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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release September 25, 1995

          Remarks by President Clinton and the First Lady Upon
                        Arrival in Pennsylvania

             Wilkes Barre-Scranton International Airport
                         Avoca, Pennsylvania

                           September 24, 1995

10:52 a.m. EDT

MRS. CLINTON: Well, I want to thank the congressman and I want to thank all of the officials who have come out to greet us this morning, and especially all of you who are here. This is a great, great opportunity for me to come back here to, as what the congressman said, kind of my second home growing up, a place that I love, a place that I spent so many happpy days in with my family, and to have a chance to be here on such a glorious day.

We are thrilled to be back. And I want all of you to know how much we appreciate the support, personally and publicly, that flows from this part of Pennsylvania to us. We feel it. Many of you write us. You come by and see us. You send me word about all kinds of things that are happening. And we are very grateful to you for that.

I want to introduce my husband, who I first brought to this part of the world many, many years ago. And he fell in love with it as I always had. But we didn't get much of a chance to come back as often as I would have liked. But he is a great fan and admirer as well of all of the people in this part of the country. And please join me in welcoming back to the place we love, the President of the United States. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Good morning, and thank you for coming out. I want to say, first of all, how very much I appreciate the kindness that so many of you have shown to my wife and to the members of our family. And if we ever cause an interruption in ordinary flow of life here when the Rodham family comes back to its roots, I apologize for that. But you can't imagine how much they all love it.

We're going back to Lake Winola today for the -- (applause) -- the first time since our daughter was not quite two years old. So she doesn't have much of a memory of the first time we took her up there. We were talking about that this morning getting ready to come up here.

Let me also say to you -- give you a little good news. I'm sorry we're a few minutes late this morning, but I got up early this morning at the White House and was on the phone for a couple of hours because this morning, or morning our time, not very long ago, the Israelis and Palestinians have reached agreement on the next phase of their long peace process. It's a big step forward toward ending the long, long state of seige in the Middle East. (Applause.)

And on this day of worship, a thanksgiving for so many of us, I though that would be a good way to get this Sunday off to the right kind of start.

I want to thank you also for the support that you have given to me and to our administration. We are doing everything we possibly can to try to lift up the values of work and family and freedom and responsibility and community in this country, to move the economy forward, to tackle the tough problems, and to bring the American people together.

And I am gratified that with all of our difficulties, we see the unemployment rate dropping, more jobs being created. The crime rate, believe it or not, now is going down in all 50 states. And we seem to be coming together again as a country and looking toward the future again.

And so I want to say that for me at least every day is an enormous opportunity as we go through this period of historic change for America's economy and in the whole world to try to elevate the things that all of you live by day in and day out here -- to try to restore economic opportunity where it was taken away in the 1980s, and to try to give people the opportunity to make the most of their own lives, and families and communities the chance to solve their own problems and realize their own possibilities.

It is a great honor, a great joy. And for every day you have given me to be your President, I thank you.

God bless you all. (Applause.)

END 10:59 a.m. EDT