10 Years Ago
Apr. 19th, 2005 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puppetmakerThat would be 1995. If I am correct I was working at the Horizon Theater on a wonderful set of short plays called “All In the Timing” by David Ives. I was asleep when the bomb went off in Oklahoma City. I found out about it when I turned on the TV for the local noon news. They were showing pictures of what was left of the building and the rescue center in front of the building. There were lots of people covered in dust and blood. They all looked stunned.
At the time the feds were looking for Arab terrorists because someone told them they have seen swarthy guys with headdresses just before the explosion. Turned out that those men were construction workers on their way to work and they were Hispanic not Arab with head covering to make their safety helmets more comfortable. The people who blew up a building that housed social services for the poor were home grown.
The next day in the paper was the image that went around the world. It is of Oklahoma City Fire Captain Chris Fields cradling the body of a little girl who had just turned a year old the day before. Her name was Baylee Almon. She would be 11 and a day now. She would have two younger sisters to play with and fight with and to love. Hers is a life cut too short. The mother has had people coming up introducing themselves and their babies that they named in honor of Baylee. Her sisters know about her and what happened to her but they will never know her as a sister.
That picture made me cry then and it makes me cry now. Probably more so since I am a mother of a daughter who is precious to me. 19 children died that day. 19 lives that will never see their potential. 19 families bury a life that had just started.
Then there are the other 149 people who died that morning. Many had just started their workday. Some had come for help with Social Security. None expected to find themselves in the middle of an explosion. The injured are still living with their scars this included the rest of the kids at the day-care center.
Hug your family. Hug your loved ones. Hug your friends. Let those you love know it now for you never know what is around the corner. I am going to be thinking about all the people who were in that building today. I plan to give my family lots of hugs.
I am grateful I can hug my daughter.
At the time the feds were looking for Arab terrorists because someone told them they have seen swarthy guys with headdresses just before the explosion. Turned out that those men were construction workers on their way to work and they were Hispanic not Arab with head covering to make their safety helmets more comfortable. The people who blew up a building that housed social services for the poor were home grown.
The next day in the paper was the image that went around the world. It is of Oklahoma City Fire Captain Chris Fields cradling the body of a little girl who had just turned a year old the day before. Her name was Baylee Almon. She would be 11 and a day now. She would have two younger sisters to play with and fight with and to love. Hers is a life cut too short. The mother has had people coming up introducing themselves and their babies that they named in honor of Baylee. Her sisters know about her and what happened to her but they will never know her as a sister.
That picture made me cry then and it makes me cry now. Probably more so since I am a mother of a daughter who is precious to me. 19 children died that day. 19 lives that will never see their potential. 19 families bury a life that had just started.
Then there are the other 149 people who died that morning. Many had just started their workday. Some had come for help with Social Security. None expected to find themselves in the middle of an explosion. The injured are still living with their scars this included the rest of the kids at the day-care center.
Hug your family. Hug your loved ones. Hug your friends. Let those you love know it now for you never know what is around the corner. I am going to be thinking about all the people who were in that building today. I plan to give my family lots of hugs.
I am grateful I can hug my daughter.
