[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 14 (Monday, April 8, 1996)]
[Pages 617-619]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Families of the Victims of the 1995 Bombing in Oklahoma 
City

April 5, 1996

    Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Reverend Alexander. Governor 
Keating, Mrs. Keating, Mr. Mayor, Senator Nickles, Lieutenant Governor 
Fallin, Congressman Brewster, Congressman Istook; most of all to the 
families here of those who lost their lives and those who survived the 
bombing almost a year ago.
    I come here today as much as anything else to thank you. On this 
very difficult and painful day for me, when I have lost a great and good 
friend and a lot of gifted employees of the Federal Government, some of 
them very young, and some wonderful members of our Armed Forces and some 
of our Nation's most able business leaders, the power of your example is 
very much with me, and I thank you for that.
    A year ago we were here to join in mourning your loss and praying 
for your healing. Today I ask that we not only remember your loss but 
celebrate the rebuilding you have already done and the work you will 
still do.
    I have relived the moments of last year many times in my mind since 
I was here with you. I have wondered how you were doing and prayed for 
your strength. I was honored to have two of your citizens at the State 
of the Union Address and to recognize their unique contributions to our 
country through their service to you.
    Just a few moments ago I was honored to lay a wreath, along with the 
First Lady and some children who survived and their parents, and then to 
dedicate the child care center that will be built near the site of the 
bombing, thanks to the remarkable efforts of your public officials and 
private citizens together. You have shown how strong you are, and you 
have given us all an example of the power of faith and community, the 
power of both God's grace and human courage.
    On this Good Friday, what you have done has demonstrated to a 
watching and often weary and cynical world that good can overcome evil, 
that love can outlast hate, that the light of human life can shine on 
through the most terrible darkness. And so I thank you

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for that. And I know that you could not have done it without your faith.
    On this Friday I can't help noting that there is a wonderful verse 
in the Book of Matthew which says that a person who follows the word of 
God will be likened unto a wise man who built his house on a rock. And 
the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon 
the house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. Well your 
building was blown down, and many lives were shattered. But today, I saw 
again that the spirit of Oklahoma City fell not, for it is founded upon 
a rock. And I thank you for showing that to America.
    From the early rescue efforts that so many engaged in to the 
scholarship funds for the children who lost their parents, to the 
current outpouring of support that will enable families to travel to 
Denver for the trial, to the dedication ceremony I just attended, I see 
over and over and over again that you have redeemed the promise of 
essential human nature and human possibility that we celebrate so 
profoundly in this season. And what I want to know is that, in doing 
that, you have renewed the faith of America. You have drawn our national 
family closer together.
    A year ago I was able to come here and say to you that you have lost 
too much, but you have not lost everything. You have not lost America. 
In the year since, America has stood with you and prayed with you and 
worked with you as you rebuild. But today, I come to you to say you have 
given America something precious, a greater sense of our shared 
humanity, our common values, our obligations to one another. You've take 
some of the meanness out of our national life and put a little more love 
and respect into it, in ways that you probably cannot even imagine. And 
I thank you for that.
    I will call on all Americans to express their solidarity with you 
when you celebrate the first anniversary of your tragedy. Earlier today 
I signed a proclamation calling for a moment of silence across our land 
on April the 19th at 9:02 a.m., Central Daylight Time, to ask the 
American people to gather in silent prayer and quiet reflection with 
their friends and neighbors, wherever they live, from Maine to Alaska, 
to southern California, to Florida.
    And let me say to all of you again, we will be there with you. But 
because of what you have felt and what you have endured, let me ask you 
now if you will bow your heads in silent prayer to remember all that 
this year has meant to you and to pray for those who lost their loved 
ones on that plane in Bosnia. Only you can know how they feel.
    May we pray.

[At this point, a moment of silence was observed.]

    Amen.
    I would like to say a special word now to some of the people who 
were involved here a year ago: To the Federal workers who survived the 
blast and are back on the job, we're glad, and we support you. To those 
who are not yet back on the job, we will stand with you until the day 
you are able to work again. To those who lost their lives in the service 
of their country, trying to help America get through every day in the 
best possible way, we thank you, your families, beyond measure.
    Before Hillary and I left the White House this morning, we planted a 
new dogwood tree on the South Lawn to honor the memory of those who died 
in the crash in Bosnia. It is very near the one we planted a year ago, 
before we came to be with you for the first time, in honor of the loved 
ones that you lost. A year ago I noted that the dogwood tree embodies 
the lesson of the Psalms, that the life of a good person is like a tree 
whose leaf does not wither; that just as a tree takes a long time to 
grow, sometimes wounds take a long time to heal. Well, your tree has 
taken root on the South Lawn of the White House. In a few weeks it will 
flower. The healing power of our faith has also taken root and must 
bloom again here.
    You know, this Easter Sunday all over the world the over 1.5 billion 
people who are Christians will be able to bear witness to our faith that 
the miracles of Jesus and the miracles of the human spirit in Oklahoma 
City only reflect the larger miracle of human nature that there is 
something eternal within each of us, that we all have to die and that no 
bomb can blow away even from the littlest child that eternity which is 
within each of us.

[[Page 619]]

    I know a lot of you are still hurting, but I hope as Sunday comes 
you'll be able to find some comfort in that. Your healing has to go on. 
A lot of you probably still have your doubts about all of this. I'm sure 
there's some lingering anger and even some rage and dark and lonely 
nights for many of the family members. I can only say to you that the 
older I get the more I know that we have to try harder to make the most 
of each day and accept the fact that things will happen we can never 
understand or justify.
    We flew over my home State, you know, coming here, and it made me 
think of the words of an old Gospel song that were actually written in 
Arkansas. And I thought I would leave you with these words, and our love 
and respect, as we move toward Easter.
    The hymn goes: ``Further along we'll know all about it. Further 
along we'll understand why. Rise up, my brothers, and walk in the 
sunshine. Further along we'll understand why.''
    God bless you, and God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 1:20 p.m. in the Myriad Convention Center. 
In his remarks, he referred to Rev. Don Alexander, pastor, First 
Christian Church; and Cathy Keating, wife of Gov. Frank Keating of 
Oklahoma.