Former President Clinton returns to Oklahoma City 30 years after bombing of federal building

Thirty years after the deadliest homegrown attack in U.S. history, former President Bill Clinton returned to Oklahoma City on Saturday to remember the people who were killed and comfort those affected by the bombing.

Clinton was president on April 19, 1995, when a truck bomb exploded, destroying a nine-story federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. He delivered the keynote address at a remembrance ceremony near the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum.

Clinton, now 78, was widely praised for how he helped the city grapple with its grief in the wake of the bombing, which killed 168 people, including 19 children. He says it was a day in his presidency that he will never forget.

“I still remember as if it were 30 minutes ago, coming here with Hillary to that memorial service and saying: ‘You have lost too much, but you have not lost everything. You have certainly not lost America, and we will be with you for as many tomorrows as it takes,’” Clinton said, recalling his first visit to Oklahoma City just days after the bombing, when he spoke at a memorial service for the for the victims. “I do think we’ve kept that commitment.”

Clinton has visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum numerous times in the years since the bombing and delivered speeches on major anniversaries.

On Saturday, Clinton also cautioned about the polarizing nature of modern-day politics and how such divisiveness can lead to violence, as it did 30 years ago. He said there is much the nation can learn from the “Oklahoma Standard,” a term coined to reference the city’s response to the bombing by uniting in service, honor and kindness.

“Today, Oklahoma City, America needs you,” he said. “I wish to goodness every American could just see life unfold here, hearing these stories.”

Other speakers included former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating and former Oklahoma City Mayor Ron Norick, who were in office when the bombing occurred. Family members of some of those killed in the bombing read the 168 names of those killed in the attack.

Saturday’s ceremony was originally scheduled to take place on the grounds of the memorial but was moved inside an adjacent church because of heavy rains.

After the ceremony, a procession of bagpipe players from the Oklahoma City Fire Department led many of those in attendance across the street to the outdoor memorial built on the grounds where the federal building once stood. The memorial includes a museum, a reflecting pool and 168 empty chairs of glass, bronze and stone etched with the names of those killed. Nineteen of the chairs are smaller than the others to represent the children killed.

Among the memorial’s top missions is to help people understand the senselessness of political violence and teach a new generation about the impact of the bombing, said Kari Watkins, the memorial’s president and CEO.

“We knew when we built this place we would some day reach a generation of people who weren’t born or who didn’t remember the story,” Watkins said. “I think now, not just kids are coming through more and more, but teachers who are teaching those kids.”