[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 15 (Monday, April 15, 1996)]
[Pages 627-628]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

April 6, 1996

    Good morning. For millions of Americans this is an especially joyous 
time of year. All across our country, families come together to 
celebrate Easter or Passover; parents reunited with their children, 
brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, friends joining in these 
celebrations of faith and renewal.
    Yesterday in Oklahoma City, Hillary and I gathered with a remarkable 
American community to remember its loss and mark its passage from pain 
to hope. Nearly a year has passed since evil struck our heartland, 
killing 168 Americans, injuring many more, touching all of us. Yet from 
the moments terror's shadow darkened their lives, the people of Oklahoma 
City began their common effort to work together to rebuild their lives, 
their community, and their future.
    The people of Oklahoma City have proved to the Nation that while the 
American spirit can be terribly tested, it cannot be defeated. They have 
shown our children that even in the wake of the most terrible tragedy, 
goodness can prevail.
    The men, women, and children who fell beneath the rubble of the 
Murrah Federal Building were not cut down in a great battle, they were 
just ordinary Americans. Simple soldiers of the everyday, going to work, 
going to play, taking on their responsibilities as parents and providers 
and citizens.
    Many of them were Government workers, laboring every day to help 
millions of their fellow citizens make the most of their own lives: 
caseworkers seeing to it that senior citizens received their Social 
Security; law enforcement officers keeping our streets safe, our schools 
free from drugs; military recruiters helping to keep our country strong. 
They're the people who make America work. They're what we mean when we 
speak of Government of, by, and for the people.
    The work of Government employees isn't usually very glamorous, and 
it can be grindingly difficult. And as the tragic loss of Secretary of 
Commerce Ron Brown and his colleagues just a few days ago reminds us, 
sometimes it can also be very dangerous.
    Later today, the Vice President and I will make a sad journey to an 
Air Force base in Dover, Delaware. There, on the eve of Easter, we will 
be with the families of Ron Brown and his delegation as their loved ones 
make a final journey home.
    Ron Brown was a dear friend of mine, a friend to American businesses 
and American workers everywhere, who did more to create good jobs by 
opening new markets to our

[[Page 628]]

products and services than anybody who ever held his position. He was 
also a friend to millions of people around the world because of his 
relentless determination to bridge the false divisions that keep us 
apart here at home and abroad.
    When he became Commerce Secretary, I asked him to make that 
Department a powerhouse for American jobs and opportunity and an 
instrument for promoting peace and freedom and democracy around the 
world. Well, that's exactly what he did. Every minute of every day was 
dedicated to creating jobs for American workers and opportunities for 
our companies. But he was also in the Balkans to channel the energy of 
the American economy, once again the strongest in the world, into a 
powerful force for peace and renewal.
    With him were dedicated Government workers from the Commerce 
Department and other agencies. Some of them were very young. With him 
were members of our United States military who were serving their 
country and getting the mission where it was supposed to go. And with 
him were some of our finest business leaders, all of them trying to help 
people rebuild their lives and their land so that the hard-won peace in 
Bosnia would grow strong and take on a life and logic of its own, 
overcoming the past of ethnic hatred and division. These Americans 
literally gave their lives bringing to others the blessings of a normal 
life that too often we take here for granted.
    So this weekend, as you enjoy the blessings of family and community 
and friendship, please say a prayer for the families and friends of Ron 
Brown and his colleagues and for the family and friends of the good, 
hard-working Americans who were stolen from us in Oklahoma City one year 
ago and for those who survive but still have challenges to face.
    Sometimes it takes a terrible tragedy to illuminate a basic truth. 
In a democracy, government is not ``them'' versus ``us.'' We are all 
``us.'' We are all in it together.
    Government is our neighbors and friends helping others pursue the 
dreams we all share, to live in peace, provide for ourselves and our 
loved ones, give our children a chance for an even better life.
    So in this season of reflection and rebirth, let us follow their 
example and rededicate ourselves, each in our own way, to the welfare of 
our beloved country and our fellow citizens. That's the best way to 
carry on the legacy of those who give their lives in the service of our 
country.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 5:40 p.m. on April 5 at the University 
of Central Oklahoma for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on April 6.