
fish on Fridays during Lent, and I'm looking into what's involved in
keeping kosher.  Seriously though, Jonathan is smart, dedicated and
courageous, and I am proud to have him as both friend and colleague.

The communications issues that Jonathan and I work on are so important. 
Bringing the wonders of broadband and the Internet to all our people is
make-or-break for America.  Underline the word "all" there---because
each citizen in this land, whether they are rich or poor, living on a
remote farm or in the inner city, healthy or part of a disabilities
community, is entitled to access the tools of advanced
telecommunications, both as an economic matter and, I believe, as a
civil right.  Other nations are ahead of ours in accomplishing this
access, and that translates into not just an embarrassing number 15 or
20 in the global broadband rankings.  It translates into lost
opportunities for millions of American kids and whole chunks of our
country that won't be able to compete in the modern world.

Then there is media---my number one priority at the FCC.  Media is so
precious, so fundamental, so central to our interactions as a society
and so powerful.  No other industry comes close to matching media's
power to shape our future.  It touches every aspect of our lives.  When
used positively, media can enlighten minds, convey powerful ideas,
educate, and lay the foundation for human and economic development.  But
when employed to mislead, misinform or under-inform, media can---media
sadly often does---great harm.  No one knows this better than leaders of
our religious communities.

I believe people of faith are drawn together by many common interests
when it comes to the media.  They want a media environment that
recognizes their presence, covers their spiritual and temporal issues,
and provides them ample opportunity for expression. They want local
media that cover the thousands of good works done in their communities
every day. They want media that serve the needs of all our citizens, and
that certainly includes the poor, the disadvantaged and the disabled.
They want a media that truly reflects the diverse threads that hold
together this great tapestry that is America. They want those who
operate the airwaves to understand that in return for the privilege of
using the people's spectrum, the people expect a return that goes beyond
anyone's corporate bottom line.

On January 24, 2005, I read the most powerful statement on all this that
I had ever seen.  It was Pope John Paul's Apostolic Letter to Those
Responsible for Communications.  John Paul wrote this: "The positive
development of the media at the service of the common good is a
responsibility of each and every one."  He went on, "If the
communications media are a good destined for all humanity, then ever-new
means must be found---including recourse to opportune legislative
measures---to make possible a true participation in their management by
all.  The culture of co-responsibility must be nurtured." As citizens,
then, we have a responsibility to demand and to secure a media
environment that informs, reflects and nourishes us. As John Paul so
eloquently put it: "The positive development of the media at the service
of the common good is a responsibility of each and every one."  And it
was so inspiring to hear Pope Benedict, on the occasion of the 40^th^
World Communication Day, place the same emphasis on "cultivating
co-responsibility" in the media.

 

What a wonderful word---co-responsibility.  It's not a new theological
term or some new social science jargon.  It's another word for working
together, pulling together for the common good.  It's that "public
interest" term that appears some 112 times in the Communications Act
that is supposed to guide everything the Federal Communications
Commission does. Co-responsibility.  Isn't that how we built this land
of ours? 

I don't believe we built America with this "everyone for himself"
attitude that seems to divide rather than unite people today.  I don't
think we built America by sweeping difficult challenges under the rug
and pretending that our political and civic destiny should be determined
by the outcome of a mindless debate about whether our ideas for the
future must only be judged through the prism of whether they are
"regulatory" or "deregulatory."  How much energy have we squandered, how
much progress have we forgone because of that one over the past quarter
century?

I don't think we built America by putting a mythical hyper-individualism
ahead of the things we can overcome by working together.  We all glory
in that wonderful Declaration of Independence that trumpeted America's
determination to be free.  But what won that independence for us was our
Declaration of Interdependence, one upon the other, to work together and
sacrifice together and fight together to be free.

And that's how we have made our greatest progress ever since.  We built
our physical infrastructures---from turnpikes, roads and canals through
transcontinental railroads and interstate highways---by people,
communities and their government working together for the common good. 
Isn't that how we should spread our broadband infrastructure and our
information highways now?  We built our schools and churches by pulling
together because we knew we were all responsible.  Co-responsibility. 
And, at long last, we finally tackled, and began to overcome,
discrimination and inequality in our midst, although we still have many
doors to open for many Americans. 

I'm preaching to a united flock here tonight, I know, but this wonderful
evening is an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to these ideals and to
recommit ourselves to put them back in the vanguard of our goals as a
people.  Let's not just restate them.  Let's communicate them.  Let's
shout them from the roof tops.  Lets give a clarion call because if the
sound of the trumpet be uncertain, who will respond to the call to
battle?  

As I travel across this land, I sense a new spirit just beginning to
dawn in America---a budding determination to tackle our problems,
reassert core values, rebuild our country, and fill in the still
daunting gaps of our democracy.  We're not on auto-pilot to that
future---not by any means---and it could still fall victim to those who
peddle the silly bromides of our recent past.  So it's up to you and me
to sound the call, to nurture understanding, to foster cooperation, the
common good and co-responsibility.  You at the Center do this every day.
I follow you in reaffirming that dedication tonight, thanking you for
all you do, and expressing the heartfelt gratitude that Beth and I feel
for this evening which both humbles and inspires us.  God bless you all.