[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 13 (Monday, April 1, 2002)]
[Pages 518-521]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to First-Responders in Greenville

March 27, 2002

    Thank you very much. It is great to be back in South Carolina. I 
didn't realize I was going to be giving an address on my old jogging 
path. [Laughter]
    Mr. Mayor, I have fond memories of your beautiful city. And thank 
you very much for your leadership and your hospitality, and thank you 
all for coming.
    One of the things that I'm not surprised about was how the good 
folks of South Carolina responded on September the 11th, in the 
aftermath. The good people here hurt for the people of New York, because 
they realized an attack on one part of America was an attack on all of 
America. And I want to thank you all for donating a brand new firetruck 
to New York City. I want to thank you for sending men and women to New 
York City in response to the emergency. I know that firefighters and 
casualty experts, emergency management director headed up north to 
provide help, and I'm here to thank you for that. And I'm here also to 
thank you for what you do every single day.
    You know, the evil ones hit us, but out of that evil has come some 
good. I'm going to talk to you about some of that good. And one of the 
good things that's come is a sincere appreciation and respect for the 
men and women who wear the uniform, the police and the fire and the 
emergency medical units all across the country. And I'm here to thank 
you as well for your dedication and your service to the people of your 
communities here in South Carolina.
    I appreciate so very much Tom Ridge's service. You know, he was a 
Governor there in Pennsylvania, just kind of cruising along. Life was 
pretty good. And then the President called him and said, ``I've got an 
assignment for you, to come and set a national strategy for our homeland 
security. The enemy's hit us, and we'd better be ready in case the enemy 
hits us again. And we need a strategy.'' And I'm telling you, he's come 
to Washington, DC, with a vision and a capacity. And we're developing 
and have got a strategy, some of which I will share with you today.

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And Tom, I want to thank you for your service.
    And I want to thank the other fellow on the stage here, Jim DeMint. 
He is a strong Congressman. He cares deeply about the people of this 
State. He is--he is an ally of mine in the House, because he is a man of 
integrity. He cares deeply about national issues and issues that affect 
the people here in his district. He understands the need for us to be 
tough and diligent and forceful when it comes to fighting terrorists. He 
understands the need for us to be strong at home as well. And that's why 
he has led a discussion on a strategy to make sure that the textile 
industry here in South Carolina gets not only the attention of the 
administration but a strategy to help people who work in the textile 
industry. This man is a leader, and he needs to go back to Washington, 
DC.
    And we've got some other people from the fine South Carolina 
delegation. Lindsey Graham is here, and a little later on, I'm going to 
try to give Lindsey a little boost. And I appreciate Hank Brown for 
being here as well; thank you for coming.
    And I want to thank members of the statehouse who have come. You've 
got a fine lieutenant governor and attorney general. Thank you both for 
coming, and of course, your speaker, homegrown boy, David Wilkins. I'm 
honored that you all have been here today.
    I drove in and went by the BMW plant for about the hundredth time, 
and it was good that I was traveling by it with Carroll Campbell, who 
made sure that the BMW plant came here the first time around. Governor, 
it's good to see you. Thank you for coming.
    I want to thank the high sheriff of Greenville County, Sam Simmons--
I don't know if you call him the high sheriff around here or not, but 
play like you do, if you don't. [Laughter] But I want to thank the 
sheriff. I want to thank Willie Johnson, the chief. I want to thank Tom 
McDowell, chief of the fire department; John Zaragoza as well. And 
again, I want to thank you all for coming.
    The interesting thing about September the 11th is that even though 
the attacks were on two major cities, it reminded us--and in the 
aftermath reminded us that we're all vulnerable as well. I mean, after 
all, you might remember that some of the initial discussions after 
September the 11th, about potential threat, was about crop dusters. Now, 
they don't have a lot of crop dusters, you know, in Manhattan. They've 
got a lot of crop dusters in South Carolina or Texas. In other words, 
some of the intelligence we were getting was that not only were the 
enemy willing to use airplanes, obviously, as weapons, but what we were 
concerned about was that they would use other methods, like using a crop 
duster to spray a weapon of mass destruction, if possible. It's an 
indication that we had to be on alert to defend all sites and all 
locations in our country.
    We knew they were evil, and we're beginning to learn how really evil 
their intentions were, after September the 11th. And that's why Tom and 
I and many of you all and others around the country have got plans in 
place to defend power-generating plants, dams and reservoirs, livestock 
and crops, all kinds of areas. I mean, the truth of the matter is, 
homeland security in the heartland is just as important as homeland 
security in the big cities.
    And that's what we're here to talk about today, to make sure that 
America is safe. See, that's my most important job. My most important 
job is to work with Federal, State, and local officials to prevent the 
enemy from hitting us again and taking innocent life. I think about it 
every day. And even though they're still under threat--and we are under 
threat--we're getting better prepared every day.
    I sent a budget up to Congress that reflects my priority. The first-
responders of America, all across America, must have the resources 
necessary to respond to emergencies and save lives. In the budget we 
sent up, there is a 1,000 percent increase for first-responders--
requests $3.5 billion to make your jobs easier. I've requested $327 
million right away, right off the bat, to provide critical training and 
equipment to first-responders; 327 will come this year, hopefully; 3.5 
is for next budget cycle.
    In places like Pickens, South Carolina, and Union and Greer--and by 
the way, I've been to all three and enjoyed every minute of it. One of 
the bedrock principles of smalltown

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life is, you help a neighbor in need. A volunteer firefighter in Fort 
Mills, South Carolina, put it this way: ``We may not be a big department 
like New York City, but we have the same goal, to help our neighbors in 
time of trouble.'' That's how you all feel too. That's how the Crawford, 
Texas, volunteer fire department feels as well. I'm a proud booster.
    And one of the things we've got to do is to understand that we've 
got to strengthen security in smalltown America as well by helping 
smaller communities and smaller counties develop what we call mutual aid 
agreements. And in the budget that I've submitted to Congress, there's 
$140 million to do just that. If one town has got them a good hospital 
facility, another may be able to lend fire trucks; a third may be a home 
to hazardous material experts. But we've got to develop these mutual 
pacts so that we can coordinate efforts, pool resources--all aimed at 
helping a neighbor in need, if we need to.
    So one of the things we're doing is focusing on the big cities, 
medium-sized cities like Greenville. But we understand we've got to have 
a strategy for rural South Carolina and rural America as well. And I'm 
here to assure the good folks of South Carolina that the strategies that 
we're putting out, the strategies that we're going to outline and work 
with the States and local authorities on, will also include rural South 
Carolina, to make sure that assets are pooled, personnel is 
coordinated--all aimed at buttoning up the homeland of the United States 
and preparing our country.
    But I want you to know that the best homeland security, the best way 
to secure the homeland and protect innocent life, is to find the enemy 
wherever they hide and bring them to justice. And that's exactly what 
we're going to do. We will hunt them down one by one.
    And after September the 11th, we started. And I said as plainly as I 
could speak, mustering up as much Midland, Texas, as I could find--I 
said, either you are with us, or you're against us. And I made it clear 
that if anybody harbored a terrorist or they fed a terrorist or they hid 
a terrorist, they're just as guilty as the murderers who took innocent 
life on September the 11th. And thanks to a mighty United States 
military, the Taliban found out exactly what I meant.
    I'm proud of our military. And for those of you who have got a 
relative in the military, I want you to thank them on behalf of a 
grateful nation. But we've got to do more than thank them. We've got to 
make sure that they've got the best training, the best equipment, the 
best pay possible. And that's why the budget I submitted to the United 
States Congress not only includes a significant increase for first-
responders and homeland security issues, but it is the largest increase 
in military spending in two decades. Because I understand that the price 
of freedom is high, but as far as I'm concerned, it is never too high 
when it comes to the defense of freedom.
    And that's what we're defending. We don't seek revenge; we seek 
justice. But it's more than just justice. This Nation will defend 
freedom. We defend the freedom to worship; we defend the freedom to 
speak; we defend the freedom for all Americans, regardless of their 
background, to enjoy a country that says, if you work hard, you can 
realize your dreams. That's what we defend.
    And this enemy of ours hates what we stand for. They can't stand us. 
They're ruthless murderers. And they must not have understood America 
when they attacked us. They thought we were weak. They thought we were 
so self-absorbed in our materialism that all we would probably do is 
just sue them. [Laughter] Man, were they wrong.
    We've thrown the Taliban out. And this past weekend, for the first 
time, many young women went to school. We went into Afghanistan not as 
conquerors but as liberators, as people who are willing to sacrifice to 
defend our freedoms.
    The first phase of the war is over--holding people accountable for 
harboring a terrorist--that message is now loud and clear. I think other 
governments have heard that message. And the next message is this: We're 
going to keep you on the run. If you're a killer, we're going to treat 
you for what you are, an international criminal with no place to hide, 
no place to sleep.

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    Oh, I know some of them think there's a cave deep enough. We're 
patient; we're determined; we're united. As proud and patriotic 
Americans, I can assure you that distance between September the 11th is 
not going to cause me to weaken in my determination to defend our 
country and to fight for freedom.
    I also want to explain right quickly what I meant when I was talking 
about the axis of evil. Let me put it to you this way: We cannot allow 
nations that have got a history of totalitarianism and dictatorship--a 
nation, for example, like Iraq, that poisoned her own people--to develop 
a weapon of mass destruction and mate up with terrorist organizations 
who hate freedom-loving countries. We can't afford to do that, for the 
sake of our children and our children's children. History has called 
this Nation into action, and we're not going to let the world's worst 
leaders develop and maintain and deploy and aim, at us or our friends, 
the world's worst weapons.
    My fellow Americans, we've got a lot at stake. We've got a lot at 
stake at home and a lot at stake around the world. We've been called, 
and I'm here to assure you this great country is prepared and willing 
and will answer the call to freedom.
    And I believe there's another calling at home as well. I believe 
that we have an opportunity to fight evil at home in a different kind of 
way than people would have imagined. I'm asked all the time by people, 
``What can I do in a war against terror?'' You all are answering that 
call. But there's something else I'd like for you and others in South 
Carolina and around America to do. You see, in order to fight evil, we 
can stand strongly in the face of evil with acts of kindness and 
compassion. We can better love our neighbor like we'd like to be loved 
ourself.
    You see, the great strength of America is not necessarily our 
military might, and it's certainly not our Government, even though the 
system is great and the military is strong. The great strength of 
America are the hearts and soul--the great strength is the heart and 
soul of our country; that's the strength. The strength of the country 
comes when somebody walks across the street to a neighbor in need and 
says, ``What can I do to help you''; when somebody walks in to a shut-in 
and says, ``I care about you''; or somebody mentors a child, teaching 
that child how to read; or a church or a synagogue or a mosque comes up 
with a program based upon faith of the Almighty to help a person whip 
alcohol or drugs. That's the great strength of America.
    And I believe out of this evil will come incredible goodness. I know 
this country can stand squarely in the face of evil by loving a neighbor 
just like you'd like to be loved yourself. And today we've got a high 
school student, Gus Samuel. Please stand up, Gus. Gus is here because he 
is a living example of what I'm talking about. This guy goes to high 
school, and yet he is active in the Salvation Army, and he finds time to 
work with youngsters in the Girls and Boys Club.
    Our society can be changed one heart, one soul, one conscience at a 
time. And it's the gathering momentum of millions of acts of kindness, 
because of guys like Gus, that we will show the world the true heart of 
America, and we will stand squarely in the face of the evil ones who did 
not understand who they were attacking.
    Out of the evil will come a more lasting peace, if we're tough and 
firm. And out of the evil will come a new renewal of heart in the 
greatest land on the face of the Earth.
    May God bless you all, and may God bless America. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 10:25 a.m. in the Wyche Pavilion at the 
Peace Center for the Performing Arts. In his remarks, he referred to 
Mayor Knox H. White, Police Department Chief Willie L. Johnson, and 
Emergency Medical Services Director John Zaragoza of Greenville; Lt. 
Gov. Bob Peeler, Attorney General Charlie Condon, and former Gov. 
Carroll A. Campbell, Jr., of South Carolina; and David H. Wilkins, 
speaker, South Carolina House of Representatives.