Bill Clinton speaks at Oklahoma City bombing memorial
Comments Comment on this article7
Buzz up!
BY MATT DINGER
Published: May 2, 2009
Former President Bill Clinton toured the Oklahoma City National Bombing Memorial & Museum on Saturday, where he was named to a new Honorary National Board of Trustees and given an award.
Former President Bill Clinton speaks to a crowd at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, Saturday, May 2, 2009, in Oklahoma City. Clinton was named on the Memorial's Honorary National Board of Trustees. (AP Photo/The Oklahoman, Sarah Phipps)
Clinton spoke to a crowd of about 250 people, including trustees, committee members and donors. Former Oklahoma governors George Nigh, Frank Keating and David Walters were also in attendance, as were rescue workers and bombing survivors.
“My life has been indelibly marked by the people I met here and the stories they told me. I came here, more than anything else, to say thank you,” Clinton said. “I'm telling you, this memorial, this museum ... is still affecting the world in ways that you wouldn't imagine.”
Before his speech, Clinton took a private tour of the museum and was honored with the Beacon of Hope for his continued support of the memorial during and after his tenure as president. The award is made of wood trimmed from a branch of the Survivor Tree and placed on a base of granite salvaged from the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which was bombed on April 19, 1995, killing 168.
Clinton said the bombing provided an impetus for Congress to push forward legislation he endorsed to strengthen laws aimed at preventing and countering terrorist attacks.
“Between 1995 and the day I left office, several very serious terrorist attacks were thwarted,” he said. “Your country owes you a lot, and I thank you.”
The new honorary trustees will work with the staff and board of the memorial to further the memorial's mission of remembrance and education on a national level, said Bill Scheihing, chairman of the Oklahoma National Memorial Foundation.
“President Clinton has a deep and personal history with this event,” Scheihing said, “and his presence on the national board will provide both historic perspective and the committed passion of someone who bore witness to both the tragedy and to the hope this place represents for future generations.”
Scheihing said the national board also will help fundraising efforts for the memorial, which is privately owned and operated and receives no annual operating funds from the federal, state or local government.
Kari Watkins, executive director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, said that more trustee members will be named in the future. She said trustees bring diverse experience that will help keep the lessons of the bombing relevant for years to come.
“They see the world on a different level, and we just want to pick their brains and use their experiences and contacts to keep this on a national and international stage,” Watkins said.
Bud Welch, who lost his daughter, Julie Welch, in the bombing, was one of a group who traveled to visit Clinton during his presidency to show him designs for the memorial and seek funding. Julie Welch, who was 23, was a Spanish interpreter for the Social Security Administration.
Welch was on the memorial's board of directors until three months ago. He said board members wanted to create a national board with people such as Clinton to raise awareness about the memorial.
"President Clinton has been so good to us,” Welch said.
Other honorary board members named include former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, the Rev. Billy Graham, Keating and his wife Cathy, and Lee Woodruff, wife of journalist Bob Woodruff, who was seriously injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2006.
President Clinton named to OKC National Memorial National Board of Trustees
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks