Terrorist organizations ability to communicate. They have the ability to reach into our communities and attempts to recruit and inspire individuals who may turn toward violence right here in the homeland. This has to be a collective effort as the Vice President said yesterday, it has to be more than a military response. It requires not only a whole of government effort by the whole of society effort. State and local Law Enforcement which is represented in this room as well as the public and the community. The campaign if you see something Say Something has to be more than a slogan. So i have personally made as part of my personal agenda our departments engagements. As many of you know i have traveled much as to the pilot cities of boston, l. A. And minneapolis but also to columbus chicago and i intend to do more of these and it was through these engagements in these meetings that i have had the opportunity to meet many of you in this room. Let me share with you just a couple of observations and some of the things that i have said in our engagements across the country. First of all, i am sure many of you would agree when we in and the federal government meets in the communities at Cultural Centers city halls and so forth, to engage Community Leaders it has to be about more than just countering violent extremism. We have to have a dialogue across a range of issues. My department, the department of Homeland Security in particular has more interactions with the public than any other department of government so there are a range of issues that we discussed. Frankly its an exercise in lowering barriers lowering suspicion and Building Trust so when we have our engagements and we have our conversations we bring together very often the u. S. Attorney in the state or the city the police chief the sheriffs, the mayors, the senators and its a conversation a spectrum of issues enforcement and administration of our immigration laws things happening with local Law Enforcement, things happening at the airports issues that individuals face at the airports for example. For my part i have done in listening mode for these conversations. I have also said that we in the administration in and the government should give voice to the plight of muslims living in this country and the discrimination that they face and so i have personally committed to speak out about the situation that very often people in the Muslim Community in this country face the fact that there are 1. 6 million muslims in the world and the islamic faith is one about peace and brotherhood. For our part we ask something of you of members of the community. First of all i have heard over and over again and this is where we have to depend upon people in the community, that we need to develop a counternarrative. We have heard that over and over now and we know there are a number of those who have undertaken to do this. We need to take that to the next level, developing a counternarrative. Also in our communities and the communities we engage we ask that we all have a stake so one of the themes of this conference which fits right in with that is our communities, our responsibility, our shared future and that is very much part of the message that we like to bring when we go to places like l. A. , boston and minneapolis. Our communities, our responsibility our shared future. One of the things i like to say is that we all have a stake. Its our Public Safety. Its our Homeland Security, its our country and so if you see something Say Something really does have to be more than a slogan. Public engagement, public awareness. In our Homeland Security Public Safety efforts is becoming all the more crucial given how our challenges in Homeland Security are evolving. And so we go to city after City Community after community to deliver this message and to build trust and to build a partnership with people like you in this room. We look forward to conversations today on day two. We want to hear from those representatives in this room about best practices the effective practices that have worked for you, that a portentous room and so we look forward to a good discussion today. The last thing i will say which i say at every opportunity i can these days in public audiences in front of a camera is the department of Homeland Security, yes im going to say this again. The department of Homeland Security needs a fully funded appropriation. We need an appropriations bill for the department of Homeland Security. [applause] as many of you know Homeland Security right now is operating on a continuing resolution which expires in nine days. As long as we are on the acr blair restrained to last years spending levels and we are unable to engage in new starts, new initiatives were spending. New initiatives in new spending for Border Security. We still need to pay for the enhanced Border Security that we put in place last summer. We are unable to enhance Border Security, to strengthen Border Security. We are unable to do some of the things the secret secret service and dependent panel has recommended for the secret service. We are unable to hire for the coming president ial election cycle. We are unable to fund new nondisaster grants to many of the people in this room in uniform rate we are unable to fund state and local Law Enforcement with our grants as long as we are on a continuing resolution. And we know the importance of those grants to state and local Law Enforcement. Just for example when i was in phoenix a couple of weeks ago to inspect the security at the super bowl i met with state and local Law Enforcement and it was pointed out to me that all the communications equipment, all of the surveillance was funded by my department. As long as we are on the cr we are unable to do these very important things for Homeland Security. So we need a fully funded department of Homeland Security, especially in these challenging times. Income, david axelrod, advisedder in the obama white house. In his new book he writes about his 40year career working in politics and government. David axelrod sat down with an interview with david frump. This i
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