Remarks on the anniversary of the aircraft tragedy in Croatia

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, April 7, 1997

Thank you very much. Mr. Vice President, Mrs. Gore, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Ambassador, to all the members of the Cabinet and the administration who are here, all of our distinguished guests from Croatia, including the wonderful musicians, members of the diplomatic corps, Mrs. Brown, members of the Brown family, and all of you who come here as family and friends.

A year ago, when so many of us gathered in grief at that airplane hangar at the Dover Air Force Base, it was one of the longest days of my life. And yet I can only imagine how much worse it was for so many of you. Well, now it's another April and another springtime. The dogwood tree we planted on the South Lawn of the White House last year in memory of your loved ones has grown a whole foot taller, and soon it will bloom. And so we gather here today going on in celebration but clearly not free of sadness - grateful for the lives of those who were lost, yes, mindful of our obligation to them to live on as they would want us to live, but still a little sad.

I was searching all of you today, remembering those of you whom I saw a year ago, wondering what had been most difficult for you in the last year and what you missed and how once the moment of tragedy passes, the little things become so important. It's springtime, and I can't go play golf with Ron Brown. We will never shoot baskets again, and he's not here making fun of me because I had that stupid accident with my leg. And I miss that. I miss seeing the smiles of those young people that worked here at the Commerce Department who believed in this country and were totally unjaded by the cynical veneer that grips too many people. I miss that. I see the children out here and the spouses, and I wonder of all those little things that you miss.

But I can say, we should be heartened by the missing because the people we lost enriched our lives with their gifts of love, with their gifts of talent. As the Vice President said, they greatly enriched our country through their patriotism and their service. And they certainly enriched the world through their sacrifice for the cause of peace. As Secretary Daley indicated, they have inspired those who are left behind in this Department to continue on.

When Ron Brown became Secretary of Commerce, he revolutionized the role of the Commerce Department in our lives, going from rhetoric to reality. And every person, public and private and citizen alike who was a part of that should feel proud of what happened. He made our passion for trade a force not only in our economic life but in our foreign policy. He identified not only those 10 great emerging economies that we all ought to visit and work with and build bridges to, but as a distinguished American columnist noted just a couple of days ago, even in place where crises had not passed, he sought to bring the benefits of American ingenuity and entrepreneurialism and to prove that you could do good and do well at the same time, whether it was in South Africa or Northern Ireland or the Middle East, where I note that - and Mr. Arafat was here just a few days ago, he took some time out to celebrate the opening of a business development center in Gaza named after Ron Brown. They thought our trade missions were pretty great, and they thought the people that went on them were pretty great.

And of course, the Balkans. Every person on that plane shared a common vision: They all loved America, they all believed in America's mission in the world, and they certainly believed in America's mission to the Balkans. The dream for which they gave their lives is now slowly and surely being realized by people who have, too, lost a very great deal. In a country where almost every family, every springtime, can remember the terrible pain that so many of you now feel, the divided families have been reunited; marketplaces are full of life, not death; the lights are on; the water runs; homes and businesses are being restored; playgrounds belong to children again.

So a year later, with your dogwood growing and people in the Balkans returning to a more normal life, I cannot ask you to give up your pain, but I can ask you to celebrate the lives of those who died on that mountain a year ago, to celebrate them in all the ways we do, through Personal tributes paid by families and communities.

The Commerce Department has set up a scholarship fund to help the children of Commerce employees. There is a high school in White Plains, New York, named in honor of Lee Jackson. A scholarship has been established for Christina Kaminski, the 13-year-old daughter of Stephen Kaminski. The William E. Morton Library opened last fall at the Geneva Kent Elementary School in West Virginia. The Monterey Bay Export Assistance Center was dedicated to young Adam Darling. The Naomi Poling Warbasse Memorial Fund was established at George Washington University by her family and friends. The University of Wisconsin has established a Charles F. Meissner Memorial Scholarship for students from the Washington, DC, area. The New York Times has established the Nathaniel Nash Memorial Foundation to support children's education. A New Jersey church and YMCA has teamed to create the Walter Murphy Memorial Fund. Riggs National Bank has set up a worldwide scholarship for the Buckley School in New York in honor of Paul Cushman. And of course, the Ronald Brown Foundation was established by Ron's family as a means of carrying on his vision of a more compassionate, cooperative, and just world.