President Announces Healthy Forest Initiative
Remarks by the President on Forest Health and Preservation
The Compton Arena
Central Point, Oregon
12:54 P.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much for coming. Thanks for --
please be seated, unless of course you don't have a chair. (Laughter.)
Thanks for that. Thank you all for such a warm welcome. It's such an
honor to be here in Jackson County. (Applause.)
I have come for a couple of reasons. First, I have come to express
our deepest condolences for those whose lives have been affected by
these fires, and to thank the yellow shirts, the hard working fire
fighters. (Applause.) I appreciate the sacrifice you all make to
protect your neighbors. One of the things you learn growing up in
small town Texas or small town Oregon is that you learn to be
neighborly. And the idea of people sacrificing to serve their
neighbors is something that makes this country great. So I want to
thank you all for what you do.
I also want to tell you, our job is to make sure we do everything
we can to prevent forest fires from happening in the first place.
(Applause.) That's one of our responsibilities, and that's why I went
up to Jacksonville to talk about a policy that is based upon common
sense. It's not a political deal, it's not a Republican idea, it's not
a Democrat idea, it's an American idea to preserve our forests so that
we can -- (applause) -- that's one of the hurdles we've got to address
here in the country. That's one of the challenges we've got to meet,
is how to preserve our national treasure.
We've got other challenges. Listen, any time anybody who wants to
find work, who can't work, it means we've got a problem. So I want to
talk about the job we have of making sure we grow our economy, so
people can work.
And then what I want to talk about, I want to talk about the fact
that we've got another challenge, and that is how best to protect our
homeland from the killers. (Applause.) And I want to tell you how
we're going to win the war on terror. And we are going to win the war
on terror. (Applause.)
I want to thank members of my administration for coming out here.
They're kind of used to the west, since they are from the west, and
that would be the Secretary of Agriculture, Anne Venemen and the
Secretary of Interior, Gayle Norton. (Applause.) These two ladies are
doing a fine job, really fine job. I'm proud they're on my team.
I appreciate so very much Gordon Smith for introducing me and being
a friend. I'm proud of the service that he has given to the state of
Oregon. He's a hard working man, he's a family man, he's a good decent
citizen. And I want to appreciate and I want to say how much I
appreciate Senator Ron Wyden for being here, as well. I think it's an
important gesture to show that forest policy can be common sense
policy. (Applause.) I appreciate it.
The honorable citizens -- and so is your Congressman, Greg Walden.
(Applause.) It sounds like they remember you, Greg. (Laughter.) I
remember him, because all he does is talk about Oregon. (Laughter and
applause.) I want to thank Governor Judy Martz and Governor Jane Dee
Hull, governors from Montana and Arizona for coming. (Applause.)
These are fine -- I wish I could say they were here -- they came to
hear my speech. They came to promote good fire policy. They got stuck
listening to the speech. (Laughter.) But I'm proud to call them
friends. I had the honor of being a governor at one time, and I knew
these two ladies. And they're good ones. And I want to thank them for
coming.
I also want to thank the mayor of Central Point, Oregon, Bill
Walton, for receiving me earlier. (Applause.) I want to thank Michael
Draper, who is the Western Director of the International Brotherhood of
Carpenters and Joiners Union for being here. (Applause.) You thought
Michael would have gotten you a better seat. (Laughter.) But thank
you all for coming. I want to thank Nolan Colegrove, who is the
President of the Intertribal Timber Council. He came up from
California. I had a good visit with him. He's a good, solid thinker,
and a reasonable fellow.
I want to thank my friends from the Klamath River basin who are
here. I want to appreciate your working with us to make sure that
people who make the living off the land had enough water to survive.
(Applause.) I want to thank the members of the Student Conservation
Association who are here. (Applause.) You'd think your relatives
would be clapping too, but -- (laughter) -- thank you for your concern
for our environment. Thanks for your hard work to put into practice
common sense policies to preserve the forest land.
I want to introduce Matt Epstein, who is here. The reason I bring
up Matt is, everywhere I go, when I land, I try to welcome somebody to
-- a member of what we call the USA Freedom Corps, out at Air Force
One, to thank them. But it also gives me a chance to remind our
country what a unique land we are. We have people who volunteer their
time to make their communities a better place.
Matt teaches kids how to read. Matt worries about those who don't
have enough food. Matt also works hard to promote good forest
management policy. He not only does it on his own land, but he
promotes good forest policy so people understand the difference between
kind of theory and good practice. Matt is a citizen who cares deeply
about the community in which he lives. He is a soldier in the army of
compassion. Matt understands what I know, that one person can't do
everything, but one person can do something to make the community in
which we live a better place. (Applause.) So it's my honor to
introduce Matt Epstein and his wife, Donna. Thank you for coming.
(Applause.) Where are you, Matt? Hi, Matt, hi, Donna. (Applause.)
Thank you.
We've got some challenges that face our economy, there's no
question about it. I mean, the first three quarters of my presidency
we were in recession. That means the economy was going backwards, it
was negative growth. The next three quarters we've had positive
growth. But about halfway through that time, the enemy hit us, and it
affected our economy.
And then to make the challenge even more, we found out some of the
folks were cooking the books. Some of the people decided that in order
to get ahead they wouldn't tell the truth. Oh, we've had some tough
times in our economy, and I know you know what I'm talking about right
here in this part of Oregon. Times are tough.
But let me tell you something, so is America. (Applause.) Our
economy has strengths to equal those challenges. I mean, after all,
we've got the most productive farmers and ranchers in the world.
(Applause.) We've got the most productive workers in the world.
(Applause.) We've got a great climate for small businesses and the
entrepreneurial spirit is strong in America.
No, we've got the ingredients to overcome the challenge. But
there's still work to do. And let me describe some of the work that
needs to get done. I believe a healthy economy will mean that we work
to have -- in order to have a healthy economy, we've got to have a
healthy forest policy. I mean, if you have good forest policy, it will
yield to a better economy. (Applause.) After all, the fires that have
devastated the West create a drag on the economy. It costs money to
fight these fires. It means people lose property. There's opportunity
lost. No, good forest policy not only is important for the
preservation and conservation of good forests for future generations,
it's good for our economy.
And yet, I think we need to be honest with the American people.
The forest policy of our government is misguided policy. It doesn't
work. (Applause.) We need to thin. We need to make our forests
healthy by using some common sense. (Applause.) We need to
understand, if you let kindling build up, and there's a lightning
strike, you're going to get yourself a big fire. That's what we've got
to understand. (Laughter.)
We've got to understand that it makes sense to clear brush. We've
got to make sense -- it makes sense to encourage people to make sure
that the forest not only are healthy from disease, but are healthy from
fire. That's what we've got to do here in America. We haven't done
that in the past. We just haven't done it, and we're now paying the
price. (Applause.)
And so we're going to change the forest policy in Washington. And
that's why I've got my secretaries here. They know what I know, that
we've got to change the policy, starting with setting priorities, right
off the bat, about getting after those areas that are dangerous --
dangerous to communities, dangerous to habitat, dangerous to
recreational areas. There are some high priority areas that we need to
declare emergencies and get to thinning now, before it's too late.
(Applause.)
And we have a problem with the regulatory body there in
Washington. I mean, there's so many regulations, and so much red tape,
that it takes a little bit of effort to ball up the efforts to make the
forests healthy. And plus, there's just too many lawsuits, just
endless litigation. (Applause.) We want to make sure our citizens
have the right to the courthouse. People ought to have a right to
express themselves, no question about it. But there's a fine balance
between people expressing their selves and their opinions and using
litigation to keep the United States of America from enacting common
sense forest policy. (Applause.)
We've made some progress through administration action. We can
thin on emergency basis, like I just mentioned. We'll speed up the
process of developing environmental assessments, while considering the
long-term threat that fire susceptible forests pose to endangered
species. We'll make sure that people have their voice, but aren't able
to tie it all up. And I need to work with Congress, and I need help
from Congress. And I appreciate Senator Smith and Senator Wyden's
willingness to do what is right for the people of Oregon. They want to
work together. (Applause.)
There's too much bickering in Washington. Like, it's kind of a
zero-sum attitude. No, what we need is to understand that what I'm
talking about makes sense. And this isn't a chance for one political
party to get an upper hand on another political party, this is just
common sense for what's best for not only the forests, and the
preservation and conservation of forests, but what's best for the
people who live around the forests. That's what this is. (Applause.)
People are beginning to get the message. I mean, Americans who
have no idea what good forest policy means are beginning to see the
fires on TV. It's a sad way for people to learn, but it's happening,
and we're beginning to make some progress. There's some -- recently I
signed what they call a supplemental bill. And in that bill there was
some -- the Black Hills National Forest, east of here, got some
treatment about how to thin, how to make sure that that forest was well
preserved. My attitude is, if it's good enough for that part of South
Dakota, it's good enough for Oregon. (Applause.)
No, I want our forests healthy, and I want our economy healthy.
That's why I strongly support the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, a plan
which should allow the production a billion board feet of timber per
year. (Applause.) This is a plan that was a well thought out plan.
It's a plan that was put together to protect wildlife habitat, to
protect recreational areas. But it's a plan that's got another
dividend, besides a healthy forest. It means 100,000 more jobs for
people to be able to -- (applause)
This would be sustainable timber harvesting on a small portion of
the forest. The prior administration developed and agreed to this
plan. I support the plan, Congress needs to pass the laws necessary to
implement the plan. (Applause.)
Good forest policy will be good for the economy. Good forest
policy will mean we will have left a legacy for future generations.
You know, I'll never forget our tax relief debate. I remember telling
people that where I came from, at least the economic book that I
believe in say, if you've got tough times in your economy, you got to
let people keep more of their own money. (Applause.)
Here's the theory behind that. If you let a person keep their own
money -- and by the way, we're not talking about the government's
money, when we're spending money, we're talking about the people's
money. (Applause.) You let somebody keep their own money, they're
likely to demand a good or a service. And if they demand a good or a
service, somebody is likely to produce that good or service. And when
somebody produces a good and service, somebody is more likely to find
work. (Applause.)
And so therefore, in the face of this recession, which turned out
to be a recession, which turned out to be a recession, the tax cut came
at the right time in American economic history. (Applause.) Now
people say, well, you know, it didn't have an effect. Of course it had
an effect. Let me tell you who it had an effect on. It had an effect
not only on people who pay the bills, it had an effect on small
business owners. Seventy percent of new job creation in America comes
from our small business owners, comes from our entrepreneurs. Most of
those small business, because they are sole proprietorships, or limited
partnerships, pay income taxes on the personal income tax level. So
when you drop the income tax rates, really what you're doing is you're
stimulating job creation, by putting a shot in the arm to the
entrepreneurs, the small business owners of America. (Applause.)
This tax reform slashed the marriage penalty. It makes sense to me
that the tax code ought to encourage marriage, not discourage
marriage. (Applause.) After all, families -- a family unit is the
strength of the country. (Applause.) And for the sake of the small
business owners, and the people who make a living off the land, the
farmers and ranchers, we put the death tax on its way to extinction.
(Applause.) But the problem is, because of a quirk in the nature of
the rules, all this comes -- it doesn't stay stuck, let me put it to
you that way. (Laughter.) In other words, it comes back into being.
The tax rates go back up to where they were, the death tax isn't
repealed, the marriage penalty goes back up to where it is. That's
just the nature of how the Senate rules work.
For the sake of economic growth, for the sake of job creation, for
the sake of helping people stay on their farms and ranches, we need to
make the tax relief permanent. (Applause.)
There are too many construction projects that aren't moving forward
because the project managers can't find terrorism insurance. There's
too many hard hats not working in America. There's over 8 billion
projects which are not going forward, because the insurance premiums --
they just can't can't insurance for a potential terrorist attack. It
makes sense for the Congress to act on this. The United States
Congress ought to provide a floor for terrorism insurance, so we can
get our hard hats back to working again. (Applause.) But I caution
the Congress, we need a bill that worries more about the workers, and
not about the trial lawyers in America. (Applause.)
And speaking about trial lawyers, I am worried about liability for
doctors. I'm worried about it. And here's what I'm worried about.
I'm worried about frivolous and junk lawsuits, frivolous and junk
lawsuits that are making it harder for our citizens to get access to
health care. That worries me. It worries me that frivolous and junk
lawsuits are running up the cost of medicine. Because make no mistake
about it, any time there is these huge settlements that go forward, you
pay.
Now look, I repeat, if somebody gets injured, they ought to have
their day in court, no question about it. That's a system that I
value, and a system you value. But these frivolous and junk lawsuits
are denying people who have actually been injured their day in court.
They're making it hard to find doctors. They're running up the cost of
medicine. For the sake of good, quality, affordable and accessible
health care, we need medical liability reform in Washington, D.C., and
we need it now, before people lose their doctors in rural America.
(Applause.)
I want to tell you a quick story. I was in Mississippi during my
so called vacation. I traveled to Mississippi. (Laughter.) And the
-- I met a fellow who had -- is a religious man, and he heard the call
of taking his practice, his medical practice, into the Mississippi
Delta, which is a poor, poor region of America. It's a significant
percentage of the population there is African American. These poor
folks need health care.
And he felt like -- that God gave him the talents necessary to be a
doctor, and he felt like he needed to use those talents to help people
who could not afford health care. But because of the junk lawsuits,
they ran him out of town, they ran him out of the state. I'm going to
tell you something, if you look around rural Oregon, you're going to
fine the same thing is happening to you.
Now, we need to have common sense reform of our medical liability
laws, so people can get good health care at affordable prices in
America. (Applause.)
I've got a piece of legislation which is important to job creation
here in America, and that gives me the capacity to negotiate trade
agreements. I say that's important -- I understand there's some
farmers and ranchers who don't believe in trade -- and I don't blame,
because you know what, you've been -- always dealt out of the mix.
But here's my attitude about this. First of all, fortunately, we
produce more food than we need. Imagine being the head of a country
where you're worried about your next meal for the American people. We
produce more food than we need because we're good at what we do. And
if you're good at something you do, you ought to promote that which we
do. We ought to be using American food to feed the world. We ought to
have a President -- and I will use that tool to open up markets for
Oregon farm and ranch products. (Applause.)
In order to make sure the economy grows, we need pension
protections. Listen, we need -- if you're one of these 401(k)s with
your company stock, you ought to be able to diversify after a
reasonable period of time, so you're not locked in. And by the way,
the law that I'm about to describe we passed says -- that we just
passed -- says that if the boss gets to sell his stock, you ought to
get to sell yours. (Applause.) There's some common sense pension --
and so I hope Congress gets after it when we get back, and get me a
pension bill that will help those who have 401(k)s get the best
information possible, the best investment advice possible, so they can
better manage their accounts.
And I'll tell you one other thing that we did. I signed the law
that was the most important corporate reform law since Franklin
Roosevelt was your President. It said this. It said, the books are
going to be honest, the auditors will be audited, the numbers are going
to be real, and the criminals in America will be punished. (Applause.)
We're not going to have this, in America, where those who should be
responsible to employees and shareholders, feel like they can cut
corners. When I gave the speech about corporate responsibility in New
York, I said in my speech, the business schools in America need to be
willing to teach right from wrong. (Applause.) And that's what the
curriculum ought to do. And I was working the rope line, and probably
one of the hard hat types was sitting up there, was sitting on the rope
line, said, if you want to send the right message, if you want to teach
the lesson, just put a couple of them in handcuffs. That's the best
ethics lesson that we can have in America. (Applause.)
America is coming to understand by far the vast majority, by far
the vast majority of our chief executive officers are honorable, decent
people. They tell the truth. They treat their shareholders with
respect. They care deeply about the plight of their employees. But
this corporate task force I put together is serious business. And
we're going to find those who cheat, and we're going to prosecute them,
and they're going to find out that instead of easy money, they've got
hard time ahead of them. (Applause.)
We're making progress on the economic front. After all, the
conditions are right for growth. I want you to think about this:
inflation is low, interest rates are low, productivity is up, consumer
spending is strong. We've got the capacity to trade more. We've got
the ingredients for growth. We've got some hurdles to cross, but you
just need to know, I'm not going to rest until people who want to find
work are able to find a job.
I also want you to know I'm not going to rest until this homeland
is secure. (Applause.) There's an enemy out there, there just is.
The way I like to put it to kids who right letters in, or ask the
question -- I hope you share this with them -- is that people hate us
because we love freedom. People -- it's hard for people to understand,
particularly youngsters, why anybody would attack us the way they did,
or would want to continue to attack us.
But you've got to tell them that you're great country stands for
something that they can't stand, which is every life matters, every
individual counts, every person has got worth, and we love freedom in
America. (Applause.)
The more we value the ability to worship God the way we see fit,
the more they hate us. (Applause.) The more we honor church and
synagogue and mosque, the more they hate us. The more we speak our
mind freely, the more they hate us. The more free our press is, the
more they hate us. And therefore, since we're not going to yield to
our freedoms, since we're not going to yield the values we hold dear,
we've got to do everything we can to defend the homeland.
There are a lot of people working overtime to protect America.
Every time we get a hint, we're moving on it. There's a lot of good
people at the federal level, the state level and the local level
running down every kind of lead, every kind of possibility. We take
everything seriously here in America, because we now understand that
there's an enemy out there.
And that's why I asked Congress to work with me to make sure that
at the federal level, and eventually at the state and local level, we
do everything we can to protect the homeland. I proposed a department
of homeland security. Look, I didn't run for office saying, vote for
me, the government is going to be bigger. That wasn't my promise. I
did say, I'll try to make it better. And I'm concerned by the fact
that there's over 100 agencies involved with homeland security.
They're scattered everywhere in Washington, which makes it awfully hard
to hold anybody to account. The number one -- my number one goal and
my number one job now is to protect the homeland from the enemy, and
therefore I ought to have the tools necessary to do so, and that starts
with the department of homeland security. (Applause.)
And we're making some pretty good progress on it, but I need the
tools, and so does my secretary need the tools, to be able to move the
right people at the right place at the right time, to respond to any
threat. And unfortunately, that's not the way thought Senate bill
looks right now. You see, some senators are more worried about their
own turn than they are protecting the American people. I am not going
to accept a homeland security bill that has a book that thick trying to
micro manage the department, when all I'm asking for is the same
flexibility that they've given other Presidents, and that they've given
to manage the airports. All I want to do is to be able to respond.
I'm not interested in red tape. I'm not interested in micro
management. I'm interested in doing what's right for the American
people. (Applause.) '
And let me give you one just one example. Let me just give you one
example. It's important for us in America to know who's coming in the
country, what they're bringing into the country, and whether or not
they're leaving when they say they're going to leave. That's really
important for us to know. (Applause.) And yet when you go down there
on the border, in my part of the world, you've got one uniform in the
Border Patrol, then you've got the INS, then you've got your Customs.
It seems like to me that we need the flexibility necessary to meld
those agencies together, to be able to transfer people around, to be
able to better protect our border for the sake of the homeland security
of the United States of America. (Applause.)
So there's a lot of good people working hard, there really are.
And I'm proud of them. And I'm proud to report to you that our FBI and
CIA are talking. I mean, people are buttoned up. They understand the
job. They know the priority. They understand. And that's good. But
you've got to know how I think. The best way to secure the homeland is
to hunt the killers down, one by one. And that's what we're going to
do. (Applause.)
It's a different kind of war we face here in America. It's not
like the old days where you could measure the size of the enemy by the
number of tanks he had or the number of airplanes that are flying. You
can't measure progress by which hedge row we've taken. This is a
different kind of war. This is a war where we face cold blooded
killers, that's all they are, who hide in caves and send youngsters to
their death. They hide in a cave and they send some poor, unsuspecting
soul to their death. There is no cave deep enough -- there's no cave
where they can hide from -- you see, when it comes to defending
freedom, this great nation is relentless and patient and tough.
Anytime anybody who wants to take away something we hold dear, is going
to find out what this country is made out of.
I can't imagine what was going through their mind. I can't imagine
what was going through their mind. (Applause.) They must have thought
that we were so self-absorbed and so materialistic, and so worried
about our own well being, and so selfish, that after September the
11th, we might file a lawsuit or two. (Laughter.) But that's about
all we would do.
No, they learned something about America and our character. They
learned that not only do we have a fabulous military -- (applause) --
they're learning first hand, when we say something we mean it, and when
I say, if you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the
terrorists, I mean it. (Applause.)
And the Taliban knows what we mean. The Taliban, one of the most
barbaric group of people that modern history has seen, found out that
the United States sticks by its words. I want you to tell your kids
this about us, that we went into that country not to conquer anybody,
but to liberate. That's why we went. And that for the first time,
many young girls go to school, thanks to the United States and our
friends and allies. No, by kicking out the Taliban, we recognized that
each person has worth, that each person matters. (Applause.)
We've got work to do, and that's why I submitted a significant
increase in our budget, our defense budget, the biggest increase since
Ronald Reagan was the President. I did so because I wanted to send a
message, loud and clear -- first -- and that is, anytime we cement --
put our troops in harm's way, they deserve the best equipment, the best
training, and the best possible pay. (Applause.)
And the second reason I did it, is because I want to send a message
to our friends and allies, and to the enemy, that we're not quitting.
There's not a calendar on my desk that says, by such and such a date,
this ends. That's not the way I think. That's not the way -- it
doesn't matter how long it takes, as far as I'm concerned, and we owe
it to our children and our grandchildren to be tough and resolved, and
to be smart about how we conduct this war. This the kind of war where
sometimes you'll see us move, and sometimes you won't. I mean, it's
the kind of war where we can be just as effective cutting off their
money as it is hauling them in.
And speaking about hauling them in, the United States and our
coalition and friends have pulled in over a couple of thousand of
them. And there's another couple of thousand that weren't quite so
lucky. (Applause.) You'll see some action in Afghanistan, because
there's still some spots where they feel like they can bunch up.
But we've got some brave souls on the ground there, chasing them
down. They may try to light, like they did in the Philippines. And I
want to thank President Gloria Arroyo. She heard the message, either
you're with us or you're with the enemy. And she responded. She asked
for help, we provided help. But her troops were the ones that got this
guy that was running what they call Abu Sayyaf, the person who killed
-- kidnapped two brave Americans, the Burnhams.
We're going to make sure that Yemen continues to remain strong, and
is not a place where people get to light. I mean, we are -- we're
running a vast coalition that loves freedom. And it's going to take a
while, it will. And you've also got to know that it's very important
for us not to allow the world's worst leaders to develop and hold and
use the world's worst weapons to blackmail us or our friends.
(Applause.)
But we're making progress, we are, slowly but surely. And that's
the kind of war this is. It's a slowly but surely war. We're making
progress so that our -- so we'll be free. See, here's how I view what
happened on September the 11th. I view it as an unbelievable national
tragedy. But because I know the American people so well -- I know our
character and our strength -- out of the evil done to American will
come some good. That's what I believe. I believe that if we remain
strong and steadfast and resolved in our war against terror and
terrorists, we can achieve peace.
I want you to tell your youngsters at home that my dream is peace.
I want them to grow up in a peaceful world, in a peaceful society.
It's not only them, but it's any child in any country, anywhere, needs
to grow up in a peaceful world. And the United States can lead the
world to peace.
I believe we can achieve peace in parts of the world where people
have given up hope on peace. That's what I believe. I believe by
leading this coalition of freedom nations, we can achieve peace.
(Applause.)
There will be some steep hills to climb. There will be some
sacrifices made. But we can achieve peace. And here at home, we can
achieve a better society. The good that can come out of the evil done
to us is good that comes when people have taken a step back and said,
what does it take to make my society, my country a better place.
People ask me how can they help in the war against terror. My
answer is, love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. If
you want to fight evil, do some good. (Applause.) And there are a lot
of Americans who hear that call. It's not my call, they've heard that
call long before I was President. Some are hearing it for the first
time, but they're hearing the call --that if you want to fight evil,
you do some good. It's just acts of kindness and decency which will
change our country one soul at a time.
Listen, there are some pockets of despair and hopelessness and
poverty and addiction in America. If one of us suffers, we all
suffer. Out of the evil done to America can come some incredible good,
as good solid, decent, loving Americans decide to mentor a child, to
teach a child to read, for example; or to go to a shut-in and just
simply say, I love you, on a regular basis. What can I do to make your
day brighter?
It will happen when people understand their most important
responsibility is to love their children with all their heart and all
their soul. (Applause.)
No, this culture of service, this culture of serving something
greater than yourself in life is becoming real in America. People
understand being a patriot is more than simply putting your heart and
saying the Pledge of Allegiance to one nation under God. They also
understand -- (applause.) They also understand that being a patriot
means to love somebody, to help somebody in need, to provide food where
there's hunger and shelter where somebody needs a house and housing.
That's what it means. That's what it means to be a patriot.
No, the enemy thought they were hitting a weak nation, but instead,
they've awakened a great compassionate spirit in America. This sense
of sacrifice was defined most clearly to me, and I think it will be to
others who study the history of this period -- was on Flight 93. Here
were people flying across the country. They realized their plane was
being used as a weapon. History will show that they said a prayer,
they told their loved ones good-bye -- one guy said, "Let's roll."
They drove the plane in the ground to serve something greater than
themselves. Every life in America matters. (Applause.)
It's this sense of service, this sense of understanding there's
something greater than ourselves in life, this sense of working to make
America the very best it can be allows me to say with certainty that
out of the evil done to America will come incredible good, because this
is the finest nation, full of the finest people on the face of the
Earth. May God bless you all. (Applause.)