Oklahoma City Bombing Anniversary

It is always my pleasure to present my own experience from April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City.  It is always a shocking moment with the students when they discover there was a daycare center on the second floor of the Murrah building.

Of course, the iconic image from the tragic event is the photo of firefighter Chris Fields holding the baby, Bailee Almon, just handed to him by an Oklahoma City police officer.  Bailee has only turned one, the day before, and my wife had held her briefly, the weekend prior.  Bailee's mom had been excited to plan the baby's first birthday.  Sadly, Bailee would not see another birthday.

In learning all of this, some students rightly get teary - as do I.  It is an appropriate response.  Eighteen years have passed, and the terrorist attack is quite fresh in memory.

Today, I put my class through an emotional workout.  They came to class, and they listened intently to my account of the incident and the aftermath.  This, connected with their own experiences in the 2011 Joplin tornado and the recent bombing at the Boston marathon, appeared to become a very meaningful lesson.  I stress that one person did one bad thing on this day in 1995, but thousands did good things in response.

To assist, we borrowed the Hope Trunk from the Oklahoma City National Memorial.  Among the contents of the trunk are actual patches from the uniforms of rescuers (pictured upper left), items left on the fence at the memorial (lower left), a framed collection of glass shards from the Murrah building, and marble pieces from the building's flooring.  With these, students are able to touch and appreciate history.