Advertisement
Published: April 18th 2013
Edit Blog Post
18 years ago on April 19, 1995 Timothy McVeigh and his cohort decided to destroy the innocence of America. Even moreso, the innocence of Oklahoma City. Since I had known that I was coming to Oklahoma-one of the top visits were going to be the OKC Memorial. Before 9-11, April 19th happened. While I was in Minnesota, awaiting my first nephew (who came 3 days later on April 22) a bomb exploded on a rental truck infront of the Murrah Federal Building. I often ask myself why anyone would do this? Or 9-11? Or the Holocaust? Or anything that harms other people. I just can never and will never be able to wrap my head around it...NEVER.
On the grounds are is the memorial of the victims, survivors, and rescuers. Included are the Surviving Tree, the Gates of Time, the reflecting pool, and the 9 rows of 168 chairs. Humble, breathtaking, somber, sad, and tragic.
When you enter the museum, you are greeted with the "Day like any other" theme. What people did around OKC (firefighters getting ready for their shifts at 7am, kids being in school, kids being dropped off at the daycare center, adults heading into work).
Started off like everyother day.
This section just described what everyone was doing in the morning. Kids were in school. EMTs checked into work at 7am, preparing for their shifts. The workers in the Murrah building. They also show the making of the building itself, along with the floors that the building held and what company had offices on which floor. Then you enter a room, pretty empty aside from a desk with a tape recorder. The sound of the actual tape recorder plays...it's 9am on April 19th within a building not far from the site (or maybe it was from an office within the site-I don't remember) and within 2 minutes of the recording, you heard the explosion. Lights flicker, goes dark, then the screen lights up with the photos of all 168 victims.
From there you are lead into another area, which showed confusion. Showed videos of news casts. Survivors and rescuers speaking. It also showed debris from the day including a child's shoe, keys on key rings, elevator piece, blown out door. Words cannot express the destruction and yet some places untouched. It also included an interactive readings from survivors. I did not view this because I do not think I would have left, nor would I have left still "together" emotionally.
The also had areas where it showed the world's reaction, President Clinton's speech, what children were compelled to do
for OKC, thoughts from rescuers-including a LPN who went to the site to help out. She rescued two people, she went back in and tried to help more but became injured herself. When she walked out of the site, she collapsed, was taken to the hospital where the pressure in her head was relived. She died a couple of days later. It was a very nice touch from the family of her will to help others, even putting herself in harms way.
They showed how the investigation took place. How they were able to piece together different parts of the debris, how they made a replication of the key of the rental truck to match it to a key that was found in the area. How Timothy McVeigh was arrested north of OKC because his car did not have tags and the officer that pulled him over noticed he had a weapon. He was brought in on totally different charges. If it was not for the officer doing his job-who knows if Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols would have been caught.
Also displayed was the Gallery of Honors...victims and memorials for the victims. A ceiling full of cranes...if
That morning court proceeding
Before heading into the main section, we heard a taped recording of a proceeding that was going on in a building near by. About 2 minutes into the recording at the beginning of the day, you heard the explosion. you remember children from all over the world sent origami cranes to OKC. This is represented by a ceiling full of gold cranes. Towards the end of the exhibit, there was an area for children. A nice put together book about what happened that day in their terms. An area where they can express what they are feeling.
It was a nice overall presentation about the tragic event. I would highly recommend a visit. Not only to remember the victims but to also to get a sense of a feel of what proceeded that day. It was a honor to attend and may the victims Rest In Peace and may the survivors find hope and happiness in the aftermath.
Prior to OKC Memorial I went over to the Botanical Garden, which I will not even say much about given the OKC Memorial & Museum. Plants are plants and flowers are flowers but I added the photos from there.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0426s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kimberly Engelhardt
non-member comment
I\'m bored at work and was scanning through blogs. We\'ll be in Oklahoma City in two weeks and are planning to go to the memorial. Your statement \"I often ask myself why anyone would do this?\" is exactly right. Every time there\'s a terrorist act, I wonder why and how. How can anybody think it\'s okay to harm people, period, but especially random, unknown people?