[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[November 11, 1994]
[Pages 2068-2069]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 2068]]


Remarks at the Anchorage Museum of Art and History
November 11, 1994

    Well, let me just say, as I said out at the base, I've been trying 
for 2 years to get to Alaska, and I finally made it today. And I thank 
the Governor, the Senator, and the mayor for coming out to meet Hillary 
and me. I also want to say that this is my first trip to Alaska--now I 
can say that in the last couple of years I've been to every State in 
America--and I hope I'll be coming back. But it's not Hillary's first 
trip to Alaska; she is coming back. She worked here 25 years ago when 
she was about 6 and violated the child labor law. [Laughter]
    So I thought I would just ask her to come up here and say a word, 
because it's been--this has been a very meaningful trip to her. I was 
trying to get a little sleep, and when we started--we finally got into 
the airspace of Alaska, she was beating on me, saying, ``Wake up, wake 
up, look at this, look at this.'' [Laughter] So I heard the story again 
for the 500th time--[laughter]--which I love; now I can tell it as well.
    So please come up and say a word.

[At this point, Hillary Clinton briefly described her first visit to 
Alaska and her job there cleaning fish.]

    The President. You know, it really is good preparation for 
Washington. You do need the hip boots and the raincoat, but you have to 
trade the spoon in for a shovel. [Laughter]
    Let me say, what we'd like to do now is just to say hello to 
everyone. I do want to say again how very proud I am to be here. Let me 
just make one comment specific, if I might, to Alaska. When I was coming 
down--I've been so excited about this trip. One of the things that is 
most fascinating about this country is how incredibly different and 
diverse it is, from one coast to the other and all places in between, 
and yet how there are certain ties that bind us together.
    About a week ago, or maybe a little--[inaudible]--a week ago now, I 
was in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It's about as far away from here as you 
can get and still be in America. And I was the first President since 
Andrew Jackson to go there, which is appropriate. [Laughter] But I was 
in the Portuguese Social Club. America has over one million Portuguese-
Americans. Most of them live in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, although 
there is also a big contingent in California. And I was thinking then, 
you know, I said, gosh, here I am with Portuguese in Rhode Island, and 
I'm about to go to Alaska.
    And if you think about it, that is the great promise of this 
country. There is no other nation in the world so well positioned to 
move into the next century, in which the world gets smaller and smaller, 
because we already have everybody here. And if we can figure out how to 
deal with the honest differences we have, in ways that permit us to 
build unity out of our differences, there will be no stopping this 
country.
    It is astonishing--every place I go in the world, I meet somebody 
with a relative in the United States. Every place I go, people think 
they can relate to us, in no small measure because we have welcomed 
others from all over the world, of different faiths, to our shores. And 
we still have stood up for our constant values, freedom and democracy.
    The most amazing part of the trip I took to the Middle East, when 
Hillary and I went over there for the signing, that didn't--I don't 
think it made a lot of impression here at home, and it had the biggest 
impact, I think, there--the opportunity I had to stand in the Jordanian 
Parliament and tell those folks that we had millions of Americans that 
answered the Muslim call to prayer every day and that we respected 
Islam. We knew there was nothing in their religion that would divide us, 
that would promote terrorism, that would be destructive of our values, 
and that the things that we opposed that we saw--the terrorism there in 
the Middle East is something that we oppose anywhere, anyplace, coming 
from any group of people. And it was stunning. They had never really 
thought about it before, that America was a place that all who share our 
values and obey our laws can call home.
    It's our meal ticket to the future, and we have to nourish it. That 
means that whoever is the President, whoever is in charge of the 
National Government, even though there won't be always easy answers or 
perfect answers to these problems, we have to be sensitive to the fact 
that Alaska is different from Rhode Island,

[[Page 2069]]

Colorado is different from Florida. The problems are different; the 
challenges are different; the opportunities are different.
    I'm glad to have a chance to be here. And I hope we have a lot of 
opportunities to work together.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 5:50 p.m. A tape was not available for 
verification of the content of these remarks.