Oklahoma City- 11 Years Later

[journalist3072]

Of course today marks a very solemn day in American history- the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

I'm not sure if it is because as the years pass, and healing begins to take place, people tend to forget. But I was surprised to hear very little in the media and press today, about the 11th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

I haven't seen one image on the news today, of any commemorative events.

As I reflect back on the Oklahoma City Bombing, I think we can learn a very valuable lesson from it still, even 11 years later.

We must work to combat all forms of terrorism. Everyone knows that Wahabbist extremism must be confronted.

But we must never forget to combat domestic, homegrown terrorism as well. In the aftermath of 9/11, there were calls from many to profile Muslims who look like those who attacked us on 9/11.

But after April 19, 1995, there was never any call to start profiling men who looked like Timothy McVeigh.

[deminks]

1. There was a little bit on Rita Cosby's show tonight

An interview with Nichols' son. There may be more to the story. More people involved. I was very surprised to hear this on MSNBC. Here is a link to a transcript:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12387753/

But you are correct, very little else was said.

[Blue_Tires]

2. I'll never forget it

not even an hour, i remember one of the talking heads on the news speculating muslim extremists behind the task...even then they were jumping on 'blame the mysterious foreigner' bandwagon

[RoyGBiv]

3. Sadly ironic ...

It won't be remembered as heavily in the future, in part because the aftermath was not so incredibly horrific. No one felt the need to launch an all-out assault on civil liberties. (Sure, you can't by a ton of fertilizer and fuel oil without putting your name on a piece of paper, but I think that's kind of a no-brainer anyway.) We didn't go to war with anyone. The President at the time acted like a caring human being, not some hyped up, bloodthirsty, rabid dog. For the nation as a whole, lives did not change forever.

...

Had a weird experience today, or at least I perceived it as weird. Work has been very slow all week, so when I got to work today I didn't have anything I needed to catch up from yesterday, and I was bored. I was half-dozing when suddenly I felt a jolt of adrenaline and looked at the clock for no reason I can remember. It was 9:03, which is the time the bomb went off.

I then watched the memorial service here in OKC. It was televised during the morning locally. Quite moving and very tasteful.

...

Another tangent ... Strangely enough, there was a lot of "Hussein did it" running around in the immediate aftermath of the bombing and a lot of mistrust of those who appeared Middle Eastern. Then there's the lingering conspiracy theory that has gone through all sorts of permutations, one of which is centered around the so-called "second bomber" who was supposedly Muslim. (Don't bother with the detail of how one would know that from an ill-defined, long-distance eye witness report of seeing two people "near" the building.) The difference, besides the capture of McVeigh, is that our President and even the OK governor at the time (a Republican) didn't go off like seething lunatics but instead tried to calm everyone. I didn't really like Keating as a governor, but during that mess, he acted rather well.

[Nicole]

4. Last year was a big ceremony

to mark the 10th. Bill Clinton, former OK Gov. Keating, Cheney & others spoke. Thousands attended. It got a lot of national coverage.

This year was more low key. Without the out of state politicians making an appearance it may not have been as newsworthy.