Oklahoma City (AP) – Thirty years after attacking the deadliest in the history of the United States, former President Bill Clinton returned to Oklahoma City on Saturday to Remember people who have been killed And comfort people affected by bombing.
Clinton was president on April 19, 1995, When a truck bomb has explodedDestroying a nine-story federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. He delivered the opening speech during a memory ceremony near the National Museum of the Oklahoma City Memorial.
Clinton, now 78, was largely congratulated for the way he helped the city fight against his sorrow following the bombing, who killed 168 people, including 19 children. He says it is a day in his presidency that he will never forget.
“I still remember as if there were 30 minutes, coming here with Hillary in this commemorative service and saying:” You have lost too much, but you have not lost everything. You have certainly not lost America, and we will be with you Tomorrows as he takes, “said Clinton, recalling his first visit to Oklahoma City a few days after the objective, when he spoke to a commemorative service for the victims.” I think we have kept this commitment. “
Clinton visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum Many times in the years that have followed the attack and have delivered speeches on the main birthdays.
On Saturday, Clinton also warned against the polarizing nature of modern politics and how such a division can lead to violence, as 30 years ago. He said that there are a lot that the nation can learn from the “norm of Oklahoma”, a term invented to reference the city’s response to bombing by uniting in service, in honor and kindness.
“Today, Oklahoma City, America needs you,” he said. “I wish the kindness that each American could just see life take place here, hearing these stories.”
The other speakers included the former Oklahoma governor, Frank Keating, and the former mayor of Oklahoma City, Ron Norick, who was in office when the bomb attack took place. Family members of some of those who were killed in the attack read the 168 names of those who were killed in the attack.
The Saturday ceremony was initially to take place on the ground of the memorial, but was moved to an adjacent church due to heavy rains.
After the ceremony, a procession of Cornemuse players from the Oklahoma City fire service led many of the people on the other side of the street to the outdoor memorial built on the motifs where the federal building was held. The memorial includes a museum, a reflective swimming pool and 168 empty chairs of glass, bronze and stone engraved with the names of the people killed. Nineteen of the chairs are smaller than the others to represent children killed.
Among the best missions of the Memorial, there is to help people understand the insensation of political violence and to teach a new generation on the impact of the attack, said Kari Watkins, president and chief executive officer.
“We knew that when we built this place, one day we reach a generation of people who were not born or who did not remember history,” said Watkins. “I think that now, not only children are coming more and more, but teachers who teach these children.”
