Story: Wake Up New York: The Oklahoma City Memorial

Oklahoma City was the site of the NATJA annual travel journalist conference. On one of the tours we visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum . It told the story of the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrrah Federal Building by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols (executed and serving life in prison respectfully). The bombing was in revenge for federal agents raiding the Branch Davidians compound in Waco Texas.

This story is not a history of the Oklahoma City bombing but what can be done when people forget petty politics and work for the common good. The Outdoor Symbolic Memorial (located on the actual site of the former building) was opened by President Clinton on the fifth anniversary of the tragedy. It is open 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, with no admission charge, and has hosted more than 3 million visitors. It is a 33-acre site featuring 168 glass based chairs (one for every victim) aligned in rows to represent the nine floors of the original building. Nineteen of the chairs are smaller; they recognize the children who were lost that day. The bronze Gates of Time surround a 318-foot Reflecting Pool. One frames the aftermath of the explosion at 9:03AM while the other shows 9:01AM representing the peace that prevailed before the actual blast at 9:02AM . There is also a Survivors Chapel, a Rescuers’ Orchard, Children’s Area and the Survivor Tree. That aging American elm tree came through the bombing to re-bud the following spring. It has become a symbol of hope and has been adopted as the memorial’s official logo. After the Murrah Building was demolished and removed, a chain link fence secured the footprint of the building. The Fence became Oklahoma ’s- and America ’s- memorial. Each day, visitors would hang mementos on the Fence. Items including poems, key chains, brief scribbled messages of condolence and support, airline ticket stubs, etc. Many of those items have remained as a part of the permanent memorial. It also allows visitors the opportunity to continue to leave personal messages.

The Memorial Museum is located across the street from the bombing site, in the Journal-Record Building which survived the blast. It was opened by President George W. Bush on February 19th 2001. There is an admission charge and more than 1 ½ million visitors have visited the museum. The Museum is divided into ten “chapters” spanning two floors with one area left exactly as it was after the bombing, including collapsed walls and ceilings. One starts their visit (after viewing a montage of before photos) in the reconstruction of a hearing room in an adjacent building where a tape recorder was running. We hear the blast of the bomb and the screams of the injured. The memorial Museum uses artifacts and many videos to recreate the first few hours after the explosion and the rescue and recovery efforts. There is a Gallery of Honor with photos and artifacts from the 168 who died. The exhibits detailing the hunt for the bombers, their capture and the trials that convicted them are off the main section of the Museum, allowing visitors to bypass them if they wish. For every exhibit showing the loss of human life, there is another with a message of optimism and hope.

The Facts: 168 killed including 19 children; 850 people injured; 12,384 volunteers and rescue workers participated; 300 buildings were destroyed or damaged; over 1,000 people survived the bombing. Finally, 190,000 Oklahoma residents (19% of the population) attended funerals for the bombing victims.

My visit got me wondering why seven years have passed and no memorial has been built at the World Trade Center site. I know the Mayor, Governor, Port Authority, architects, builders and surviving families all have their own agenda to consider but-? The day after I returned home all the New York papers were asking the same thing. The editorial in the NY Daily news was called “Towering Incompetence” and asked for an end to grandiose, undeliverable promises and a total lack of accountability. “The most important rebuilding task in the city’s history was badly off track.” The 9/11 memorial will not be done by the 10-year anniversary in 2001, and no one knows how much it will cost.

Perhaps the fact that the building destroyed was federal property helped speed up the process. When then President Clinton signed the law (October 9, 1997) creating the Oklahoma City National memorial as a unit of the National Park System he also authorized a $5 million appropriation for that purpose. The State of Oklahoma matched that sum and another $17 million was raised in private donations. Or maybe Oklahomans just get things done quickly.

“We came here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.”

www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org
1- (888) 542- HOPE (4673)