Obama: As your president I can promise you our country will be with you every step of the way

"I love Joplin," President Barack Obama, said opening his speech at the memorial service at Missouri Southern State University.

"The question that weighs on us is 'Why?' "

We can't know why we're tested with the loss of a love one, with the loss of a home where we have lived a lifetime. These are beyond our control. That does not mean we are powerless in the face of observity. How we live in the aftermath of tragedy and heartache that is in our control."

It's a lesson that Joplin has taught not just Missouri, not just the United States, but the world. World leaders said, "Let the people of Joplin know we love them."

Obama talked about how the city responded, MSSU making itself into a makeshift hospital, people driving pickups as ambulances, businesses chipping in, people waiting in line for hours to donate blood for people they know, but also "for people they've never met."

"You have shown the world what it means to love your neighbor."

I have walked through the neighborhoods that have been affected. There have to be moments when you say, 'How to begin, how to start?" There will be moments when you will feel alone.

There is no doubt in my mind that Joplin will rebuild and as your president, I can promise you our country will be with you every step of the way.

The cameras may leave,the stoplight might shift, we will be with you every step of the way. We're not going anywhere.

"That's not just my promise, that's America's promise."

Obama spoke of the heroism of those who sacrificed their lives.It was Dean Wells who loved to whistle with his church choir." The president noted how Wells, a manager at Home Depot, went back again and again to save people.

He talked of Chris Lucas and his heroism at Pizza Hut. "He quickly ushered everybody into the walk-in freezer, but it wouldn't stay closed from the inside." He talked of how Lucas held the door shut with a bungee cord  "He held it as long as he could until he was pulled away. He died saving more than a dozen people in that freezer."

"There are heroes all around us, all the time." Everyday people, the president said. "The actions of these individuals were driven for love, love for a family member, love of a friend, or just love for a fellow human being.

In a world that can be cold and selfish, this knowledge that we are inclined to love one another, inclined to be good, that makes us take heart."

"There are heroes all around us, all of the time. Let us live up to their example,to make each day count, to live with a sense of mutual regard, to live with that same compassion they demonstrated in those final hours."