-David Hall- to have a prayer. David is with the Associated Conservatives of Texas. He's the, the gentleman that's brought the Liberty Bell. And, uh- So we're going to ask him to open our ceremonies, this morning- with a word of prayer. Let us bow our heads.
 

David Hall's Prayer:

Uh, Heavenly Father, we thank You for this, beautiful day in which to assemble. We thank You for all the, wonderful blessings that You have provided for us, in this life. And Lord, we don't know each other; we've come here from all across this nation. And we've all been struck- So strong that, it has caused us to come here this morning. And Lord, I pray- first, that You will bring us into unity- Help us to, greet one another, and to know our, fellow brothers and sisters. Help us Lord today to be unified, in our focus. Help us Lord, to, be good examples. Help us to be good candles, lit brightly upon a hill, that a world, will see, what occurred here. Let us stand for, righteousness, as You give us, the strength to see it, and, each one of us has different talents, Lord. And I pray Lord, that You by Your Holy Spirit will quicken those talents within us. That the word will be got out about Your batement?. That You have not been talked? to?. But Lord, but that there are great things to be done. And Lord, I pray that everything that is said and done here this day will glorify You. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. ["Amen."]
 

We had also asked several people to speak- And, uh, they declined- Not because they didn't want to be here, but other commitments, uh, prevented it. One of the people that we invited, or, one of two people that we invited, was a husband and wife team, from, Virginia. They have a program, called Parents Against Corruption and Coverup. Tom Burkett, and Beth George. They're both schoolteachers, and because of the, school schedule they couldn't make it, today. But they sent a statement. And, uh, we want to announce, what they're about, what they're into. And that is, last year they put on a quilt display in Washington, DC, in memory of all of those that have, either been killed, by government agents or law enforcement, or who have died mysteriously, and somehow either the courts or, law enforcement have not, uh, been all that anxious to, reveal the truth of, of the situation. Beth George's son, Tommy, uh, was murdered- and a friend of his was murdered. And so they- they began to try to investigate, because they were being told he committed suicide. And, uh, in the process of, trying to get to the bottom of it, they ran into many, many people that had the same kind of experience. Last year they invited a number of the survivors to contribute quilt squares to their display. And, uh, we did. Quite a number from, Waco here, did, survivors in other parts of the country, sent in quilt squares. And, uh, they're about to have another, it'll be their second annual, Coverup Quilt Day memorial. It'll be in May. Um- let's see, May 24th. [E Doyle?: "?"] What? 23rd, 'scuse me. In Washington, DC. Uh, I've been invited to be a speaker at that, uh, event. And I have agreed. And also, I understand Randy Weaver will also be there. So if any of you can make it to the Washington, DC area next month, uh, aagh, please do so to support, uh, their demonstration and, and, uh, their display of these various quilts. I think they have well over a hundred different quilt squares now for people, uh, from all different, uh, walks of life, and different circumstances. But each one, ah, some mystery or some, ah, problems with, uh, the events surrounding their death. And, and, each family is concerned with getting the truth out about what they believe really happened as opposed to what the media or whatever has, uh, reported.

So they couldn't be here today. We also, and those of you, that come into the museum afterwards, will see on the bulletin board, a little, brochure like this, advertising a new documentary, uh, video. It's put out by Jeremiah Films. Um- they, did a lot of the filming back in January, they came down here, interviewed people and so forth. Jeremiah Films are the same people that did, the "Clinton Chronicles," and quite a few other documentaries that some of you may be familiar with. I'd asked the producer of that show to, uh, be a speaker here today. And he would dearly have loved to have been here. He wanted to be here. But Jeremiah Films would not allow him speak, for some reason. Um, they said it's against their policy. So he will not be here. But he, he wanted to, uh, be with us in spirit at least. Later on you can get one of these. Um, this video is not out yet, but they're offering a discount, if you, order it, uh, with this little brochure, with this little coupon. And, uh, you can pick it, pick them up inside and, after, after this, uh, service.

I'm privileged to have, Ron Engelman here today. He has agreed to be our master of ceremonies. Ron Engelman was a radio, uh, talk show host, aagh, during, aagh, the 51-day siege. He got personally involved with what was going on. And, uh- he's very outspoken. Those of us that were on the inside listened to the radio, uh- when, especially when they cut off the electricity, we only listened to two things on the radio, to conserve batteries. We listened to Ron Engelman's show and, of course, we listened to the morning briefing, to see how, ah, different they were, and how far from the truth some of the, uh, official versions of what was going on each day was. So, let me, introduce, Ron Engelman. Uh, he is going to, carry on from now, uh, introduce the various speakers to you. [applause]

Just, skip check(jack?) to the phone. To make it seem...

[Engelman: "In here?"]

Oh, in here? Uh-huh. Um...
 

I wasn't able to be here last year. Heard a lot. Lot of faces here that I've seen before and, great to see you back again. There are a lot of people here that I haven't seen before.

Can't help but- think about one thing. The Lord's prayer, it says, "Forgive us our trespasses and forgive those who trespass against us." So, we have to forgive those who trespassed here, and what they did- that doesn't mean we have to forget. That's one thing we should never do, is forget, what took place here, five years ago. Five years and 51 days ago, and exactly five years ago today. Every one of those trees over there represent, someone that died here. They were planted by, a number of people came down here and, and spent their time, including, Rick Donaldson, who's been down here a number of times doing a lot of things.

I look around and I see, what's left. The rubble over there. I see the green grass. I've been here at times when the wind was blowing so hard, you should probably have a 50-pound weight in your, pocket, during one of the, memorial services. Another time, you needed water rings because it was raining so hard. Another time, it was so hot, you wished you had cutoffs on. But this year we're blessed, it looks like it's going to be a beautiful day and it's not going to be too awfully hot for us.

I want to thank Clive for, inviting me to, introduce the speakers today. When we're, having a memorial service, I, I don't know, I just feel uneasy with MC. But as an introducer of the speeches, I'm, I'm, uh, proud to be here. I wasn't able to do, everything I wanted to do during the siege, but, I don't think that there were many of us that could do anything. We were stopped. In our tracks...
 

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