[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
[September 27, 1995]
[Pages 1500-1501]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1500]]


Remarks to Oklahoma City ``Thank You America'' Participants
September 27, 1995

    Thank you, Governor Keating. I want to thank so many people who are 
here who made me immensely proud to be an American and to have the 
opportunity to serve during this sad but amazing episode in our Nation's 
history.
    First, I thank Governor Keating for his outstanding leadership. It's 
a little-known fact, but about 30 years ago in this city, Frank Keating 
and I were college classmates. And life took us in different directions 
and to different parties and different pursuits. But when I watched him 
during this crisis, I saw the same person I had admired 30 years ago and 
had felt good about, about his strength and his eloquence and his 
conviction. And the people of Oklahoma were very fortunate to have him 
as their Governor during this period. I thank Mrs. Keating for the work 
she did, especially on that memorial service which will live in the 
minds and hearts of every one of us who participated in it, and I 
imagine every American who saw it, for as long as we live. I thank Mayor 
Norick and Mrs. Norick. I saw the mayor earlier, and the first time I 
talked to him and then when I came down to see him, I thought, of all 
the things you ever imagined could happen to you when you run for mayor, 
this is the one thing you never signed on for. But I think that he and 
his representatives here from the police and fire department and the 
people from the Oklahoma National Guard and the Oklahoma Emergency 
Management Agency who are represented here did a very, very fine job.
    I think you saw once again, when my old friend James Lee Witt was up 
here talking about it--he lives this job more than anybody who has ever 
headed the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And I think he has done 
great credit to that agency, and he's made America feel secure in times 
of trouble, whatever the trouble is. And I thank him for that.
    I want to say to Mr. Stinnett and the people from Fairfax County, 
Mr. Mathias and the people from Virginia Beach, Lieutenant Carr and the 
people from Montgomery County, and all the brave men and women who 
answered the call, I thank you very much. Let me also thank the Governor 
and the mayor for bringing our new Miss America here. I thought she did 
magnificently well in the contest the other night. Congratulations to 
you. We're glad to see you here.
    It is a tribute to the leadership and to the strength of Oklahomans 
that in the midst of their own continuing recovery, they took the 
trouble and time to come here and tour this country to thank those of 
you who assisted them in their hour of need. As I said at the time, and 
I want to say again, one of the lessons of the Oklahoma City tragedy is 
that, although they lost a very great deal, they did not lose America. 
They have not forgotten that. And I really appreciated what the Governor 
said when he said that if any of us ever needed them, they would be 
there.
    I was in Florida the other day, walking the streets of Jacksonville 
in a high-crime area with a man who had just been elected sheriff. And 
we had a lot of children there who were living there in this 
neighborhood. And in the last 6 months, they've been able to drive the 
crime rate down dramatically. And the Governor of Florida said, ``You 
know, one of the continuing struggles in America is for us to decide 
whether we're going to be a community or a crowd.'' He said, ``A crowd 
of people occupy the same piece of land, but they don't really relate to 
each other very well. They just kind of shove each other back and forth, 
and some win and some are left behind. A community occupies the same 
piece of land, and they recognize that they really are obligated to one 
another and that everybody's life is better when they recognize those 
obligations and act on them.''
    Oklahoma City turned the entire United States into a community. In 
fact, it turned us all into a family. We somehow found our better selves 
in the horror of what had happened to people with whom we identified. 
The feelings of the rescuers, I think, is best summed up in a note I got 
from the Fairfax County team. And they wrote:
    ``We'll never forget our time in Oklahoma City. We still are healing 
and searching for the reason why someone could do something this evil to 
people that are so good. Now, whenever we find ourselves angry over 
something, we think about the people of Oklahoma and our

[[Page 1501]]

anger abates. Whenever we're asked about what we did there, the answer 
always includes meeting the most wonderful people in the country. We'd 
like to thank the people of Oklahoma City for reminding us of what being 
an American really means.''
    No one could have said it better than the team. Thank you very much.
    One of the best things we can do to continue this healing process is 
to all carry on as best we can with the work that was left undone there, 
to reach out to the children, especially those who lost a parent or 
whose parents were severely disabled by the bombing.
    America believes in extending a helping hand to people who are in 
trouble through no fault of their own. And a lot of things have been 
announced to help those children and those families. We have established 
a scholarship fund here, and various Federal agencies are working on 
making sure that the children of people who were killed who worked for 
the agencies will all be able to go on to college and have their 
educational needs met. And so we decided to establish a Presidential 
scholarship fund to assist the children of the victims.
    One of the nicest things that's happened to me in the last 3 years 
is that this year on my birthday, the present my staff gave to me was 
that each of them contributed to the scholarship fund for the children 
of Oklahoma City. Since there will be many different circumstances for 
these young people, we thought it best to set up an advisory board to 
direct the proceeds of the scholarship fund. And my long-time friend 
former Governor George Nigh has agreed to chair it. Former Governor and 
Senator Henry Bellmon has agreed to serve on the board. We will be 
assisted by the Governor's office and the mayor's office. And James Lee 
Witt has also agreed to serve on the board.
    So this fund will be administered at absolutely no cost, and 
therefore, 100 percent of all the contributions given by Federal 
employees and others here in Washington and throughout the country to 
help the children will go to educate those children. And I think that is 
very, very important.
    Gandhi once said that if we are ever to reach real peace in this 
world, we shall have to begin with the children. For those of you who 
are being honored here today who brought your children, let me thank you 
for that. I hope they will always remember and always be very proud of 
what you did for their Nation in the hour of need of the people of 
Oklahoma City.
    Let me now say that I hope and pray that this will never happen 
again in our country. We are doing everything we can to prevent it from 
happening again. But we learned something about ourselves when it did 
happen that we should never forget. And I just hope that we can follow 
the lesson of the note in the Fairfax County team's statement. When we 
feel ourselves getting angry or drifting away from our fellow citizens 
or being less than we ought to be, we ought to remember how all of us 
were in the aftermath of Oklahoma City and how that magnificent spirit 
made everyone a little more human, a little more alive, and a lot more 
proud to just have the opportunity to help our fellow human beings and 
our fellow Americans who needed it. If we can remember that, then that 
lasting tragedy will always have changed America for the better.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 5:40 p.m. at the National Guard Memorial. 
In his remarks, he referred to Governor Frank Keating of Oklahoma, and 
his wife, Cathy; Mayor Ronald Norick of Oklahoma City, OK, and his wife, 
Carolyn; Edward L. Stinnett, member, FEMA Urban Search and Rescue 
Virginia Task Force 1 (Fairfax County); Melven R. Mathias, member, FEMA 
Urban Search and Rescue Virginia Task Force 2 (Virginia Beach); Thomas 
Carr, leader, FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Maryland Task Force 1 
(Montgomery County); and Shawntel Smith, Miss America 1995.