Former President Bill Clinton is in Oklahoma City to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the nation’s deadliest domestic terror attack.
Speaking at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum on Saturday, Clinton remembered the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing and honored the people who were killed that day.
The former president recalled especially the outpouring of support from across the city and country in the wake of the attack, in which volunteers provided food, clothing, and services en masse.
The Oklahoma City bombing became one of the most momentous events of Clinton’s presidency and the former president, now 78, was widely praised for how he helped the city grapple with its grief in the wake of the bombing.
Now, three decades later, he expressed hope that Oklahoma City could help America heal its political divisions.
“That bombing profoundly shook the country… but in the end, it brought out the best in America,” Clinton said.
“Today, Oklahoma City, America needs you. I wish to goodness every American could just see life unfold here, hearing these stories.”
The Oklahoma City bombing remains the nation’s deadliest domestic terror attack.
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who had served in the U.S. Army together, used a rented truck loaded with 4,800 pounds of fertilizer and fuel oil to destroy the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people and injuring more than 500 others.
The pair were largely motivated by radical anti-government views, which became exacerbated by watching coverage of the deadly sieges at Ruby Ridge in Idaho and Waco in Texas, in which federal law enforcement officers either engaged in or were implicated in the killing of American civilians.
Clinton praised the people of Oklahoma and elsewhere who came to serve in the aftermath of the attack, citing their example as evidence that “we can still find a way to move forward together” after immense polarization and tragedy.
“The terrorists who did this awful thing believed that it would spark a nation-wide upheaval against the American government and would eventually destroy our government and our democracy and our way of life,” Clinton said.
“Instead, you gave them… ‘the Oklahoma standard.’ You gave them service, honor, and kindness.”
Clinton said he hoped that the rest of America could learn from the example of service, honor, and love demonstrated by the people of Oklahoma City in an era defined by rampant polarization and enmity.
To that end, Clinton said that the resentment driving the modern media landscape and the oftentimes justified anger Americans have about any number of issues could be overcome by the example of love demonstrated in the lives of those killed 30 years ago and by those who responded to the tragedy.
“We have no idea what all 168 of those people would have done with the rest of their lives. But we do know what they did that was good. We know the love that they generated, which was worthy.”
“America needs you and America needs the Oklahoma standard, and if we all lived by it, we’d be a lot better off.”
