Thaindian News

Apr 19 (THAINDIAN NEWS) It has been fifteen years since a bomb ripped through the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was the worst terrorist attack on US soil which had ever been planned and carried out by an American citizen.

On April 19, 1995 at 9:02 am, Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck which was full of explosives in front of of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. It was carried out just two short years after the tragedy at Waco, TX. Known now as “The Oklahoma City Bombing” the attack killed 168 people, and totally shattered America’s innocent way of thinking that we were immune to a domestic attack. Although many tragedies came before this, such as Pearl Harbor, and after, there were, of course, the 911 attacks of the World Trade Centers, this was, for my generation, a deeply sad as well as frightening event. We had never been attacked to this degree from inside. For those of us who were not here for Pearl Harbor, it shook us like nothing ever had.

The blast was so severe that a man, Don Gordon, who was seven miles away was shocked and terrified by it. “It felt like I’d hit a car,” he said of the concussion from the blast. “I looked and saw a ton of smoke pouring from downtown.” He watched in despair throughout the day as bodies were pulled from the damaged building. “It was absolutely horrifying,” said Gordon, a fourth-generation jeweler whose family’s presence in Oklahoma predates statehood. “It was horror in real life.”

McVeigh, who was an Army veteran, was convicted on federal murder charges for the bombing and executed in 2001. He said that his reasons for the horrible event were to seek revenge on the US government for the raid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_Siege on the Branch Dividian compound in Waco TX, which occured on April 19, 1993. Bill Clinton saw some interesting parallels between the feelings of Americans then and now. He wrote in the New York Times, “we should never forget what drove the bombers, and how they justified their actions to themselves. They took to the ultimate extreme an idea advocated in the months and years before the bombing by an increasingly vocal minority. … Fifteen years ago, the line was crossed in Oklahoma City. In the current climate, with so many threats against the president, members of Congress and other public servants, we owe it to the victims of Oklahoma City, and those who survived and responded so bravely, not to cross it again.”

Some news stations are now reporting that Clinton has made an invitation to terrorists to act again, by this article. I feel that this, just as all articles should be read in full, and seen for what it is before analyzing the meaning. There are indeed many parallels between that time and now. No matter whether we agree with what the government does or not, the attack on innocent citizens in never the answer. Unfortunately, as can be seen in actions such as the recent Austin incident in which Joe Stack crashed a plane into another federal building in an effort to get revenge on the government, too many lose their grip on reality and ruin the lives of their loved ones, family, and families of the innocent victims of their actions.

Let’s remember those victims today, the ones who lost their lives, as well as those who did not. Many lives were forever changed by the actions of Timothy McVeigh. Out of the 168 killed, 19 were children in the daycare center of the building. Six babies miraculously survived, but still live with asthma and other physical problems because of an act of hatred that they cannot even remember. PJ Allen was one of those babies. He lungs were damaged severely, he almost did not survive, he has had to have numerous surgeries.

“My asthma stops me from running all the time,” said Allen, who speaks with a hint of a rasp in his voice between quick pauses to catch his breath. “Sometimes, coaches wouldn’t want to play me because I might get hurt.”Despite the hardships and years of surgeries, including numerous tracheotomies, Allen said he hardly ever asks, “Why me?”

“Because to me, this is normal,” Allen explained. “As far as I remember, this has been what my life has been like.”

The stories are similar for each of the surviving kids, one suffered brain damage, and still fought hard enough that he is a junior in high school. Another stated, “When you go through something like this, it just doesn’t go away, like the next day or the next year. It affects you for your whole life.”

Although many may feel that they have legitimate reasons for being frustrated with their government, although we may not always agree with the way things are done, even though tensions rise and the feeling of hopelessness may cause people to think of doing things they would normally never do, they should always remember those babies.