    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
    [August 22, 2002]
    [Pages 1439-1448]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in Central Point, Oregon
    August 22, 2002

        Thank you all very much for coming. Thanks for--please be seated,
    unless of course you don't have a chair. [Laughter] Thanks for that.
    Thank you all for such a warm welcome. It's such an honor to be here in
    Jackson County.

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        I have come for a couple of reasons. First, I have come to express
    our deepest condolences for those whose lives have been affected by
    these fires and to thank the yellow-shirts, the hard-working
    firefighters. I appreciate the sacrifice you all make to protect your
    neighbors. One of the things you learn growing up in small-town Texas or
    small-town Oregon is that you learn to be neighborly. And the idea of
    people sacrificing to serve their neighbors is something that makes this
    country great. So I want to thank you all for what you do.
        I also want to tell you, our job is to make sure we do everything we
    can to prevent forest fires from happening in the first place. That's
    one of our responsibilities, and that's why I went up to Jacksonville to
    talk about a policy that is based upon common sense. It's not a
    political deal. It's not a Republican idea. It's not a Democrat idea.
    It's an American idea to preserve our forests so that we can--that's one
    of the hurdles we've got to address here in the country. That's one of
    the challenges we've got to meet, is how to preserve our national
    treasure.
        We've got other challenges. Listen, anytime anybody who wants to
    find work, who can't find work, it means we've got a problem. So I want
    to talk about the job we have of making sure we grow our economy, so
    people can work.
        And then what I want to talk about--I want to talk about the fact
    that we've got another challenge, and that is how best to protect our
    homeland from the killers. And I want to tell you how we're going to win
    the war on terror, and we are going to win the war on terror.
        I want to thank members of my administration for coming out here.
    They're kind of used to the West, since they are from the West, and that
    would be the Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, and the Secretary of Interior, Gale Norton. These two ladies are doing a fine job, really fine job.
    I'm proud they're on my team.
        I appreciate so very much Gordon Smith for
    introducing me and being a friend. I'm proud of the service that he has
    given to the State of Oregon. He's a hard-working man. He's a family
    man. He's a good, decent citizen. And I want to appreciate--and I want
    to say how much I appreciate Senator Ron Wyden for
    being here as well. I think it's an important gesture to show that
    forest policy can be commonsense policy. I appreciate you.
        The honorable citizens--and so is your Congressman, Greg
    Walden. [Applause] It sounds like they remember
    you, Greg. [Laughter] I remember him, because all he does is talk about
    Oregon. [Laughter] I want to thank Governor Judy Martz and Governor Jane Dee Hull,
    Governors from Montana and Arizona, for coming. These are fine--I wish I
    could say they were here--they came to hear my speech. They came to
    promote good fire policy. They got stuck listening to the speech.
    [Laughter] But I'm proud to call them friends. I had the honor of being
    a Governor at one time, and I knew these two ladies. And they're good
    ones, and I want to thank them for coming.
        I also want to thank the mayor of Central Point, Oregon, Bill
    Walton, for receiving me earlier. I want to
    thank Michael Draper, who is the western
    director of the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners
    Union, for being here. You thought Michael would have gotten you a
    better seat. [Laughter] But thank you all for coming. I want to thank
    Nolan Colegrove, who is the president of the
    Intertribal Timber Council. He came up from California. I had a good
    visit with him. He's a good, solid thinker and a reasonable fellow.
        I want to thank my friends from the Klamath River Basin who are
    here. I want to appreciate your working with us to make sure that people
    who make the living off the land had enough water to survive. I want to
    thank the members of the Student Conservation Association who are here.
    [Applause] You'd think your relatives would

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    be clapping, too, but--[laughter]--thank you for your concern for our
    environment. Thanks for your hard work to put into practice commonsense
    policies to preserve the forest land.
        I want to introduce Matt Epstein, who is
    here. The reason I bring up Matt is, everywhere I go, when I land, I try
    to welcome somebody to--a member of what we call the USA Freedom Corps,
    out at Air Force One, to thank them. But it also gives me a chance to
    remind our country what a unique land we are. We have people who
    volunteer their time to make their communities a better place.
        Matt teaches kids how to read. Matt worries
    about those who don't have enough food. Matt also works hard to promote
    good forest management policy. He not only does it on his own land, but
    he promotes good forest policy so people understand the difference
    between kind of theory and good practice. Matt is a citizen who cares
    deeply about the community in which he lives. He is a soldier in the
    army of compassion. Matt understands what I know, that one person can't
    do everything, but one person can do something to make the community in
    which we live a better place. So it's my honor to introduce Matt Epstein
    and his wife, Donna. Thank you for coming.
    Where are you, Matt? There he is. Hi, Matt. Hi, Donna. Thank you.
        We've got some challenges that face our economy; there's no question
    about it. I mean, the first three quarters of my Presidency, we were in
    recession. That means the economy was going backwards; it was negative
    growth. The next three quarters we've had positive growth. But about
    halfway through that time, the enemy hit us, and it affected our
    economy. And then to make the challenge even more, we found out some of
    the folks were cooking the books. Some of the people decided that in
    order to get ahead, they wouldn't tell the truth.
        Oh, we've had some tough times in our economy, and I know you know
    what I'm talking about right here in this part of Oregon. Times are
    tough. But let me tell you something, so is America. Our economy has
    strengths to equal those challenges. I mean, after all, we've got the
    most productive farmers and ranchers in the world. We've got the most
    productive workers in the world. We've got a great climate for small
    businesses, and the entrepreneurial spirit is strong in America.
        No, we've got the ingredients to overcome the challenge. But there's
    still work to do. And let me describe some of the work that needs to get
    done. I believe a healthy economy will mean that we work to have--in
    order to have a healthy economy, we've got to have a healthy forest
    policy. I mean, if you have good forest policy, it will yield to a
    better economy. After all, the fires that have devastated the West
    create a drag on the economy. It costs money to fight these fires. It
    means people lose property. There's opportunity lost. No, good forest
    policy not only is important for the preservation and conservation of
    good forests for future generations, it's good for our economy.
        And yet, I think we need to be honest with the American people. The
    forest policy of our Government is misguided policy. It doesn't work. We
    need to thin. We need to make our forests healthy by using some common
    sense. We need to understand, if you let kindling build up and there's a
    lightning strike, you're going to get yourself a big fire. That's what
    we've got to understand. [Laughter]
        We've got to understand that it makes sense to clear brush. We've
    got to make sense--it makes sense to encourage people to make sure that
    the forest not only are healthy from disease, but are healthy from fire.
    That's what we've got to do here in America. We haven't done that in the
    past. We just haven't done it, and we're now paying the price.
        And so we're going to change the forest policy in Washington. And
    that's why I've got my Secretaries here. They know what

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    I know, that we've got to change the policy, starting with setting
    priorities, right off the bat, about getting after those areas that are
    dangerous, dangerous to communities, dangerous to habitat, dangerous to
    recreational areas. There are some high-priority areas that we need to
    declare emergencies and get to thinning now, before it's too late.
        And we have a problem with the regulatory body there in Washington.
    I mean, there's so many regulations and so much redtape that it takes a
    little bit of effort to ball up the efforts to make the forests healthy.
    And plus, there's just too many lawsuits, just endless litigation. We
    want to make sure our citizens have the right to the courthouse. People
    ought to have a right to express themselves, no question about it. But
    there's a fine balance between people expressing their selves and their
    opinions and using litigation to keep the United States of America from
    enacting commonsense forest policy.
        We've made some progress through administration action. We can thin
    on emergency basis, like I just mentioned. We'll speed up the process of
    developing environmental assessments, while considering the long-term
    threat that fire-susceptible forests pose to endangered species. We'll
    make sure that people have their voice, but aren't able to tie it all
    up. And I need to work with Congress, and I need help from Congress. And
    I appreciate Senator Smith and Senator
    Wyden's willingness to do what is right for the
    people of Oregon. They want to work together.
        There's too much bickering in Washington. Like, it's kind of a zero-
    sum attitude. No, what we need is to understand that what I'm talking
    about makes sense. And this isn't a chance for one political party to
    get an upper hand on another political party. This is just common sense
    for what's best for not only the forests and the preservation and
    conservation of forests but what's best for the people who live around
    the forests. That's what this is.
        People are beginning to get the message. I mean, Americans who have
    no idea what good forest policy means are beginning to see the fires on
    TV. It's a sad way for people to learn, but it's happening, and we're
    beginning to make some progress. There's some--recently I signed what
    they call a supplemental bill. And in that bill there was some--the
    Black Hills National Forest, east of here, got some treatment about how
    to thin, how to make sure that that forest was well preserved. My
    attitude is, if it's good enough for that part of South Dakota, it's
    good enough for Oregon.
        No, I want our forests healthy, and I want our economy healthy.
    That's why I strongly support the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, a plan
    which should allow the production of a billion board feet of timber per
    year. This is a plan that was a well-thought-out plan. It's a plan that
    was put together to protect wildlife habitat, to protect recreational
    areas. But it's a plan that's got another dividend, besides a healthy
    forest. It means 100,000 more jobs for people to be able to--[applause].
    This would be sustainable timber harvesting on a small portion of the
    forest. The prior administration developed and agreed to this plan. I
    support the plan. Congress needs to pass the laws necessary to implement
    the plan. Good forest policy will be good for the economy. Good forest
    policy will mean we will have left a legacy for future generations.
        You know, I'll never forget our tax relief debate. I remember
    telling people that where I came from, at least the economic book that I
    believe in says, ``If you've got tough times in your economy, you got to
    let people keep more of their own money.'' Here's the theory behind
    that. If you let a person keep their own money--and by the way, we're
    not talking about the Government's money. When we're spending money,
    we're talking about the people's money. If you let somebody keep their
    own money, they're likely to demand a good or a service. And if they
    demand a good

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    or a service, somebody is likely to produce that good or service. And
    when somebody produces a good and service, somebody is more likely to
    find work. And so therefore, in the face of this recession, the tax cut
    came at the right time in American economic history.
        Now people say, ``Well, you know, it didn't have an effect.'' Of
    course it had an effect. Let me tell you who it had an effect on. It had
    an effect not only on people who pay the bills; it had an effect on
    small-business owners. Seventy percent of new job creation in America
    comes from our small-business owners, comes from our entrepreneurs. Most
    of those small businesses, because they are sole proprietorships or
    limited partnerships, pay income taxes on the personal income tax level.
    So when you drop the income tax rates, really what you're doing is,
    you're stimulating job creation by putting a shot in the arm to the
    entrepreneurs, the small-business owners of America.
        This tax reform slashed the marriage penalty. It makes sense to me
    that the Tax Code ought to encourage marriage, not discourage marriage.
    After all, families--a family unit is the strength of the country. And
    for the sake of the small-business owners and the people who make a
    living off the land, the farmers and ranchers, we put the death tax on
    its way to extinction. But the problem is, because of a quirk in the
    nature of the rules, all this comes--it doesn't stay stuck. Let me put
    it to you that way. [Laughter] In other words, it comes back into being.
    The tax rates go back up to where they were. The death tax isn't
    repealed. The marriage penalty goes back up to where it is. That's just
    the nature of how the Senate rules work. For the sake of economic
    growth, for the sake of job creation, for the sake of helping people
    stay on their farms and ranches, we need to make the tax relief
    permanent.
        There are too many construction projects that aren't moving forward
    because the project managers can't find terrorism insurance. There's too
    many hardhats not working in America. There's over 8 billion projects
    which are not going forward, because the insurance premiums--they just
    can't can't insurance for a potential terrorist attack. It makes sense
    for the Congress to act on this. The United States Congress ought to
    provide a floor for terrorism insurance, so we can get our hardhats back
    to working again. But I caution the Congress, we need a bill that
    worries more about the workers and not about the trial lawyers in
    America.
        And speaking about trial lawyers, I am worried about liability for
    doctors. I'm worried about it. And here's what I'm worried about. I'm
    worried about frivolous and junk lawsuits, frivolous and junk lawsuits
    that are making it harder for our citizens to get access to health care.
    That worries me. It worries me that frivolous and junk lawsuits are
    running up the cost of medicine, because make no mistake about it,
    anytime there is these huge settlements that go forward, you pay.
        Now look, I repeat, if somebody gets injured, they ought to have
    their day in court, no question about it. That's a system that I value
    and a system you value. But these frivolous and junk lawsuits are
    denying people who have actually been injured their day in court.
    They're making it hard to find doctors. They're running up the cost of
    medicine. For the sake of good, quality, affordable, and accessible
    health care, we need medical liability reform in Washington, DC. And we
    need it now, before people lose their doctors in rural America.
        I want to tell you a quick story. I was in Mississippi during my so-
    called vacation. I traveled to Mississippi. [Laughter] And the--I met a
    fellow who had--is a religious man, and he heard the call of taking his
    practice, his medical practice, into the Mississippi Delta, which is a
    poor, poor region of America. It's--a significant percentage of the
    population there is African American. These poor folks need health care.
    And he felt like--that God gave him the

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    talents necessary to be a doctor, and he felt like he needed to use
    those talents to help people who could not afford health care. But
    because of the junk lawsuits, they ran him out of town; they ran him out
    of the State. I'm going to tell you something, if you look around rural
    Oregon, you're going to find the same thing is happening to you. Now, we
    need to have commonsense reform of our medical liability laws, so people
    can get good health care at affordable prices in America.
        I've got a piece of legislation which is important to job creation
    here in America and that gives me the capacity to negotiate trade
    agreements. I say that's important. I understand there's some farmers
    and ranchers who don't believe in trade--and I don't blame you, because
    you know what, you've been--always dealt out of the mix.
        But here's my attitude about this. First of all, fortunately, we
    produce more food than we need. Imagine being the head of a country
    where you're worried about your next meal for the American people. We
    produce more food than we need because we're good at what we do. And if
    you're good at something you do, you ought to promote that which we do.
    We ought to be using American food to feed the world. We ought to have a
    President--and I will use that tool to open up markets for Oregon farm
    and ranch products.
        In order to make sure the economy grows, we need pension
    protections. Listen, we need--if you're one of these 401(k)s with your
    company stock, you ought to be able to diversify after a reasonable
    period of time, so you're not locked in. And by the way, the law that
    I'm about to describe we passed says--that we just passed--says that if
    the boss gets to sell his stock, you ought to get to sell yours. There's
    some commonsense pension--and so I hope Congress gets after it when we
    get back and get me a pension bill that will help those who have 401(k)s
    get the best information possible, the best investment advice possible,
    so they can better manage their accounts.
        And I'll tell you one other thing that we did. I signed the law that
    was the most important corporate reform law since Franklin Roosevelt was
    your President. It said this, it said: The books are going to be honest;
    the auditors will be audited; the numbers are going to be real; and the
    criminals in America will be punished.
        We're not going to have this in America, where those who should be
    responsible to employees and shareholders feel like they can cut
    corners. When I gave the speech about corporate responsibility in New
    York, I said in my speech, the business schools in America need to be
    willing to teach right from wrong. And that's what the curriculum ought
    to do. And I was working the ropeline, and probably one of the hardhat
    types was sitting up there, was sitting on the ropeline, said, ``If you
    want to send the right message, if you want to teach the lesson, just
    put a couple of them in handcuffs.'' That's the best ethics lesson that
    we can have in America.
        America is coming to understand by far the vast majority--by far the
    vast majority of our chief executive officers are honorable, decent
    people. They tell the truth. They treat their shareholders with respect.
    They care deeply about the plight of their employees. But this corporate
    task force I put together is serious business. And we're going to find
    those who cheat, and we're going to prosecute them, and they're going to
    find out that, instead of easy money, they've got hard time ahead of
    them.
        We're making progress on the economic front. After all, the
    conditions are right for growth. I want you to think about this:
    Inflation is low; interest rates are low; productivity is up; consumer
    spending is strong. We've got the capacity to trade more. We've got the
    ingredients for growth. We've got some hurdles to cross, but you just
    need to know, I'm not going to rest until people who want to find work
    are able to find a job.

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        I also want you to know, I'm not going to rest until this homeland
    is secure. There's an enemy out there; there just is. The way I like to
    put it to kids who write letters in or ask the question--I hope you
    share this with them--is that people hate us because we love freedom.
    People--it's hard for people to understand, particularly youngsters, why
    anybody would attack us the way they did, or would want to continue to
    attack us. But you've got to tell them that your great country stands
    for something that they can't stand, which is every life matters. Every
    individual counts. Every person has got worth, and we love freedom in
    America.
        The more we value the ability to worship God the way we see fit, the
    more they hate us. The more we honor church and synagogue and mosque,
    the more they hate us. The more we speak our mind freely, the more they
    hate us. The more free our press is, the more they hate us. And
    therefore, since we're not going to yield to our freedoms, since we're
    not going to yield the values we hold dear, we've got to do everything
    we can to defend the homeland.
        There are a lot of people working overtime to protect America. Every
    time we get a hint, we're moving on it. There's a lot of good people at
    the Federal level, the State level, and the local level running down
    every kind of lead, every kind of possibility. We take everything
    seriously here in America, because we now understand that there's an
    enemy out there.
        And that's why I asked Congress to work with me to make sure that at
    the Federal level, and eventually at the State and local level, we do
    everything we can to protect the homeland. I proposed a Department of
    Homeland Security. Look, I didn't run for office saying, ``Vote for me.
    The Government is going to be bigger.'' That wasn't my promise. I did
    say, ``I'll try to make it better.'' And I'm concerned by the fact that
    there's over 100 agencies involved with homeland security. They're
    scattered everywhere in Washington, which makes it awfully hard to hold
    anybody to account. The number one--my number one goal and my number one
    job now is to protect the homeland from the enemy; and therefore, I
    ought to have the tools necessary to do so, and that starts with the
    Department of Homeland Security.
        And we're making some pretty good progress on it, but I need the
    tools, and so does my Secretary need the tools, to be able to move the
    right people at the right place at the right time, to respond to any
    threat. And unfortunately, that's not the way the Senate bill looks
    right now. You see, some Senators are more worried about their own turf
    than they are protecting the American people. I am not going to accept a
    homeland security bill that has a book that thick trying to micromanage
    the Department, when all I'm asking for is the same flexibility that
    they've given other Presidents and that they've given to manage the
    airports. All I want to do is to be able to respond. I'm not interested
    in redtape. I'm not interested in micromanagement. I'm interested in
    doing what's right for the American people.
        And let me give you just one example. Let me just give you one
    example. It's important for us in America to know who's coming in the
    country, what they're bringing into the country, and whether or not
    they're leaving when they say they're going to leave. That's really
    important for us to know. And yet when you go down there on the border,
    in my part of the world, you've got one uniform in the Border Patrol;
    then you've got the INS; then you've got your Customs. It seems like, to
    me, that we need the flexibility necessary to meld those agencies
    together, to be able to transfer people around, to be able to better
    protect our border for the sake of the homeland security of the United
    States of America.
        So there's a lot of good people working hard; there really are. And
    I'm proud of them. And I'm proud to report to you that

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    our FBI and CIA are talking. I mean, people are buttoned up. They
    understand the job. They know the priority. They understand. And that's
    good. But you've got to know how I think. The best way to secure the
    homeland is to hunt the killers down one by one, and that's what we're
    going to do.
        It's a different kind of war we face here in America. It's not like
    the old days where you could measure the size of the enemy by the number
    of tanks he had or the number of airplanes they were flying. You can't
    measure progress by which hedgerow we've taken. This is a different kind
    of war. This is a war where we face coldblooded killers--that's all they
    are--who hide in caves and send youngsters to their death. They hide in
    a cave, and they send some poor, unsuspecting soul to their death. There
    is no cave deep enough, however--there's no cave where they can hide
    from--you see, when it comes to defending freedom, this great Nation is
    relentless and patient and tough. Anytime--anybody who wants to take
    away something we hold dear is going to find out what this country is
    made out of.
        I can't imagine what was going through their mind. I can't imagine
    what was going through their mind. They must have thought that we were
    so self-absorbed and so materialistic and so worried about our own well-
    being, so selfish, that after September the 11th, we might file a
    lawsuit or two. [Laughter] But that's about all we would do.
        No, they learned something about America and our character. They
    learned that not only do we have a fabulous military; they're learning
    firsthand, when we say something, we mean it. And when I say, ``If you
    harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists,'' I mean
    it.
        And the Taliban knows what we mean. The Taliban, one of the most
    barbaric group of people that modern history has seen, found out that
    the United States sticks by its words. I want you to tell your kids this
    about us, that we went into that country not to conquer anybody but to
    liberate--that's why we went--and that for the first time, many young
    girls go to school, thanks to the United States and our friends and
    allies. No, by kicking out the Taliban, we recognized that each person
    has worth, that each person matters.
        We've got work to do, and that's why I submitted a significant
    increase in our budget, our defense budget, the biggest increase since
    Ronald Reagan was the President. I did so because I wanted to send a
    message, loud and clear--first--and that is, anytime we cement--put our
    troops in harm's way, they deserve the best equipment, the best
    training, and the best possible pay.
        And the second reason I did it is because I want to send a message
    to our friends and allies and to the enemy that we're not quitting.
    There's not a calendar on my desk that says by such-and-such a date this
    ends. That's not the way I think. That's not the way--it doesn't matter
    how long it takes, as far as I'm concerned, and we owe it to our
    children and our grandchildren to be tough and resolved and to be smart
    about how we conduct this war. This is the kind of war where sometimes
    you'll see us move, and sometimes you won't. I mean, it's the kind of
    war where we can be just as effective cutting off their money as it is
    hauling them in.
        And speaking about hauling them in, the United States and our
    coalition and friends have pulled in over a couple of thousand of them.
    And there's another couple of thousand that weren't quite so lucky.
    You'll see some action in Afghanistan, because there's still some spots
    where they feel like they can bunch up. But we've got some brave souls
    on the ground there, chasing them down. They may try to light, like they
    did in the Philippines. And I want to thank President Gloria
    Arroyo. She heard the message,
    ``Either you're with us, or you're with the enemy,'' and she responded.
    She asked for help. We provided help, but her

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    troops were the ones that got this guy that was running what they call
    Abu Sayyaf, the person who killed--kidnaped two brave Americans, the
    Burnhams.
        We're going to make sure that Yemen continues to remain strong and
    is not a place where people get to light. I mean, we are--we're running
    a vast coalition that loves freedom. And it's going to take a while; it
    will. And you've also got to know that it's very important for us not to
    allow the world's worst leaders to develop and hold and use the world's
    worst weapons to blackmail us or our friends.
        But we're making progress; we are, slowly but surely. And that's the
    kind of war this is. It's a slowly but surely war. We're making progress
    so that our--so we'll be free. See, here's how I view what happened on
    September the 11th. I view it as an unbelievable national tragedy. But
    because I know the American people so well, I know our character and our
    strength, out of the evil done to America will come some good. That's
    what I believe. I believe that, if we remain strong and steadfast and
    resolved in our war against terror and terrorists, we can achieve peace.
        I want you to tell your youngsters at home that my dream is peace. I
    want them to grow up in a peaceful world, in a peaceful society. It's
    not only them, but it's any child in any country, anywhere--needs to
    grow up in a peaceful world. And the United States can lead the world to
    peace. I believe we can achieve peace in parts of the world where people
    have given up hope on peace. That's what I believe. I believe, by
    leading this coalition of freedom nations, we can achieve peace. There
    will be some steep hills to climb. There will be some sacrifices made.
    But we can achieve peace.
        And here at home, we can achieve a better society. The good that can
    come out of the evil done to us is good that comes when people have
    taken a step back and said: ``What does it take to make my society, my
    country a better place?''
        People ask me, how can they help in the war against terror? My
    answer is, love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. If you
    want to fight evil, do some good. And there are a lot of Americans who
    hear that call. It's not my call. They've heard that call long before I
    was President. Some are hearing it for the first time, but they're
    hearing the call--that if you want to fight evil, you do some good. It's
    just acts of kindness and decency which will change our country one soul
    at a time.
        Listen, there are some pockets of despair and hopelessness and
    poverty and addiction in America. If one of us suffers, we all suffer.
    Out of the evil done to America can come some incredible good, as good,
    solid, decent, loving Americans decide to mentor a child, to teach a
    child to read, for example, or to go to a shut-in and just simply say
    ``I love you'' on a regular basis. ``What can I do to make your day
    brighter?'' It will happen when people understand their most important
    responsibility is to love their children with all their heart and all
    their soul.
        No, this culture of service, this culture of serving something
    greater than yourself in life, is becoming real in America. People
    understand being a patriot is more than simply putting your heart and
    saying the Pledge of Allegiance to ``one Nation under God.'' They also
    understand that being a patriot means to love somebody, to help somebody
    in need, to provide food where there's hunger and shelter where somebody
    needs a house and housing. That's what it means; that's what it means to
    be a patriot.
        No, the enemy thought they were hitting a weak nation, but instead
    they've awakened a great compassionate spirit in America. This sense of
    sacrifice was defined most clearly to me, and I think it will be to
    others who study the history of this period, was on Flight 93. Here were
    people flying across the country. They realized their plane was being
    used as a weapon. History will show that they said a prayer; they told

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    their loved ones goodbye. One guy said, ``Let's roll.'' They drove the
    plane in the ground to serve something greater than themselves. Every
    life in America matters.
        It's this sense of service, this sense of understanding there's
    something greater than ourselves in life, this sense of working to make
    America the very best it can be allows me to say with certainty that out
    of the evil done to America will come incredible good, because this is
    the finest Nation, full of the finest people on the face of the Earth.
        May God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:54 p.m. at the Compton Arena. In his
    remarks, he referred to Matt Epstein, Jackson County chapter president
    and State board representative, Oregon Small Woodlands Association; and
    President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines.