    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [November 21, 1996]
    [Pages 2139-2141]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 2139]]

    Remarks in Sydney, Australia
    November 21, 1996

        Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Prime Minister. Thank
    you, Premier Carr. Mr. Lord Mayor, Mrs. Howard, Mrs. Carr. Andrew Hoy,
    thank you very much for reminding us how you defeated us in Atlanta--
    [laughter]--and thank you for what you said about the Olympics.
        Premier, you invited me to come back in the year 2000 to the
    Olympics. I have to make full disclosure--this morning when I woke up,
    the very first thing Hillary said to me was, ``Now, in 2000, I think you
    ought to make me your official representative to the Olympics in
    Sydney,'' which means I suppose I'll have to come back as her valet if I
    wish to come. [Laughter] But I've had such a good time here, I'd like to
    come back in any capacity.
        I thank you all very much for your hospitality. It's a great
    privilege for me to stand here in Sydney Harbor, to be in these
    beautiful botanical gardens, where I had the privilege this morning to
    go on my morning run right by this site; to see the magnificent opera
    house, where I had the chance to tour on an impromptu basis this
    morning. A wonderful and surprised guard even took me up to the organ,
    and I virtually got to count all 10,500 pipes. [Laughter] This is a
    magnificent place. I'm also glad to be here in the shadow of Harbor
    Bridge. If any of you followed our campaign at all, you know I'm kind of
    into bridges this year. [Laughter] And I think that that's a bridge that
    will take you into the 21st century in good shape.
        As the Prime Minister and the Premier have said, Americans have
    visited Sydney and felt welcome for a long time. You might be interested
    to know that almost exactly 100 years ago, our great American writer
    Mark Twain came to Australia. Now, Mark Twain is famous for many things,
    his great books ``Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,'' ``Tom
    Sawyer,'' ``Huckleberry Finn,'' all those books, but those of us in
    public life in America appreciate him because he was always puncturing
    the pompous and always reminding people that they should have a very
    sort of philosophical and good-humored attitude about their troubles in
    life.
        And we got to talking about Mark Twain last night in this very
    harbor, and I told the Prime Minister--I said, ``Prime Minister, you're
    riding high now, but the first time you get in trouble remember what
    Mark Twain said about dogs. Mark Twain said, `Every dog should have a
    few fleas; keeps them from worrying so much about being a dog.' ''
    [Laughter] Now, whenever I complain at home, that's what my staff tells
    me. Just once I'd like to be a flea instead of a dog, though, in this
    business. [Laughter]
        Anyway, Mark Twain came here almost 100 years ago, and I found out
    something that I did not know until we decided to make this trip. Like
    all of us, he was struck by what he said was ``the lavish hospitality of
    Sydney's people.'' He liked the warmth of Sydney in every way. But he
    said that Sydney reminded him, more than any other place, of one
    particular town in America, which was exactly as far north of the
    Equator as Sydney is south of it, my hometown, Little Rock, Arkansas.
    Interesting. Except Sydney got the better of the comparison--
    [laughter]--because while he said they were a lot alike and the people
    were very friendly, Sydney was better because it didn't have Little
    Rock's cold winters. He wrote, ``You could cut up an Arkansas winter
    into a hundred Sydney winters and still have enough left for Arkansas
    and all the poor.'' Well, that's another reason for me to come back in
    Sydney's winter, to see if it's true.
        This is a remarkable community and a remarkable nation. In this new
    global culture that we're all experiencing, Australia's contribution has
    been far out of proportion to its population in modern art, in learning,
    in music, in theater, in opera, in the cinema; the novels of Patrick
    White, Thomas Keneally, David Malouf; the paintings of Sidney Nolan,
    Russell Drysdale, Utopia artists; the films of Baz Luhrmann, Peter Weir,
    and so many others; and according to the young people in my group, bands
    like Midnight Oil and Silverchair; Dame Joan Sutherland; and great jazz
    musicians. I want to thank you, Prime Minister, for making it possible
    for me to hear James Morrison and Grace Knight yesterday. They were
    magnificent. Thank you very much.
        I'm glad to stand here today with Andrew Hoy, who did lead your
    remarkable team to

    [[Page 2140]]

    its remarkable showing in the centennial Olympics in Atlanta. His own
    gold medal performance, repeating his victory in Barcelona, were one of
    the things that made the games such a great success. And I am very
    pleased that at the dawn of our new century, the Olympic torch will
    arrive here in Sydney. We know the Olympics will be an enormous success
    for Sydney, just as they were for Atlanta.
        The Olympics have captured the imagination and the heart of people
    everywhere. I have thought a lot about why, maybe because we all love
    athletics and maybe because we all love competition, but I think there's
    more to it than that. And there's something I hope you will be able to
    play upon here in Sydney because you're perfectly positioned to do it. I
    think people yearn for the Olympics today because they work pretty much
    the way we think the world should work. There are rules and everybody
    follows them, and everybody has a chance to play without regard to their
    race or gender or where they start out in life, and people are valued
    based on their performance and their effort.
        Even those who do not win medals--and most of the people who will
    come to Sydney won't come close to winning a medal--but everybody gets a
    chance to do his or her best, to reach down deep inside, and everybody's
    better off for having tried. Unlike so many other human endeavors,
    including the field of politics, no one wins by tripping his or her
    opponent up in the competition or standing before a microphone and bad-
    mouthing the other side. You only win by playing by the rules and doing
    well. And I think the world should work more that way.
        When the world comes to Sydney for the Olympics, either literally or
    over the electronic media, they'll have a chance to see a city and a
    nation struggling to meet that ideal. We have a chance on the verge of
    this new century to make it possible for more people than ever in human
    history to live out their dreams and to live up to their God-given
    potential.
        This city has people who traced their origins to more than 140
    different nations. There are only 197 different national groups
    represented in the Olympics. In our largest county, Los Angeles County,
    we have people from over 150 of those groups. We're becoming an
    increasingly interconnected world. Australia has a higher percentage of
    immigrants who came here and built decent lives and strengthened your
    country through hard work than almost any other country on Earth.
        When you drive down the streets of Sydney tonight and you look at
    all these different people making a contribution to your country, think
    with sadness but prayerful hope about all the people who live around the
    world who are still being persecuted because they are different from
    their neighbors, because they have different religious views or they're
    from different racial or ethnic or tribal groups.
        Think of the terrible spectacle we have seen in Africa just in the
    last few days, hundreds of thousands of refugees trooping back and forth
    looking for a safe place to spend the night, parents losing their
    children along the way, just because they're in different tribes. And to
    those of us of untrained eyes who have never been there, they look the
    same as those who carry guns and would oppress them.
        Think of what it's like in the Holy Land, for all of us who are
    either Jewish or Muslim or Christians, where people still believe they
    cannot live with one another because they worship only one God but in a
    different way.
        Think of what it is like in Bosnia, where there is literally
    biologically no difference between the Serbs, the Croats, and the
    Muslims; where they belong to different religious groups by accident of
    political history; where people killed each other's children with
    abandon after having lived for decades in peace.
        But there is a lot of evidence that we can all do better than that.
    And when the world comes to Sydney, they will see that. So think about
    that. Think about how every day in every way, when you bring in people
    who are those like me who trace their roots to England or Ireland or
    Scotland, to various Asian countries or South Asia or Latin America or
    the Middle East or Africa--every day you do that when the world is
    looking at you, you offer a rebuke to all those who would take away the
    lives and the futures and the fortunes of the children of this world
    because they are different from them.
        We somehow must find a way to let our children define themselves in
    terms of who they are, not who they are not; in terms of what they
    believe, not what someone else believes; in terms of what is good inside
    them and what can be developed into something really beautiful, instead
    of what can be developed in terms of hatred, so they can know that
    they're better

    [[Page 2141]]

    than somebody else who's different from them. That is the single great
    challenge that is keeping us from making the 21st century the era of
    greatest possibility in human history. And I cannot think of a better
    place in the entire world, a more shining example of how people can come
    together as one nation and one community than Sydney, Australia.
        I'm so grateful that you'll be here for the Olympics in 2000. I want
    you to know that the world is looking to you. And I also want you to
    know that America will keep looking to you. The Prime Minister mentioned
    our comradeship in World War I, the first time our soldiers ever fought
    together. The Australians had been in combat for more than 3 years when
    America's troops first went to France. And one of them asked the
    Americans, ``Are you going to win the war for us?'' The American
    answered, ``Well, I hope we'll fight like the Australians.'' Ever since
    then the spirit of Australia has been renowned in America. We respect
    it, and we love working with you.
        Again let me say, as I did in Canberra yesterday, the United States
    and people all over the world are especially in your debt for your
    determination to end nuclear explosions on Earth and your leadership in
    helping us to complete the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
        We are in your debt for setting a standard of caring about people
    beyond your shores. Time and again you have sent peacekeepers into
    harm's way to end bloodshed: Rwanda, Haiti, Somalia, Cambodia. Almost
    two-thirds of all the United Nations peacekeeping missions have had
    Australian troops. Whenever the troubled places of the Earth call out,
    Australia has always been there to help. Throughout the Asia-Pacific
    region and the entire world, you are seen as a beacon of strength and
    freedom and democracy.
        Today, when for the first time in history more than half the world's
    people actually are ruled by governments of their own choosing, we know
    it is the powerful example of Australia and other freedom-loving peoples
    that made it possible. Today, more people will live lives of dignity and
    peace because of the work that Australia has done in the historic
    struggle for freedom.
        So let me say again, I have had a wonderful time here. I have
    enjoyed it immensely. I am about to go try to survive a golf game with
    your most famous golfer. But more than anything else, on behalf of all
    the American people, I want to thank you for what you have done and been
    for the United States and the world together. And I want to wish you
    well as we work through this 21st century together. And I want to ask
    you to remember again when the Olympics comes here, if you can live by
    the rules which govern the Olympics and show that light to the world, it
    will stand as a beacon of hope for all that everyone who lives on the
    face of the Earth can become in this great new century. And that can be
    the enduring legacy of Sydney in the year 2000.
        Thank you. God bless you. God bless Australia and the United States.

    Note: The President spoke at 2 p.m. at the Royal Botanical Gardens. In
    his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister John Howard of Australia and
    his wife, Janette; Premier Bob Carr of New South Wales and his wife,
    Helena; Lord Mayor Frank Sartor of Sydney; Andrew Hoy, equestrian
    Olympic Gold Medalist; and professional golfer Greg Norman.