[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 32 (Monday, August 12, 2002)]
[Pages 1307-1309]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Rescued Coal Miners and the Community in Green Tree, 
Pennsylvania

August 5, 2002

    Thank you very much. Governor, thanks for your introduction. Thanks 
for your calm in the midst of crisis. I want to thank you and all the 
good folks here in the State of Pennsylvania who rallied to save the 
lives and help save the lives of nine valuable citizens.
    Today we're here to celebrate life, the value of life, and as 
importantly, the spirit of America. I asked to come by to meet our nine 
citizens and their families because I believe that what took place here 
in Pennsylvania really represents the best of our country, what I call 
the spirit of America, the great strength of our Nation. So I want to 
thank you all for coming, for giving me chance to--and giving me a 
chance to come and share with you the optimism and joy of a historic 
moment.
    First I do--I want to thank Dan Walsh of the Green Tree Volunteer 
Fire Company for opening up this beautiful house and inviting all these 
folks here. Dan, I want you to know I'm a proud supporter of the 
Crawford Volunteer Fire Department. I understand how important 
firefighters are, paid or volunteer. And so on behalf of a grateful 
nation, I want to thank all the folks who work here at the Green Tree 
and all those first-responders who are here with us today. Thank you for 
being here.
    I want to thank Elaine Chao of my Cabinet, and Dave Lauriski, who is 
the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administrator, for 
being here. They tell me, Dave, you did a fabulous job. And on behalf of 
our Nation, that's what we expect you to do. [Laughter] Thanks for your 
good work.
    I appreciate Members of the United States Senate, Senator Specter, 
and Congresswoman Hart and Congressman Chabot, for coming. I appreciate 
the Attorney General being here. I appreciate State Senator Earll being 
here.
    I want to thank some special citizens who have come today. They're 
what we call Freedom Corps greeters. They came out to the airport to say 
hello to me. They represent a program called Jumpstart. These are 
AmeriCorps workers. They're also college students--well, at least five 
of the six are college students. One is a graduate of Penn State; the 
other go to the University of Pittsburgh.
    The reason I'm--asked them to join us here is because I want you to 
know, America can be saved, one person at a time. You see, this great 
society of ours can be changed, one heart, one soul, one conscience at a 
time. And as we're here to celebrate the victory of life, we've also got 
to understand there are some lives who are troubled, some lives who are 
despondent. Some people wonder whether not America is meant for them; 
they live in pockets of hopelessness and despair. And these six heroic 
students, people who have said, ``Listen, serving something greater than 
myself in life is an important part of being a citizen,'' have been a 
part of what's called Jumpstart. They're tutors to young kids, to make 
sure the kids have a chance to learn to read and write and add and 
subtract, have a chance to be a part of this great American experience. 
And so I want to thank these soldiers in the armies of compassion for 
setting a great example for their fellow college students and for some 
of us old folks as well. Thank you all for coming, appreciate you being 
here.
    As I said, we're here to celebrate the spirit of America, and it's 
represented by a lot of folks here, a lot of people involved with what 
took place here in Pennsylvania and Somerset. First, the spirit is best 
represented by the first-responders, the people who were at the site, 
you know, people who heard the call that one of my neighbors is in 
trouble, a fellow American is in need. We've got nine

[[Page 1308]]

people trapped below the earth who might lose their life, and your 
fellow Americans came to your rescue. They came to work hour after hour, 
many of them volunteers. None asked, ``Where am I going to get my next 
paycheck from?'' All asked, ``What can I do? What can I do as an 
American to help a neighbor in need?''
    And so to the first-responders here, I want to thank you for your 
spirit. For those who volunteered hour after hour to save a fellow 
citizen, somebody you didn't even know, but were willing to sacrifice on 
behalf of that citizen, thank you for a grateful nation--from a grateful 
nation. Thanks for the example you set. Thanks for showing our fellow 
citizens that by--serving something greater than yourself is an 
important part of being an American. I truly believe the effort put in 
will serve as an example for others in a time of crisis.
    The spirit of America, the best of America was represented by those 
who spent long hours worrying about the lives of their fellow citizens. 
The best of America was also represented in the technology and know-how 
of our mine safety folks, those who, on a moment's notice, used their 
skill to devise a way to save life, took a look at the situation, 
reacted to the environment, predicted what might happen miles below the 
earth, and responded, and then rallied others. They set up a plan and a 
strategy. They're--our folks are world-renowned for mine rescue, and the 
Nation saw why. And there are nine lives here to testify that we're some 
of the best at rescuing our fellow citizens. The best of America really 
is the use of our technology and know-how to save lives and to help 
others in need.
    The spirit of America can best be seen with the families who are 
here. A strong America is America based upon strong families. A strong 
future for our country depends upon the strength of our family--husband 
loving wife and wife loving husband, husband and wife dedicating 
themselves to their children. The spirit of America was represented as 
family members, wives and sons and daughters and moms and dads, prayed 
for the safety of their loved one. They spent hours worrying about the 
lives of somebody they called ``loved one.'' And out of this near 
tragedy comes the living example of the importance of family.
    It was my honor to meet the family members here today. I 
appreciate--and I know your dads and your husbands appreciate much more 
than me--the fact that you--the energy you spent on seeing that they 
came out of that hole alive was an important part of rallying the--
rallying the country.
    And that's another part of the spirit of America I want to herald, 
and that is the prayers that were said by thousands of your citizens--I 
mean, people from all walks of life. They didn't say, ``I'm a 
Republican; therefore, I get to pray,'' or ``I'm a Democrat; I pray.'' 
``I don't care about either of them; I pray.'' Everybody prayed. A lot 
of people--if I say ``everybody,'' I don't know if everybody prayed. I 
can tell you, a lot prayed. A lot prayed for your safety. A lot prayed 
for your families. A lot pled to an almighty God that you were rescued. 
And thank God the prayers were answered.
    But most of all, the spirit of America was represented by the 
courage of the nine--nine folks trapped below the earth. They had one 
sandwich and two bottles of water. These are people that had--had found 
an unshakable faith, not only in their fellow citizens and their 
families would be pulling for them, but faith in God. These are men who, 
as old Harry Mayhugh * put it, ``I just didn't see how we were going to 
get out.'' That's what he said, ``I don't see how we're going to get 
out.'' But he said, ``We're going to--we've got to pull together to get 
out. ''
    * White House correction.
    In other words, they understood that they needed to rely upon each 
other, rely upon the strength of each. They huddled to keep warm. They 
said prayers to keep their spirits up. They understood they needed to 
tie together to fight the underground current. It was their 
determination to stick together and to comfort each other that really 
defines kind of a new spirit that's prevalent in our country, that when 
one of us suffer, all of us suffers; that in order to succeed, we've got 
to be united; that by working together, we can achieve big objectives 
and big goals.
    Here's a living example of people working together to save nine 
precious lives, to make

[[Page 1309]]

sure that nine families were reunited. And by the way, it's that spirit 
that's help us--going to prevail in the big challenges we face around 
the world, the challenge of making sure that we hunt down every 
terrorist and bring them to justice, because we love freedom.
    It is the determined spirit of America and our optimism and our 
ability to solve problems which will help us deal with the economic 
downturn. It is--the great spirit of America will help us eradicate 
pockets of despair and poverty.
    I love to tell the world and our country that out of the evil done 
to America will come incredible good. And part of that good is a culture 
that says, each of us are responsible for the decisions we make in life. 
If you're a mom or a dad, you're responsible for loving your children 
with all your heart and all your soul. But part of the era of 
responsibility also is, you're responsible for helping a neighbor in 
need. You're responsible for loving somebody like you'd like to be loved 
yourself. You're responsible for the health of the community in which 
you live. No, the spirit of America is alive and strong, as we found out 
loud and clear in Somerset, Pennsylvania.
    It's an honor to be here with you today. I want to thank you for the 
example you set. May God bless you. May God bless your families, and may 
God continue to bless America.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 10:57 a.m. at the Green Tree Volunteer Fire 
Department. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Mark Schweiker and State 
Attorney General Mike Fisher of Pennsylvania. The nine miners were 
rescued from a flooded coal mine in Somerset, PA, on July 28.