In Okla., a tribute to city’s resilience
20 years after blast, residents are ‘example to us all,’ Clinton says
Former president Bill Clinton, who was in the White House when a terrorist bomb destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building, told those who gathered Sunday to mark the 20th anniversary of the tragedy that all Americans owe the city a debt of gratitude for how it responded after the attack.
“You reminded us we should all live by the Oklahoma Standard,” Clinton said, alluding to what the city’s people have done for others, including the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
“When you strip away all the little things that divide us, it’s important to remember how tied we are, and how much we, all Americans, owe Oklahoma City,” he said.
More than 1,000 people attended the morning service at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which stands in the place of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The terror attack that destroyed it was, at the time, the deadliest on U.S. soil.
The service started with 168 seconds of silence — one for each victim — and included a reading by relatives of the names of those killed April 19, 1995.
“A tragedy like this could have torn a city apart, but instead it has united this city. ... And that’s an example to us all,” Clinton said. “You had to choose farsighted love over blind hatred.”
As he was seated on the dais, Clinton held the hand of former state representative Susan Winchester, who lost her sister, Peggy Clark, in the bombing.
As many as 400,000 people in Oklahoma City are thought to have known someone who was killed or injured that day.
Frank Keating, who was governor at the time, called the attack “unforgivable. … This was a place of unspeakable horror and tragedy.” Nineteen of those killed were children.
Timothy McVeigh, an Army veteran with strong anti-government views, was executed for carrying out the bombing as revenge for the deadly standoff between the FBI and the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas, which killed more than 70 people two years earlier.
McVeigh’s accomplice, Terry Nichols, is serving life in prison.
“A tragedy like this could have torn a city apart, but instead it has united this city. ... You had to choose far-sighted love over blind hatred.”
Former president Bill Clinton