Thread: 17th anniversary of Oklahoma City bombing

Today, Apr 19 2012, marks the 17th anniversary of Oklahoma City bombing. It was the deadliest terror attack on US soil until 9/11. On April 19, 1995, a bomb destroyed most of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. 168 people, including 19 children were killed and over 500 survivors were injured.

The U.S. Department of Justice convicted Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols for the attack. McVeigh claimed he targeted the building as revenge for the deadly FBI raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, two years earlier. He was executed in 2001. Nichols remains in a supermax federal prison with a life sentence.

My heart goes out to all the victims and their families. I hope they are doing okay. Lets pray for peace for all humanity.

I have one sentiment for today: Fuck you McVeigh, and fuck the rest of Elohim City.

It breaks my brain when people say they haven't heard of it. Shows how horrible we are at teaching history, and how quickly events get overshadowed. Surprised we still teach World War I.

I first learned about the event through a NatGeo documetary at age 8 (yeah, I've watched National Geographic religiously since I was a kid; wanna make something of it?). I'm still somewhat shocked that it's never come up in my education, not even in history classes.

As with Jabberwocky, I learned of this attack through a documentary several years ago and not from history lessons. I think the reason it hasn't been brought up in history lessons is because it's a very 'recent' event, and not something from, for example, 50 years ago. Then again, 9/11 was covered a lot in one or two history lesson back when I was in school. Again, shows we're not very good at covering everything when it comes to history.

May peace be with the victims and their families.

The memorial they created for this event is actually quite striking: illuminated chairs for each of the victims: Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum – Official Website

I learned about this from watching it on television, just like 9/11. I was about four months' pregnant at the time, and the fact that so many children were killed made it more horrific in my eyes, simply because they had nothing to do with the government that McVeigh hated so much.

I remember watching the news report about it that was going on all day that day, but I didn't really understand what was happening since I was... 4 or 5ish. I'm a little bit surprised that I didn't hear anything about it afterwards until the trial. Nothing in history class, no major documentaries or news, etc.

It seems to be a recurring theme in American education to hide the truth of attacks against our country. Pearl Harbor was glossed over as "something unimportant", the Oklahoma City bombing was never mentioned, and 9/11 was only talked about briefly because it was so recent. It's like people don't want kids to know that people are out there to kill each other, and that the world is actually in fact a fairy tale filled with rainbow kisses, chocolate rivers and marshmallow mountains.

Originally Posted by Caitlin

I
It seems to be a recurring theme in American education to hide the truth of attacks against our country. Pearl Harbor was glossed over as "something unimportant"

Speak for yourself. We studied Pearl Harbor rather extensively in my history class just a few weeks ago.

Were you in a public or private school? I was in a public school until I was in high school, and once I got to high school I started to actually learn about this stuff. Or maybe the New York curriculum just doesn't put emphasis on the black eyes that this country has received over the years.

Rest in pieces, Tim.

Originally Posted by Caitlin

Were you in a public or private school? I was in a public school until I was in high school, and once I got to high school I started to actually learn about this stuff. Or maybe the New York curriculum just doesn't put emphasis on the black eyes that this country has received over the years.

I'm in a public high school. Although, we did talk about the significance of Pearl harbor back in 6th grade.

Originally Posted by Caitlin

I remember watching the news report about it that was going on all day that day, but I didn't really understand what was happening since I was... 4 or 5ish. I'm a little bit surprised that I didn't hear anything about it afterwards until the trial. Nothing in history class, no major documentaries or news, etc.

It seems to be a recurring theme in American education to hide the truth of attacks against our country. Pearl Harbor was glossed over as "something unimportant", the Oklahoma City bombing was never mentioned, and 9/11 was only talked about briefly because it was so recent. It's like people don't want kids to know that people are out there to kill each other, and that the world is actually in fact a fairy tale filled with rainbow kisses, chocolate rivers and marshmallow mountains.

They went over 9/11 and terorrism in the history classes in the public schools I've been too, if only briefly, but little/nothing about the Oklaholma bombing or something about Pearl Harbor in the WWII section. If anything, they skip a LOT over Asian history, such as China/Japan. Even though that is in the history books, everyone only reads the parts relevant to America where I live, and for World History, only some parts about Europe and early human history.

Originally Posted by Barb

The memorial they created for this event is actually quite striking: illuminated chairs for each of the victims: Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum – Official Website

I learned about this from watching it on television, just like 9/11. I was about four months' pregnant at the time, and the fact that so many children were killed made it more horrific in my eyes, simply because they had nothing to do with the government that McVeigh hated so much.

One of my mom's friends was telling us how her parents just got back from a visit to Oklahoma where they visited the memorial there, and how harrowing it was - especially with the chairs to represent the children who died, and seeing the flowers that were still placed for them all these years later. What's strange for me is I had just reached my fifth birthday the day before that attack happened*, and it's sobering to realize that some of those children who were killed would be my age or older now if they had lived. Even the youngest ones would be high-school-age by now. So sad to think of all the living they lost out on simply because they were unlucky enough to be in the warpath of a nutjob on the wrong day.

(*I know this because I looked it up; even as a really precocious little kid, I hadn't heard about this when it happened, but first found out a few years later, when I was old enough to start learning about the horribleness of the world.)