Bush praises people of Oklahoma City, calls for justice, renewed civility

President Bush: "Your loss was great and your pain was deep. Far greater and deeper was your care for one another. That is what lasts."

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (CNN) -- President Bush, speaking Monday at the dedication ceremony for a museum and interactive media center commemorating the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, said Americans must remember the goodness of what was lost to that terrorist act.

"The time of mourning has passed, but the time of remembering will never pass," Bush told the citizens of Oklahoma City.

"Your loss was great, and your pain was deep. Far greater and deeper was your care for one another, and that is what brings us back to this place today."

Marking his first Presidents Day, Bush arrived in Oklahoma Monday morning to dedicate the Oklahoma City facility that commemorates the 168 people killed on April 19, 1995, when a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building -- the most lethal terrorist attack on U.S. More than 500 people were injured in the bombing.

The convicted perpetrator of the bombing, Timothy McVeigh, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 16 at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

VIDEO U.S. President George W. Bush praises community's response to 1995 Federal building bomb blast that killed 168. CNN's John King reports Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     MESSAGE BOARD Violence in America     GALLERY Museum preview

"Memorials cannot take away the pain, they cannot fill the emptiness, but they can make a place in time and tell the value of what was lost," the president said. "The debris [is] gone and the building is no more. Now this is a place of peace and remembrance and life."

The address presented Bush with an opportunity to make a passing reference to one of the social priorities of his recent campaign for the presidency -- his pledge to bolster "character education" programs in the nation's public schools.

Instruction in basic values today, Bush intimated Monday, could diminish the possibility of acts of terror tomorrow.

"All order in our society begins in the souls of our citizens," Bush said. "Character is often shaped early in life. In every family and in every school, we must teach our children to know and to choose the good."

Bush also cautioned his audience to think beyond the basic desire for justice.

"We must search for understanding and healing beyond punishment. Faith tells us that all wrongs are righted, and all suffering redeemed," he said.

Re-creating the sense of panic

The new Oklahoma City National Memorial Center stands just a few yards away from the site of the Murrah building, the remnants of which were demolished some months after the attack.

"A lot of Americans are going to come and be better people for walking through this center," Bush said moments before cutting a ribbon at the building's entrance.

The museum attempts to capture the sense of panic after the bomb exploded at 9:02 a.m., a short distance from the day care center inside the building where the 19 children who died in the attack were staying.

"Faith is tested, especially for those of you with empty chairs at home," Bush told the relatives of the children. "Hardest of all is loss of children -- lives taken so soon after they were given."

Visitors to the facility can actually hear the bomb explode -- courtesy of an audiotape from a water resources board meeting in session across the street.

They can also see personal effects of the victims such as car keys, watches, a brown leather briefcase, the pink-and-white sneaker of a 4-year-old girl, as well as window blinds, file cabinets and concrete mangled by the blast.

Congress approved $5 million to create the museum. It will be maintained through endowments, membership dues and admission fees.

Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, a Republican and close friend of the Bushes, spoke at the ceremony, providing some thought provoking numbers.

In the area surrounding the Murrah building, 320 buildings were damaged or destroyed by the massive explosion, Keating said.

Some 200 children lost at least one parent in the blast, he continued. Another 30 children, he added, lost both their parents.

The community has worked to provide college funds for each of these children, Keating announced.

"The legacy of this place is heroism and goodness. That is what we celebrate through this museum," Keating said.

A week of sales pitches

The visit set a somber start to a week that Bush otherwise is devoting to some of his top priorities: education and taxes.

Bush has scheduled visits this week to Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee to lay the groundwork for budget and tax-cutting proposals he will present to Congress in a prime-time speech February 27.

Republican lawmakers warned last week that Bush's $1.6 trillion tax-cut plan was in trouble. Polls show that Americans favor tax cuts, but do not want them to come at the expense of popular government actions, such as school funding and debt reduction.

Democrats argue that Bush's tax-cut plan would increase the debt and threaten government programs. Bush's goal is to show Americans that it is possible to have both a steep tax cut and increased funding for education.

He also will spend time promoting his education ideas. Bush wants to mandate annual testing to better track student performance in third through eighth grades. He would pull federal funding for public schools that fail to meet certain academic performance standards after three consecutive years, allowing the students in those schools to take up a share of federal dollars for use toward an alternative school.

On Tuesday, Bush will go to Columbus, Ohio, for a round-table discussion about his education plan at Sullivant Elementary, a school that serves many homeless children and focuses on improving the academic scores of its students.

School officials said 31 percent of Sullivant's fourth-graders passed the reading portion of last year's proficiency test, up from 27 percent the year before, and 58 percent passed the writing test, up from 42 percent.

Bush will visit a similar school later Tuesday in St. Louis and stay overnight in the city. Among the lawmakers joining Bush will be Rep. Bill Clay, D-Missouri, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

On Wednesday, Bush will visit Townsend Elementary School in Knoxville, Tennessee, before returning to Washington. At week's end, he will have his first face-to-face session with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

CNN's Ian Christopher McCaleb, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

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McVeigh condemned to death for Oklahoma blast
June 13, 1997
McVeigh sentenced to die for Oklahoma City bombing
June 13, 1997

Oklahoma City National Memorial

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