In a rambling, hourlong appeal for a gentler, kinder America, President Clinton on Thursday called for “more conversation and less combat” as a focus of the forthcoming presidential election year.

Addressing an audience at his alma mater, Georgetown University, and making a speech via satellite to the National Education Association meeting in Minneapolis, the president stressed the need for more civility in American society.

Americans must resolve their differences by being more tolerant of each other and not harping on what is worst about their nation, Clinton asserted in back-to-back speeches tailored to be politically conciliatory.

“We must find new common ground. We need to respect our differences and hear them. But instead of having shrill voices of discord, we need a chorus of harmony,” Clinton said.

He singled out for criticism not only the recent suggestion by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., that less money should be spent on AIDS research, but the continuing opposition of the National Rifle Association to the assault weapons ban.

Yet he noted the importance of seeing dissension from both sides, arguing that violence and disease are community problems.

He reminded, “Not everybody who has AIDS gets it from sex or drug needles. … More to the point, the gay people who have AIDS are still our sons, our brothers, our citizens. They’re entitled to be treated like everybody else.”