[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 16 (Monday, April 24, 1995)]
[Page 681]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6789--National Day of Mourning in Memory of Those Who Died 
in Oklahoma City

April 21, 1995

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    As we seek justice for the evil done in Oklahoma City on April 19, 
1995, good and decent people everywhere mourn the loss of innocents. Our 
sons and daughters, parents and friends were stolen from us. Their 
families can never replace the gift of their laughter. Our Nation can 
never replace the spirit of their character. But even as we grieve, we 
resolve today in solemn promise that those on earth shall never be bowed 
by murderous cowards. This sin against humanity shall not go unpunished.
    It has been said that, ``In every child who is born, the 
potentiality of the whole human race is born again.'' We lost 
unimaginable potential this past week. And we will miss our loved ones 
dearly. But the children who died in this violence may yet lift up 
humanity. We do them no greater honor than by taking from their deaths 
the memory of their hopes, by carrying with us always their dreams, 
their kind and trusting ways. We redeem the value of their lives no 
further than by heeding the voices of children everywhere, who ask 
simply and invariably for peace and love.
    We take comfort in knowing that all who perished are in God's hands.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby appoint Sunday, 
April 23, 1995, as a National Day of Mourning throughout the United 
States. I ask the American people assembled on that day in their homes 
and places of worship to pay homage to the memory of those lost in the 
Oklahoma City tragedy and to pray for them and their community. I invite 
all those around the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn 
observance.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first 
day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-five, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and nineteenth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:46 a.m., April 24, 
1995]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
April 25.