I'm here on a layover in Oklahoma City today. I haven't been here since they took the Federal building down, I had layovers out by the airport that year. We're downtown now, and I walked down to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. So soon on the heels of the 5th anniversary of 9/11, it was a very somber visit. The buildings around where the Federal building once stood still show the damage from the blast, and there are actually still a couple of areas where they've preserved some walls from the original building.
The memorial is very beautiful, there is a museum and beautiful grounds that are very peaceful. Especially somber is the field with chairs, each marked with the name of a person that was lost that day. Some of the chairs are small, to represent the children that were in the day care that day and were killed. I overheard another visitor say to one of her group "isn't it horrible that terrorists think it's a good thing to kill innocent people that are just going to work". It so struck me that she was so very right, but also right about the flight crews on 9/11, the passengers, the workers in the buildings, the responders (police, firemen) and basically everyone that perished. What a different ideology the "bad guys" must have to go after people that were completely innocent. The people that were killed in each of these acts were not the ones that determined policy, that sent arms to the "other" side, or that did whatever it was that enraged the terrorists. These people were innocent bystanders, simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sigh.
I'm here on a layover in Oklahoma City today. I haven't been here since they took the Federal building down, I had layovers out by the airport that year. We're downtown now, and I walked down to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. So soon on the heels of the 5th anniversary of 9/11, it was a very somber visit. The buildings around where the Federal building once stood still show the damage from the blast, and there are actually still a couple of areas where they've preserved some walls from the original building. 
The memorial is very beautiful, there is a museum and beautiful grounds that are very peaceful. Especially somber is the field with chairs, each marked with the name of a person that was lost that day. Some of the chairs are small, to represent the children that were in the day care that day and were killed. I overheard another visitor say to one of her group "isn't it horrible that terrorists think it's a good thing to kill innocent people that are just going to work". It so struck me that she was so very right, but also right about the flight crews on 9/11, the passengers, the workers in the buildings, the responders (police, firemen) and basically everyone that perished. What a different ideology the "bad guys" must have to go after people that were completely innocent. The people that were killed in each of these acts were not the ones that determined policy, that sent arms to the "other" side, or that did whatever it was that enraged the terrorists. These people were innocent bystanders, simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sigh.
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