[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
[April 5, 1996]
[Pages 546-547]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Plaque Dedication Ceremony for the New YMCA
Day Care Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
April 5, 1996

    Thank you very much. Governor Keating, Senator Nickles, Mr. Mayor, 
Lieutenant Governor Fallin, Congressman Brewster, Congressman Istook, to 
the families that are behind me and the children that just made the walk 
with us and their parents, I thank them.
    I was especially glad to see Brandon and Rebecca Denny, because they 
came to see Hillary and me in the White House and I thought they would 
be glad to see us again. But I asked them if they remembered meeting me; 
they said, ``Yes. How's Socks?'' [Laughter] So I thought to myself, 
things are maybe beginning to get back to normal in Oklahoma City; at 
least the children have their priorities in order.
    Hillary and I thought a lot about where we were last year when we 
came down here to be with you and with our friend James Lee Witt, the 
FEMA Director, who is also here today. And I wondered what I ought to 
say. Let me begin by noting that this is, after all, Good Friday. It is 
a day for those of us who are Christians that marks the passage from 
loss and despair to hope and redemption. And in a way that is the lesson 
of this little walk we just took with these children and their parents, 
from a place where we mourn lives cut so brutally short to this place 
where, thanks to you and all of those who the Lieutenant Governor 
mentioned, we can truly celebrate new beginnings.
    I hope the lesson of the walk and this effort will comfort and 
inspire all of those here in Oklahoma City and especially those who are, 
as the Governor said, still hurting, still searching, still working to 
put their lives back together. I know there's nothing that anyone can do 
to bring back the children whose lives were taken from us, nothing we 
can do to sweep away the frightening memories that still linger in the 
children who survived, except to continue to work until they finally go 
away.
    But what you have done is to show our children that in the wake of 
evil, goodness can surround them and lift them up. You have done a lot 
here already to prove that their lives are strong and powerful, like the 
tree behind me, which has now become famous around the country. 
Everybody wants to know why this tree stood up when the bomb went off. 
It lost its leaves and its bark, and it's still kind of ugly--
[laughter]--but it survived, and it's going to bloom again. Why is it 
going to bloom again? Because its roots kept it strong and standing.
    The survivors and the spirit of this community are blooming again 
because your roots kept you strong and standing. Now we see it in this 
child care center that we are here to dedicate today. It's a testament, 
really, to the resilience of the human spirit and the fierce devotion of 
the parents of this community and the larger community, what Hillary 
likes to call ``the village of citizens,'' who are determined to support 
your children and their future. When something really terrible happens, 
it's easy to forget how important basic things are. It's pretty 
important for children to have a safe place to fingerpaint or plead with 
the teacher to read a book for the fifth time or just play in a secure 
and safe environment.
    These places, like the one you are preparing here for your children, 
are places where our kids begin to learn how to relate to other 
children. And they have to learn to live out the essential values that 
have stood our American family so well for so long. They really have to 
learn how to build instead of tear down, to work together instead of run 
away, how to treat other people who are just like them with respect and 
fairness. By rebuilding a place for children to learn these lessons and 
to play and to laugh again, all of you, as citizens, have done the most 
honorable thing a nation could ask for, and I want to thank you for 
that.

[[Page 547]]

    I also want to thank those of you who have already mentioned in 
public and in private the tragedy our Nation has endured this week with 
the loss of our Commerce Secretary and my dear friend, Ron Brown, and 
many other people, many of them quite young, who served our Nation in 
the Commerce Department and the United States military, and the business 
executives who were on that trip.
    They lost their lives pursuing the very spirit that we are here to 
celebrate today. They went to the Balkans, a region that has literally 
been torn apart by war, where hundreds of thousands of people have been 
stripped of their dignity and lives, and where millions have been turned 
into refugees and where countless children have been robbed of their 
future. And they did it just to prove that through faith and commitment, 
the people of Bosnia could get over their hatred and intolerance and 
that America wanted to help.
    Ron Brown laughed with me last Monday night when we talked about 
this mission in detail, that I had sent him all over the world with 
business leaders, primarily to expand the reach of the American economy, 
to generate more jobs for Americans. But he was going to Bosnia to use 
the power of the American economy, with the business leaders who were 
there, just to try to help the peace take hold, to give normal life back 
to those people. That is a noble and good thing for which they lived and 
died, and I ask you for your prayers for them and their families who, in 
these difficult days, are having their problems understanding the whys 
of all of this.
    So as we remember those who perished here almost a year ago and we 
mourn those who died on that hard mountain so many thousands of miles 
from here, let us again thank God for the grace that has brought us to 
this point and enabled us to live with our sorrows and tragedies and to 
rebuild our lives.
    You know, the bagpipers over there were playing ``Amazing Grace.'' I 
suppose it's the best known American hymn, at least the first verse. But 
as we remember those people in this community who are still grieving and 
still struggling, and we think of all of the difficulties life presents 
for which we have no answer, I would like to close with a reference to 
the third verse of that magnificent hymn:

     Through many dangers, toils, and snares
     I have already come.
     `Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
     And grace will lead me home.

    We pray God's grace today on those who lost so much a year ago and 
on the efforts of those of you who are working hard to build a better 
future, to make something profoundly good come out of that tragedy.
    I'd like now to ask the children who are here, and all of the others 
in the podium who would like to, to come up here and help me unveil the 
plaque. I don't have great manual skills. I need all of the help I can 
get up here. Could you all come up--the families and Governor, Mayor--
you all come on over. Let's do this together.
    God bless you. Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 12:36 p.m. at the New YMCA Day Care Center. 
In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Frank Keating and Lt. Gov. Mary 
Fallin of Oklahoma and Mayor Ron Norick of Oklahoma City.