Bill Clinton: “First of all, I want to thank your father for serving his country by working for the Federal Government. Maybe the most…”

“First of all, I want to thank your father for serving his country by working for the Federal Government. Maybe the most important thing I can do is to remind the American people that the people who work for the Federal Government are citizens and human beings too. And I think the one thing that happened in Oklahoma City is a lot of people realized all of a sudden that all of these people we deride all the time for working for the Federal Government are people that go to church with us, that send their kids to our schools and show up at the softball parks and the bowling alleys and contribute to the United Way. And I think that if you want to disagree with the policy of the Government, disagree with it. If there is a single Federal official-- there's nobody, including me, who has never felt that they were mistreated by somebody working for the Government. So if somebody believes someone who is working for the Government has mistreated them, take it to the appropriate authority, make it public if you want to, but be specific. But do not condemn people who work for the Government. That's the kind of mentality that produced Oklahoma City. And all these people out here in these various groups that are sending faxes around trying to tell people, you know, how they can get ready to assault Federal officials who are doing their jobs, trying to justify taking violent action, I don't think they understand how many people there are out there that are in an unstable frame of mind that might take them seriously and actually kill or take other violent action against Federal authorities. It is awful. Just a couple of days ago, we lost another FBI agent in Washington, DC, and I talked to that man's widow today. He has four children; he has a grandchild. He was a human being. He was an American. And apparently, the person who shot him had a vendetta against all law enforcement officials. Now, we cannot have that kind of climate in this country. And I think the most important thing we can do to make your father safer is to have everybody in this room, whatever their political party or their view, stand up and say it is wrong to condemn people who are out there doing their job and wrong to threaten them. And when you hear somebody doing it, you ought to stand up and double up your fist and stick it in the sky and shout them down. That is wrong. It is wrong. And I hope everybody in this State heard what you said today. And I hope you feel better in school next week--although I guess you're out for the summer. [Laughter] Thank you. The Environment [A participant asked about enforcement of air quality standards in Billings.]”