By ALLI SCHIEBER
Editor-in-Chief
One day of darkness changed Oklahoma forever.
April 19, 1995, nearly 30 years ago the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building located in Oklahoma City was bombed. Today we honor “those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever.”
The bombing happened at exactly 9:02 that day but the hours leading up to it was a normal day. People went about their days like normal having breakfast, going to meetings, planning upcoming events and going to work.
At the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, it takes you through that day, just like every other day. Up until 9:00 A.M. when the museum has a room where you sit as if you are in a meeting at the Oklahoma Resources Water Board. Then at 9:02 the bomb goes off. Much like that day you are pushed out and into another room filled with chaos, uncertainty and darkness.
While darkness might have taken over that day, Oklahoma did not let it take over their lives “one day of darkness, years of light” became a slogan for many locals that day as they focused on coming together to rebuild what was taken from them.
Which was way more than just buildings and people but also hope and innocence.
168 victims were killed that day but more than 600 people survived and thousands of people came to help that day. Whether as a first responder or as a volunteer helping at “The Compassion Center” or helping with donated goods at “Feed the Children”, Red Cross or the Salvation Army.
People came together to help Oklahoma City on their dark day. Even the Oklahoma Restaurant Association, who had just finished their annual conference when the explosion occurred, turned themselves into a 24-hour food service operation and fed all emergency first responders at the Myriad Convention Center.
The Myriad Convention Center later became the center meeting the needs of all the first responders on the scene according to the after-action report on Oklahoma.gov. While the Oklahoma City Bombing Museum takes you through the day of darkness and focuses on remembering the 168 killed the memorial outside reflects on the good in many ways.
The only wall that remains standing from the Murrah Building on the east end of the Memorial for example, this wall now has the name of every survivor that day. Other symbolic things at the memorial are the gates that frame the moment of destruction with 9:01 being the innocence before the attack and 9:03 being the moment healing began.
The reflecting pool which was once N.W. Fifth Street and the field of empty chair representing those killed and the survivor tree, which was an American Elm, that survived the attack.
April 19 may have once been a day of darkness it is certainly now a day of light, remembering what Oklahoma is all about, coming together.
“If anyone thinks that Americans are mostly mean and selfish, they ought to come to Oklahoma,” said President Bill Clinton. “If anybody thinks Americans have lost the capacity for love and caring and courage, they ought to come to Oklahoma”
