An emotionally draining day….

It’s Friday, August 31 and we went to the Oklahoma City Memorial this morning. The memorial is located in center city so it was a little tricky navigating through downtown Oklahoma City to get to it and then parking was a little bothersome to find. We learned that we take up 3 meters worth of space with our rig and we were fortunate to find curbside parking just a short distance from the memorial.
The museum is in a building that stood next door to the Federal building and withstood the blast. You start the tour with the sounds of a normal working day, as you walk down a corridor ….radio station reporting the morning’s news, traffic sounds, etc. and then you go into a room where you listen to the only known recording of the blast. The Water Board, whose offices were located in the Federal building, started a hearing proceeding at 9:00 a.m. You hear the opening statements and then several minutes into it you hear the blast that changed life as Oklahoma City knew it and as our nation knew it. You leave this room to walk through an area that shows the devastation that the blast caused….news reports of the building are playing on overhead TV’s and there are many, many display cases of personal affects that were uncovered from the living and the dead in the building. Video clips of the survivors and rescuers are very powerful and emotional to hear. The human carnage that these folks must have seen and will never forget is etched in their minds. The woman who was a tour leader for a group of young people ahead of us was one of the counselors who worked with the rescuers and she gave a lot of first hand information about what took place and what she saw. The museum is a very moving and powerful reminder of the toll that violence has on our society. Whether it be one big event such as this, with the use of 4000# of explosives, or one senseless act of violence that takes a person’s life, the museum finishes the tour with the thought that WE have the power to change how we act and react to things around us. How will we, as individuals respond to others around us to escalate the violence that occurs in our lives?
Outside, on the site where the Federal building once stood, is the silent memorial for the 168 people who were killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. There are 168 chairs, crafted of bronze and stone; the glass base etched with the victim’s name. The symbolic chairs are in two sizes, the smaller size represents the 19 children who were killed. The chairs are laid out in nine rows, representing the nine floors of the building. The chairs are placed according to the floor on which those killed worked or were visiting. At night the chair bases are illuminated, giving a beacon of hope.
On each end of the reflecting pool, which is directly in front of the chairs, are the gates of time. These gates frame the moment of destruction…9:01 was a moment of innocence before the attack and 9:03 marks the moment that we were changed forever.
There are so many things to see as part of the museum and memorial that I would encourage anyone that has considered going to see it, to do so. It is a very detailed accounting of the most heinous terrorist act to occur on American soil, prior to 9/11.