Obama, Texas officials honor firefighters killed in fertilizer plant explosion [View all]
Source: Washington Post
President Obama told the families and friends of the 12 firefighters who were killed in a massive fertilizer plant explosion near here last week that America had them in their prayers, even as so much of the nation’s attention was focused on the tragedy in Boston.
Obama joined Texas officials and thousands of first responders and community members to memorialize the firefighters, whose flag-draped coffins were in the front of the auditorium at Baylor University, about 20 miles from the site of the plant explosion in the city of West. A poster of each of the fallen firefighters — ages 26 to 52 — was placed before each coffin.
Authorities haven’t identified the cause of the blast, which killed three others and came just two days after bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon.
“While the eyes of the world may have been fixed on places far away, our hearts have also been here,” Obama said. “And to the families and neighbors grappling with unbearable loss, we are here to say, you are not alone, you are not forgotten. We may not all live here in Texas, but we’re neighbors, too.”
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Former president George W. Bush sent remarks, read by Baylor President Ken Starr: “We are sad we cannot be with you for this memorial service. . . . All who are suffering are in our hearts and prayers.”
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-texas-leaders-honor-firefighters-killed-in-plant-blast/2013/04/25/2f1fca42-adbd-11e2-8bf6-e70cb6ae066e_story.html
Yes that is the last sentence in the article I added to the excerpt. Bush can't even speak in person at a high-profile funeral service in the state where he used to be governor? He instead had to use the guy who went after Clinton?
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