For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
May 6, 2004
Remarks by the Vice President to the 16th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner
Hilton Washington
Washington, D.C.
May 5, 2004
7:12 P.M. EDT
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. (Applause.) Thank
you all. Well, thank you very much for that warm welcome. And I'd
like to thank the former volunteer fire chief from Marcus Hook,
Pennsylvania -- Congressman Curt Weldon, who is an old friend and
colleague -- for the introduction tonight.
I've been looking forward to this evening. You've got a full
agenda, and your emcee, Hal Bruno is going to keep things moving.
Right, Hal? Someone told me that if I keep the speech short, I just
might be handed a fine-looking helmet. (Laughter.) I accept.
Hal and I go back a long time. For decades, this man has been
among the most respected journalists in the nation. He's been solid,
truthful, unpretentious, and fair. And in all those years, he's also
been a volunteer fireman. And nobody knows or cares more about
firefighters and their families. He recently had a stay in the
hospital for heart bypass surgery -- welcome to the club, Hal.
(Laughter.) We all want you to know how much we appreciate your good
work, and how glad we are to see you tonight. (Applause.)
We've got a lot members of Congress here tonight. I don't want to
offend anybody by leaving them out -- got a few old friends and
colleagues: John McCain, Joe Biden. Paul Sarbanes I just saw
outside. Sherrie Boehlert, of course and Curt Weldon, and many, many
others. And I'm told Joe Allbaugh is in the audience tonight. Joe
shouldn't be hard to spot. (Laughter.) He -- that's Joe.
(Applause.) He looks like a guy who can handle a big job, and he
proved it with his outstanding service as Director of FEMA.
(Applause.) I also want to recognize another excellent FEMA Director
who is here with this evening, as well -- James Lee Witt of Arkansas.
(Applause.)
Tonight, we honor firefighters and emergency personnel in
communities across America, who are the first line of defense against
all hazards. And just about everybody, at one time or another, has
needed your help or watched you at work. We have seen firefighters and
other first responders arrive on the scene, and take control of the
most chaotic situations. We have seen you work to exhaustion, and keep
going back until the last person is saved. And our whole nation has
seen the way you look out for each other, and care for the families of
those who fall. When Americans look at a firefighter, they see the
very best in their communities. You command a special respect in this
country. And not just once, but many times over during your careers,
you earn that respect with your discipline, your decency, and your
courage.
As you meet your responsibilities, the federal government must do
its part in providing the resources that our firefighters need. The
past year brought many successes on Capitol Hill, thanks to the
leadership of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus. These successes
include robust funding for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant
Program, which received nearly $750 million this fiscal year for direct
grants to local fire departments and to support to fire safety
programs. (Applause.) This funding is on top of the more than $8
billion that the Department of Homeland Security has allocated or
awarded to state and local governments under a variety of domestic
preparedness grant programs, many that directly bolster the
capabilities of first responders including firefighters. In addition,
Congress reauthorized the United States Fire Administration, passed the
Firefighting Research and Coordination Act, to develop new safety
standards, and passed the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefit Act. And
all of these measures were proudly signed into law by President George
W. Bush. (Applause.)
We must support our nation's firefighters and emergency personnel,
because the demands of your job are greater than ever. You are
prepared, after all, for the millions of calls that must be answered
every year. And in this period of testing for America, every
firefighter knows that the next alarm could be a terrorist attack. You
have always been essential to the security of our communities, and now
you are essential to the defense of our homeland.
Americans know you are up to the job, because we have seen the
character of firefighters in some of our most desperate hours. I was
at the White House on the morning of September 11th, 2001, and
throughout that day watched and received reports on the situation in
New York, and across the river at the Pentagon. There were
conversations with the President and military commanders, and decisions
to be made about civilian flights, military air cover over major
cities, and disaster response. In many ways throughout our entire
government -- at the federal, state, and local levels -- the attacks of
that day brought out the very best in people under hard and extremely
difficult circumstances. Yet in a day filled with heroic acts, few
images stand out more clearly than the conduct of our firefighters.
And when the day was over, no realization was more sobering than the
knowledge that we had lost thousands of our fellow citizens, and
hundreds of firefighters on a mission of rescue. They were last seen
running into the Twin Towers and up the stairs. And we will always
remember them as they were at that hour: brave souls, faithful to
their duty, and to one another.
When the President sent our troops into Afghanistan in the fall of
2001, some of them found inspiration in reminders of why they were
going into battle. On packs and planes, and even on a few bombs, they
put the letters, F-D-N-Y and N-Y-P-D. The inspiration seemed to work
-- (Applause.) The inspiration seemed to work: The people of
Afghanistan have been liberated, the Taliban is out of business, and
the terrorists are on the run.
As President Bush has made clear from the very beginning, we are in
a different kind of war. 9/11 changed everything for this country. In
the space of a few hours, we saw the violence and the grief that 19 men
can inflict. And we had a glimpse of the even greater harm terrorists
wish to do to us. The terrorists hate our country and everything we
stand for in the world. They seek even deadlier weapons, and they
would use them against us, if they could acquire them. In the face of
this danger, we have only one option, and that's to take the fight to
the enemy. (Applause.)
The Taliban were the first to see our determination, and as that
country moves towards democracy, it remains dangerous for the men and
women of our military who are still there. Our forces are on the
offensive, and they will stay on the hunt. They know who they're
looking for -- and one by one, they will bring them to justice.
In Iraq, where a dictator cultivated ties to terror and sought to
arm himself with the world's most deadly weapons, America led a mission
to make the world safer, and to liberate the Iraqi people. Saddam
Hussein defied the demands of the civilized world and he has
experienced the consequences. More than a year after that country was
liberated, a collection of killers is trying to undo Iraq's progress
and throw that country into chaos. These men are not just acting from
blind rage. The terrorists in Iraq have a strategic goal. They want
to shake our will, and show the world that America runs from a
challenge. Day by day, they are learning otherwise.
Iraq is a central front in our war on terror. The defeat of
tyranny and violence in that nation, and the rise of democracy in the
heart of the Middle East, will be a crucial setback for international
terror. We will do what is necessary -- destroying the terrorists,
returning sovereignty to the Iraqi people, and helping them to build a
stable, self-governing nation. Because we are strong and resolute,
Iraq will never go back to the camp of tyranny and terror. (Applause.)
And America will never go back to the false comforts of the world
before 9/11. Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength.
They are invited by the perception of weakness. (Applause.) This
nation has made a decision: We will engage the enemy, facing him with
our military in Afghanistan and Iraq today, so we do not have to face
him with armies of firefighters, police, and doctors on the streets of
our own cities. (Applause.)
Many of our personnel in Iraq are firefighters, including a
reservist from Middletown, Connecticut named Keith Clark. When his
unit was sent to Iraq, fellow members of the Middletown Fire Department
told a reporter they had faith in him because, after all, this is a man
who has trained to face danger. Their only regret was that they
wouldn't be there to watch his back. The firefighters held a gathering
to give Keith a proper sendoff. In his honor, they put a blue star
service banner atop the Main Street fire station, and the president of
Local 1073 said, we're going to keep it up until he comes home.
That's the kind of spirit and camaraderie that places firefighters
among the most admired men and women in our society. This is a nation
of good and decent people. And in your fierce brotherhood, in the
courage and loyalty you show every day, America's firefighters set the
standard. I count it a privilege to stand with you tonight. The
people of our nation look up to you. And tonight, on their behalf, I
thank each and every one of you. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END 7:25 P.M. EDT
|