ATLANTA, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- In a rousing address here Thursday lauding the courage of the American people, President George W. Bush called private citizens to service in the war on terrorism and to protect the home front by taking on volunteer jobs in their home communities to support police, fire, public health and disaster preparedness agencies.
"Americans," the president said, "have responded magnificently, with courage and caring." He said that it has been shown by the compassion shown by Jewish and Christian Americans in reaching out to their Muslim neighbors and in the way that the Americans and particularly postal workers "are responding with calm" in the face of continued anthrax attacks.
He said 17 people in three states have been infected by anthrax and four have died since the first anthrax-filled letter was posted on Sept. 18.
"We are a different country than we were on Sept. 10th," Bush said, "sadder and less innocent; stronger and more united; and in the face of ongoing threats, determined and courageous."
In addition to a general call for Americans to seek out volunteer roles in their own communities, the president said he had ordered a series of steps to bring Americans across the country into the war on terrorism at home.
The president called for AmeriCorps and the Senior Corps, two federal volunteer programs, to provide 20,000 additional people to assignments in support of police, health, and disaster preparedness in 2002. These agencies will move money from current programs to shift the job assignments. Citizens in these corps receive a small stipend, the White House said.
The president created the President Task Force on Citizen Preparedness in the War Against Terrorism. Within 40 days, this task force will recommend ways to teach Americans in the homes, neighborhoods, schools and workplaces on how to prepare for terrorist attacks.
The task force will also recommend ways that Americans can get involved in the fight in their home communities.
The address at the Georgia World Congress Center here came on the eve of the second month anniversary of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which killed nearly 5,000 people.
The audience was filled with firemen, police, military personnel, postal workers, health workers and private citizens who cheered vigorously as the president recounted the courageous actions of these groups in responding to the Sept. 11 attacks.
The president told them that "our great national challenge is to hunt down the terrorists and strengthen our protections against future attacks; our great national opportunity is to preserve forever the good that has resulted.
"Though this tragedy," he said, "we are renewing and reclaiming our strong American values."
The president enumerated the actions of the federal government since the attacks, from creating the Homeland Security Office to putting radiation machines in post offices to neutralize anthrax bacteria. He listed the measures taken by the government, such as the anti-terrorism law and the steps to tighten airport security.
"A lot of people are working really hard to protect America. But in the long run, the best way to defend our homeland -- the best way to make sure our children live in peace -- is to take the battle to the enemy and to stop them," Bush said.
"Our military is pursuing its mission," the president said. "We are destroying training camps, disrupting communications, and dismantling air defenses ... We are deliberately and systematically hunting down these murderers, and we will bring them to justice."
In carefully planned events Thursday, the president and first lady Laura Bush set out to reassure Americans about the nation's safety and stability in separate addresses in Washington and Atlanta.
The president's decision to ask Laura Bush to give an address of reassurance was reminiscent of the role that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor, played in World War II in going to places that Roosevelt couldn't, to reassure Americans.
Although billed as one of the president's most important speeches, U.S. television networks CBS and NBC did not carry it live at the 8 p.m. EST slot.
In an address at the National Press Club earlier Thursday, Laura Bush struck themes similar to those of her husband.
"We have been living in an age of self-absorption and self-indulgence," she said. "But the amazing thing is that in one day, it all stopped. And we started to rethink things. We began to think not about what is wrong, but what is right with our towns and our states and this country," she said.
Both the president and Laura Bush found the tragedy of Sept. 11 just that, a tragedy, but also one that has given rise to a rebirth of spirit.
"Many things have changed since Sept. 11th," Laura Bush said, using almost the president's same words. "We are sadder and less innocent, more determined and prepared, wiser and in many ways better: more patriotic, more united, more compassionate," she said.
Her address was one of the longest she has given and was well-received by the reporters at the National Press Club. She said she had formed her thoughts about Americans by traveling about the country since Sept. 11 on the school projects she works on.
"I have learned these things from my visits with people throughout the heartland ... I've seen strangers helping strangers. I've seen strangers becoming heroes. I've seen this country at its best. Americans are proud, and we care about others," she said.
Both the president and Laura Bush mentioned the same newspaper article in their speeches in quoting a 4-year-old girl, who asked what the president called "a telling and innocent question."
"Wondering how terrorists could hate a whole nation of people they don't even know, she asked, 'Why don't we just tell them our names?'" the president related.
"Well, we can't tell them our names," the president said, "but together we can show them our values."
The president said he recently received a letter from a fourth-grade girl who wrote him that she didn't know how to feel, right after the terrorist attacks -- "sad, mad, angry. It has been different lately. I know the people in New York are scared because of the World Trade Center and all, but if we're scared, we are giving the terrorists all the power."
Bush said Americans are "refusing to give the terrorists the power."
Earlier on Thursday, Bush traveled to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the government health agency that is investigating the series of anthrax attacks that infiltrated the U.S. postal system. Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson and members of Georgia's congressional delegation were in Atlanta with the president.
Bush's visit to Atlanta began with a tour of the CDC. The agency houses 12 research centers and employs approximately 8,500 people working in 170 medical and scientific disciplines across the country. The Atlanta headquarters houses 1,600 employees.
Bush promised workers at one point in his tour that his administration is studying the financial needs forced by the crisis and may seek more money for the CDC in a supplemental budget in 2002.
CDC investigators were sharply criticized for not identifying the pathogen in the nation's post offices and treating postal workers more quickly.
The administration has been criticized for its mixed message on homeland security: telling Americans to go about their normal routines, but issuing two high-profile Justice Department alerts -- the first on Oct. 11 and a second on Oct. 30 -- that terrorist attacks against the United States were imminent.
Each time, Vice President Dick Cheney was moved to an undisclosed location away from the president and the White House, as is done during heightened security alerts. Each alert raised the national anxiety level about domestic security and the possibility of more attacks on civilians.
The president's speech Thursday was aimed at reassuring Americans that the government's actions were organized and that the United States was able to wage a war against terrorism and protect the homeland.
