Oklahoma City

After getting to Oklahoma City I had dinner with Mike and Laura at an italian restaurant. We had so much fun and so much to talk about that the restaurant was almost empty when we left! Then we went to their place and talked some more. I decided it was late already and I should leave and then we talked some more in the parking lot! But by the time I finally made it back to the hotel I was wide awake and I just could not go to sleep. I finally had a restless 3 hours of sleep, which I decided was not enough considering that I would have to drive about 7 hours to my next stop in Memphis. So I stayed another night.

Laura had given me the name and address to her favorite yarn store in Oklahoma City, SWAK (Sealed With A Kiss) and I decided to check it out since I have an extra day. Laura also suggested I should go by the memorial for the Oklahoma City Bombing. I took my time in the morning to get ready, then spent a wonderful time at the knit shop, talking to the staff and the customers. Across from the knit shop is a funky little restaurant called "The Red Cup" where I had lunch before heading over to the Memorial.

When I went over to the Memorial I thought I just walk around a bit, it's a beautiful day and it'll give me something to do for an hour. Well, it just did not turn out as I had planned. I was there all afternoon, and left when the museum closed.

First I walked around the gates, one before the bombing at 9:01 and the other after the bombing at 9:03. There is a reflecting pool between the two gates, and on the other side there are the empty chairs. 168 empty chairs, one for each person that had died that day. It was a somber moment, looking at those empty chairs.



On the other side of the chairs and the reflecting pool is this tree. They call it the survivor tree. It is actually an American Elm Tree and the first pictures of this tree are from 1920 when the area was residential and this tree stood in front of a family home. Slowly the area turned into commercial and government buildings and the tree stood there still. It stood next to the Alfred P. Murrah building when the bomb went off on April 19. 1995, it stood there when cars underneath it burned right after the bombing and in photos from that day the tree can be seen, black, dead, broken. And one year after that in spring, the tree had bright green leaves again. And look at it now, it is healthy, lush and full of life! I think the term "survivor tree" is appropriate.

I walked through the museum for 2 hours, where the timeline of that day is explained. I sat in a room, listening to the live taping of that day of a Board Meeting for the Water Department, heard the sound when the bomb went off on that day, a day like any other.

Walking through the museum was very emotional, even though I did not know any of the people, and I had not even be to Oklahoma City before. I was not the only one who was overwhelmed by the Memorial, there were women crying in the rooms and in the elevator, men walked out of the room with all the photos and personal items of the vitims, everyone was quiet.

I think what bothered me most about the outside part of the Memorial were the 19 small chairs in the second row. Each row symbolizes the story of the building where these people died, each chair bears the name of a victim. The second story was where the daycare center was.

Walking through those rows of empty chairs I was trying to understand the "why" of the bombing. 168 people with families, friends, hobbies, lives. I could somewhat understand it if it was carried out by someone from a foreign country, from a country that raises their people in hatred against every western country - out of this hatred come extremists. I can somewhat understand if your mindset is such that you hate the people from a peticular country, a people you don't know and don't understand. I can understand that. What I can NOT understand however is the fact that these were not foreign extremists, they were homegrown, all-American boys with no prior criminal record. McVey was in the Military, Nichols lived with his wife and child in a neighborhood like any other. And they decide they want to change the way government works by blowing up a government building. They blow up their own people in their own country. WHY? I don't understand. How can you hate your own people so much that you think they are not worth anything, that they are just a means to an end - an end that in reality can not be achived by bombings but by changing the laws through peaceful activism. Their action that day changed a lot of things, but it did not do anything they expected it to do.

What I want to know is: Did they know there was a daycare center in the building? Did they know and didn't care? Nichols, a father - he did not care about the children?

168 empty chairs, 19 of those belong to children. WHY?