The Anniversary

It’s April and the Boys of Summer are back.  They’ve dusted off their bats and gloves and put on the uniforms that identify each as a St. Louis Cardinal or a New York Yankee or member of whatever team to which they belong.  The major league stadiums as well as scruffy plots of ground and all in between have welcomed them back with open arms.  So too have millions of baseball fans.  Its an American tradition.  But April in Oklahoma also marks an anniversary.

It was April 19th., 1995, 20-years-ago when Timothy McVeigh drove a rented truck that he’d converted to a rolling bomb, to the front of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  He parked, lit the fuse and walked away.  Moments later it exploded.

I was working for CH-6, the CBS affiliate in Tulsa and was getting ready to leave for the studio when the bomb went off.  In the hours that followed, the number of fatalities and injuries grew until finally we learned 168 people had died, including 19 very young children.  My phone started ringing and the calls would come one after another, for hours.  One of the calls in the bedlam that followed, came from our younger daughter.  She was a student at the University of Oklahoma, a journalism major and was working as an intern for an Oklahoma City television station.  Around our house we learned if she called me it was usually about the television business.  If she called her mother it was about life.  But when this call came, it took a moment for me to grasp the tone of her voice.  There was no “Hi Dad, its me.”  This time what I heard was , “Daddy, I was there.”  Not clear on what she meant I ask, “What do you mean? You were where?”  Her answer would shake me to my very foundation.  “Daddy, I was there,… in the Murrah Federal Building.  I was there the day before to pick up some papers for the station.  I was there yesterday, at about the same time as today’s blast.”

I can’t tell you what I felt at that moment but I can tell you her words still ring clear in my mind.  Sometimes, late at night just before I drift off to sleep, I’ll hear her voice, “Daddy I was there.” and the ‘what ifs’ come down the hall, climb up on my pillow and whisper in my ear.  What if Timothy McVeigh had lit that fuse the day before, on April 18th. ?   What if she had gone to the Murrah building on April 19th.?

I always get up because I know sleep is out of the question.  But my feelings always shrink to petty insignificance because I also think of the lives cut short and the unending heart break of the families and loved ones.  Their suffering can’t be measured and it continues.  An empty place at the table, an unused highchair or baby bed, another passing birthday or anniversary, a phone call that never comes.  I always remember, especially when both of our daughters and their families are with us and I’m reminded life is so fleeting.  It can be taken away in the blink of an eye.  It can change so quickly.

It also happened in New York City.  If you ever have the opportunity to visit, don’t fail to go to Ground Zero.  Stop first at the historic St. Paul’s Chapel, about a block away.  George Washington visited on his inauguration day.  It survived the Revolutionary War and the tragic events of 911.  The fence around the chapel protects the graves of several historic figures and became a fence of tribute as people from around the world and here at home, left thoughts, prayers and pictures of the missing and confirmed dead.  New York was one of the first to respond to the Oklahoma City bombing with volunteer police, fire, EMTs and laborers.  And when thousands were murdered at Ground Zero, many of Oklahoma’s best, rushed to help.

When you enter St. Paul’s, you are greeted by displays of first responder patches, notes and photos that were left on the chapel fence following the death and destruction of 911.  At the East end of the chapel, nearest Ground Zero, hangs a large canvas banner that was initially fastened to the fence outside.  It reads:  “To New York City and all the rescuers,… keep your spirits up.  Oklahoma loves you.”  It’s signed by police, fire, EMTs and rescuers from Oklahoma City.  The two towns will forever be connected.  The message at Ground Zero is the same one you’ll find at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  That message is one word,…

And that word is,… remember.

We will.

I’m Sam Jones and That’s my Perspective.