Oklahoma City National Memorial

With my ride in the repair shop with a costly engine malfunction, I explored Oklahoma City in a rental car! Here I am cruising into the downtown area.

On today's agenda was the Oklahoma City National Memorial. I parked two blocks away and was moved by the window panes on this building a block away. Very fitting.

I found the museum inside the Journal Record Building to be overwhelming. There were scaled displays of the neighborhood prior to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, videos of live news, a voice tape of a meeting at a neighboring building, and dozens of artifacts and damaged items. I found it to be rather overwhelming to think that someone could have enough hatred in their heart to make a 4800 pound bomb  and intentionally kill so many innocent people and injure hundreds of others. I couldn't look at any more and had to leave for my own sanity.

I took comfort in the warmth of the sunshine and the fresh air and trees. But sadness still followed as I gazed across the reflection pool (one the site of N.W. 5th Street where the Ryder truck that held the bomb was parked) onto a green grassy field that was once the location on the Murrah building.

The Journal Record Building, the location of the historical museum, and the Rescuers Orchard directly across from the reflecting pool.

 The outside portion of the memorial was also quite moving. There are 168 chairs, each chair representing an individual killed in the bombing, including 19 smaller chairs (representing the children killed in the explosion). The chairs are arranged in 9 rows, each row representing a floor of the building and therefore the location of the victim at 9:02am at the time of the explosion. At dusk, lights illuminate the glass bottom of the chair, I imagine that is a sight to see.

Looking across the relecting pool in front of the Journal Record Building, is the Survivor Tree. This old American Elm survived the blast and continues to thrive and serves as a reminder of our strength to overcome.

The Survivor Wall is the only remaining part of the structure of the Murrah Building that remains. Granite was salvaged from the building before the remaining structure was razed and contains over 600 names of individuals who by the Grace of God survived the bombing that day.

I can't say that I "enjoyed" my visit, but I felt that it was an important site to see and reflect upon. I found the museum especially moving, and at some points disturbing, wouldn't recommend it for children.