Has it really been 12 years since the OKC bombing?

KY, seriously, stop feeding the troll.

 

Sorry.

 

Sportschick -- now that you are here and on duty, please deal with that sexist pig.

 

Last month I took a friend home with me who had never been to Oklahoma before. The one place we HAD to go was the memorial. It's absolutely beautiful at night. I used to go there in college just to reflect.

The museum is outstanding, I can't go through it without crying my eyes out.

 

It must be hard to take pictures with your eyes out

 

Yeah, we visited the memorial during the day, but returned at night just to see what it looked like. Both trips were worth it.

Two other areas that I found difficult to walk through:

1. The stuff collected from the rubble. Seeing a little teddy bear, or a watch or a set of keys ... it all made me realize that it could have easily been me or my kid in that bombing.

2. Knowing that my home state - Kansas - was connected very closely with the bombing made me feel sick to my stomach.

 

http://www.danbern.com/dogboyvanlyrics.html#oklahoma

Oklahoma
by Dan Bern
co-written by Chris Chandler
(c) 1996

On the 19th day of April
In 1995
There was the worst car bombing
Near 200 people died

In Oklahoma City
On Wednesday nine o'clock
They struck the federal building
Took out near half the block

They thought it was an earthquake
Made trees and lightpoles bend
And folks thought they were seeing
The world about to end

It blew the building open
It lay there like a wound
Twisted pipes and wires
Silent like a tomb

Yeah, they blew the building open
And blew folks lives apart
Firefighters mumbling
And wondering where to start

They rushed out some survivors
But soon could only cry
And place the dead in caskets
And ask the dear lord why

Prayer for the missing
For daughters and for sons
Prayers for the souls of those
Who'd never heard a one

Kevin Small was lucky
His clock needed repair
He overslept an hour
His three-year old son was spared

But for too many others
The news was not so bright
One baby got her picture in the paper
Then she died

The President, he promised
They'd pay dearly for the blast
and all across the country
Flags were flying at half mast

Shock soon turned to anger
"Who would do this?" people said
And everyone suspicious
Had a price upon their head

They thought it was some Arabs
And folks began ton scream
"First tighten up the borders
Then hang 'em from a tree

This proves what we've been saying
'Bout our fair and gentle land
Nobody who did this
Could be an American"

The FBI got busy
Some drawings and some names
And everyone was looking
For someone else to blame

Some 50 hours later
Early Friday day
They found the man they wanted
In jail ten miles away

A so-called right extremist
A patriot government foe
An expert on explosions
And white as drive snow

When people heard the news they found it
Hard to understand
How could such a murderer
Come from our own land

But when we build walls and borders
From fear and hate and guns
The hatred turns around and
Strikes at everyone

Maybe now we'll understand
Maybe now we'll see
Superpatriots are seldom
Friends of you and me

They're scared and weak and cowards
And they think that with their guns
The ones they're most afraid of
Will turn around and run

But when we stand strong together
And let love enjoy its will
Misfortune can't defeat us
It makes us stronger still

Like on the 19th day of April
In 1995
A day all Oklahomans will
Remember all their lives

 

The caption under your picture is not only homophobic it is mean-spirited and bigotted towards Italian people.

 

http://www.danbern.com/smartieminelyrics.html#truerevolutionaries

True Revolutionaries
by Dan Bern
(c) 1998



Look, Ma,
They're gonna fry Tim McVeigh
She said that nice guy
Who was on the cover of all of those magazines?
Why would they want to do a thing like that?
I said well, he killed all those people in Oklahoma City
She said nonsense, people don't kill people
Car bombs kill people
And I said well, yeah, Ma
But they gotta do something with him
She said why don't they get Mike Tyson
To bite off both his ears?

And I say true revolutionaries
Never bomb buildings
True revolutionaries
Never bomb buildings
It attracts too much attention
They never bomb buildings

A little girl down my block
Was born with silicone in her breasts
Turned out her grandmother and her mother
Had both had the implants done
And evolution took care of it this time around
And I wondered what it is about
So many women with big breasts
Make them look so sad
And I thought, well, maybe it has to do with the weight,
The burden they're asked to carry in the world
To feed it, to be the object of its desires
And I wondered what burdens the rest of us are carrying all the time
And I couldn't help thinking

True revolutionaries
Never bomb buildings
True revolutionareis
Never bomb buildings
It attracts too much attention
They never bomb buildings

And I decided to go out for a walk
And do nothing except
Look everybody I see in the eyes
And not be the first to avert my eyes
No matter what
And I was planning to be gone for ten minutes
But things started happening
And I didn't return for two years
By which time I was the heavyweight champion of the world
And the expectant father of sixteen children
By thirteen different women

I was in a fishing village in coastal Spain
It was Our Lady of Abortion Sunday afternoon
All the pregnant ladies in their first trimester
Filed before the priest to receive the blessing of
"Try again sometime, try again"
The old barber had dyed his hair green for the occasion
And pierced his nipples
And was riding his skateboard to the statue of Conan O'Brien
Where he was doing backflips for the little kids
Who threw coins given to them by their parents

A visiting lecturer
Achingly handsome
Had just finished giving a
"How to build bombs in your basement" seminar in the park
All the young girls put their notebooks away dreamily
And put dandelions in their hair

The chimpanzee who had managed to type out Hamlet three years before
Was sitting in the third floor office of the driver's license building
Typing out zoning ordinances
Typing out learner's permits
Bored and lonely

Pee Wee Herman was sitting in the central square in the grass
Naked and masturbating
While all the townspeople moved to him slowly
And kissed him softly
And sung lullabies in the grass

And in Berkeley
And in Greenwich Village
And in Paris
And in Scottsbluff, Nebraska
No one sits around funky little coffee shops anymore
Talking revolution
They get a Starbucks to go
They go back to their basketball games
Where they see who can jump higher
Who can jam
Who can take it to the rack
And they all wear baseball caps
'Cept they don't say Yankees or Dodgers or Cardinals anymore
They say Nike; Reebok; Adidas
Because the pro players don't play for teams anymore
They play for shoe companies
And the kids aren't fooled
They're just biding their time
Waiting for the millennium
When all the computers will crash
Because the best scientists in the world
Forgot to make them read zero

True revolutionaries
Never bomb buildings
True revolutionaries
Never bomb buildings
It attracts too much attention
They never bomb buildings

And I was sitting there with a headful of dark thoughts
Like I sometimes get
And suddenly everything cleared
And I realized that the only purpose to revolution
Is to be able to love who you want
How you want
When you want
Where you want
So I took off all my clothes
Stole a boat
Rowed out to the middle of a lake
And I jumped in
And I looked back at you and said
Come on! Get wet!

True revolutionaries
Never bomb buildings
True revolutionaries
Never bomb buildings
It attracts too much attention
They never bomb buildings
They never bomb buildings
They never bomb buildings

 

There's one particular exhibit in the museum from the rubble that gets me. It's a little kid's shoe, and I swear I can feel my heart breaking when I come face to face with it.

 

Does your heart require surgery when it breaks, or do you take nitro pills?

 

Ever been to the OKC Memorial?