[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 18 (Monday, May 8, 1995)]
[Pages 736-737]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner

April 29, 1995

    Thank you very much, Ken. To all the members of the White House 
press who are here; to all the members of the White House staff and the 
administration who are here and who have to endure this every year with 
me. [Laughter] Let me say I have had a wonderful time tonight. I kind of 
hate to come up here; I'd rather listen to Conan talk to that worthless 
redneck on the screen--[laughter]--for another half an hour.
    I identify with Conan O'Brien. Like me, he's a young man who came 
from obscurity--[laughter]--and chose a sidekick with more inside 
experience. And despite his many accomplishments, 250 million Americans 
never get to see him in prime time. [Laughter]
    I feel your pain. [Laughter]
    Speaking of young people, it was announced tonight, you know, that 
my Press Secretary, Mike McCurry, and his wife, Debra, just had their 
third child, Christopher. I want to make another announcement: Before my 
term is over, Christopher will become the youngest member of the White 
House Press Office--[laughter]--just barely younger than the rest who 
work there. [Laughter]
    You know, I practiced for this night. I had all this humor and 
everything, but--and I really believe that you could tell I--I really 
liked that--whoever that awful person is that played me. [Laughter] I 
thought it was wonderful.
    The Book of Proverbs says, ``A happy heart doeth good like medicine, 
and a broken spirit drieth the bones.'' And I believe that. But I think 
you will all understand that--and I hope my wonderful comedy writers 
will understand--if I take a few moments tonight not to be too funny 
here at the end because of the tragedy in Oklahoma City, which has 
captured us all and which still is the focus of our efforts, for 
understandable reasons tonight, as the rescue workers are still laboring 
and as the law enforcement officers are still working.
    Tonight, as Ken and I were sitting here, and he let me read his 
latest essay about the heroism of the people in Oklahoma City. And I 
want to say something personal to all of you. I know that for virtually 
everybody in the press in this room, this has been a very painful 
experience for all of you, too, who have covered it, and to have been 
Americans, to have been parents and children and brothers and sisters, 
and to have identified with the human tragedy on such a massive scale.
    And what I want to do tonight is to tell you that I really 
appreciate the way this incident has been presented to the American 
people. I think you have made an extraordinary effort to capture both 
the horror and the humanity of the situation, to somehow grasp and 
communicate to your fellow citizens the incredible honor with which so 
many people have performed in these last difficult days.

[[Page 737]]

    Most of you were able, and I think it was difficult, to show 
commendable restraint in not jumping to any conclusions about who did 
this terrible thing. And most of you have really done a great deal to 
help the American people find some renewed strength and energy. And I 
thank you for that. And I hope in the days ahead you will be able to 
continue it.
    As this story unfolds, I would ask you to continue to return to 
Oklahoma City, to update our country on how the families who have 
suffered so much are rebuilding their lives, and to remind us about the 
countless heroes we have all seen there. The terrible people who did 
this thing do not deserve to be celebrities, although they will become 
famous. But the victims and their families and the people who have 
labored, they don't deserve to be forgotten.
    The heroes of this tragedy embody the unbreakable spirit of our 
Nation. They should always be remembered, the hundreds of rescue workers 
who defied the rain, the cold, the heartache, and a very real risk to 
their own lives. People like Rebecca Anderson, a nurse with four 
children, whose parents still live in my home State, who was hit by a 
piece of concrete and later died trying to help others. Even in death 
she continued to serve the living by giving her heart to save the life 
of a man from Oklahoma, and one of her kidneys to save the life of a 
woman from New Mexico.
    Now, folks, that is the real America. Sometimes all of us forget it 
a little bit. Sometimes all of us are too bound up in what we are doing. 
But this country is bound together in a way that the people like those 
who committed those crimes in Oklahoma can never understand. And I know 
our Government is not perfect, and I know it makes mistakes. But this is 
a very free country and a very great country. And a lot of the people 
who are out there complaining about it today would not even be able to 
do what they do in the way they do it in most of the other democracies 
in the world today. And we should never forget it.
    I say this tonight not to pour cold water on this wonderful evening 
and not because I haven't enjoyed it--I think I laughed harder tonight 
than anybody else here--but because as long as this work is going on, I 
think I owe it to you to tell you for all of our sometimes conflicting 
interests, I am really proud of the work the American press corps did in 
bringing this to the American people. And the work is not over. The 
understanding is not over.
    We have a lot of difficult decisions to make in the weeks and months 
ahead. As you know, I feel very strongly that the country should adopt 
stronger measures against terrorism. It will be debated in the Congress. 
Some of the measures are complex. You will have to explain them to the 
American people. I ask only that in all of this, you never forget the 
human dimension that you have so skillfully and heroically brought home 
to all the people of this country.
    We are going to get through this, and when we do, we'll be even 
stronger. We've been around here now for more than 200 years because 
almost all the time more than half of us wind up somehow doing the right 
thing. And we will do the right thing again.
    I'd like to close with words written by the wonderful poet, W.H. 
Auden, over 50 years ago, ``In the deserts of the heart, let the healing 
fountain start. In the prison of his days, teach the free man how to 
praise.''
    We praise America tonight, and we thank you for bringing it home to 
us in such a powerful way in these last days.
    Good night, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 10:47 p.m. at the Washington Hilton. In his 
remarks, he referred to Ken Walsh, outgoing president, White House 
Correspondents Association, and entertainer Conan O'Brien.