The Presidents' Summit from a historic perspective What he hopes to accomplish By Robert A. Rankin and Jodi Enda Knight-Ridder Newspapers   WASHINGTON, DC -- In the 1960s, racial segregation became unacceptable in America because citizens, inspired in part by political leaders, forged a new public morality holding that racism is intolerable. President Clinton says he hopes that the Presidents' Summit for America's Future, which opens Sunday in Philadelphia, will help him forge a new ethic of public service in citizens today that could change America's culture as profoundly as the civil-rights revolution did in the 1960s. ``If we do it right, and we take it seriously, and we have the patience that the people did in the civil-rights revolution to work at it over a long period of time,'' that can happen, Clinton said in an interview with Knight-Ridder Newspapers on the eve of the Philadelphia Summit. ``If we had a truly caring society, where service to the community was partof the definition of citizenship, and we took it as second nature, then...it would change America in ways that are profound and fundamental,'' Clinton said. It could even be instrumental to bridging America's great racial divide, he insisted. A beautiful vision, a high-minded dream -- and one far more easily said than done. But for Clinton this is more than a dream; it is a central theme of the legacy he hopes to leave behind. How? The Philadelphia conference is intended to be a beginning. Its purpose is both to spotlight an action plan to help ``at-risk'' children and to show every participating community how to organize volunteers for ongoing public service. Quite apart from the conference, Clinton will push his own public-service action plan throughout his second term. No one objects to public service, of course, but Clinton's critics raise many reservations about his bear hug of it. Conservatives say it is little more than empty rhetoric from a president blocked from more decisive action by a Republican Congress and a tight budget. Liberals see it as a dodge by a president too eager to gut government and dump its duties on an ill-equipped private sector. And many question whether Clinton's soaring words promise more than reality can deliver. Clinton addressed those concerns in a 45-minute Oval Office interview. He sat in a high-backed yellow armchair before the fireplace, his legs stretched out with ankles crossed on a footstool to rest his injured right knee, and a briefing book on the Philadelphia summit at a table by his side. He was relaxed but animated by his vision of grass-roots activists reinvigorating American society. Some problems can be tackled best by people in their communities rather than by government bureaucracies, Clinton said. ``If you have people living dysfunctional lives in a dysfunctional environment, you cannot reach them'' through top-down government programs ``no matter how good they are, how generous they are,'' said Clinton. ``You have to ... change the culture and the life in which people live.'' As an example, he cited the needs of youths who grow up without a caring adult in their lives. ``Of all the things we're talking about, if we can set up systems in our communities that get mentors to all these kids -- because that's something the government clearly can't do. We can't have public employees for all of that. We can't do that -- that may be the area which would have the greatest return in the shortest amount of time.'' Such efforts must supplement government, not substitute for it, the president made plain. He cited his drive to curb smoking, his anti-crime law that put more police on the streets, and his crusade to raise education levels as examples of government activism. But each effort depends for success upon people acting in partnership, he said -- children exerting peer pressure not to smoke, citizens forming neighborhood-watch groups, students and workers striving to learn new skills. ``I see the right kind of government for this era and for the next century as being consistent with the plain need for a much broader sense of citizen obligation and service,'' Clinton said. If people get more involved in serving their communities, the president said, it can even help America overcome its divisions over race. ``If you have people actively involved in serving the communities, they will come in contact with more people that are different from them. They will understand them more, they will relate to them better and they will be drawn to them instead of being driven from them,'' Clinton said. The president promises action as well as words. He is committed to mobilizing 1 million volunteers to help teach children to read by age eight. He is trying to persuade America's employers to hire 2 million people off the welfare rolls to help make welfare reform succeed. He is planning to direct his AmeriCorps youth-service workers to help train a small army of other young volunteers being recruited by churches and other institutions on how to achieve public-service tasks. Perhaps most of all, beyond such programmatic efforts, he will preach public service, trying to persuade Americans to accept his belief that government works best in partnership with an active, involved citizenry. Of course, every president tries to use his office as a ``bully pulpit'' for moral leadership, but some are more successful than others. George Bush saluted charities as ``points of light,'' but is not much remembered for it. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson preached a lot, but are memorialized more for the laws they passed and the chaotic times they presided over. John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan arguably made their greatest impact on America, however, by preaching civic values. ``Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,'' challenged Kennedy. The good society, in Reagan's view, featured minimal government and maximum freedom. For some critics, Clinton's alleged ethical flaws undermine his capacity for moral leadership, even though most observers accept his commitment to racial healing and public service as genuine. But Clinton says his legacy will be successful if, after his presidency, each grade-school student answers the question ``what does it mean to be a good citizen,'' in part, with this answer: ``You have to serve in your community. You have to do something for your fellow citizens.''