Anniversaries of tragedies

Yesterday and today are anniversaries of tragedies in our country.
April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City bombing
April 20, 1999: Columbine High School shootings

The Oklahoma City bombings were, I just hear on the radio, the largest act of ‘homegrown’ terrorism ever in this country.
The Columbine shootings were (I think) the largest number of victims up to that time, in such an incident.
Please, take a moment to remember the events, the victims, the effect on those involved and on the rest of the country.
Offer up the kind of prayer you use to ask that it not happen again.
What was the result of either of those tragedies? Much heartbreak. Many headlines, then and each year after. What were the perpetrators trying to prove? What gave them so much hatred, so little concern, that they felt their cause would be bettered, their acts justified, by slaughtering so many innocent people? We will never know, no matter how much evidence is found to their state of mind at the time.
I can almost understand wanting to strike out at someone who has directly caused you harm. I cannot understand striking out at those who have nothing to do with you. I doubt anyone ever will. I also doubt that these are the last of this kind of event – well, we know it was not the last of the school shootings, those continue.
I was just thinking about our ‘civilized’ times. In the early days of our country, our wilderness frontiers, and those who settled them. In the ‘wild west’, shootouts were common. Indian raids (by and on the Native Americans) were common. There are stories of atrocities, and we can smugly say, well, that was the ‘old days’, those things don’t happen now. Really? Read the news. Are we more civilized? I think not, judging by headlines every day. If anything, there is more senseless violence, and an equal, if not less, concern for life.
Are the ‘gang-bangers protecting their turf’ that much different that the settlers and Indians fighting for land? That’s a whole ‘nother discussion.
Just to quickly play the ‘where I was when I heard’ game: you know, I don’t even remember about Oklahoma City for sure, but it seems like I was home, and heard on the news, just as most of the rest of the country.
Columbine I remember distinctly. I was doing a solo trip to California, and, as I often did at this time of year, making hiring calls for the theatre from truck stops and rest areas across the country. I had fueled in the Pilot in Amarillo, Texas, and went inside to grab supper and call some girls from Hudson to be in a children’s theatre show. The mother I reached sounded a little distraught, and apologized for it, saying she was watching the news about a lot of kids being shot at a school, and that she just couldn’t get it out of her mind. I went to the always on tv area, and joined a group watching the stories, and then kept hearing them across the country – and I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
In 2000 or so, I took my grandson with me in the truck. We were supposed to go Memphis, Tennessee and back, but that load fell through, and my dispatcher took it on herself to ‘get that boy to California’. She found a load, and we went west. I tried to find some places to stop to show him special sights, one was the Meteor Crater in Arizona, another was the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.
We had a personally conducted tour of that. I stopped outside the city to ask directions and if I could get a ‘big truck’ there; after being assured I could, I missed a turn somehow, there was construction and I think the street I was told to take was closed off. Anyway, it was pouring rain, and I wasn’t sure where to go, and noticed a building up the street ahead of us with a lot of police cars parked around it. Thinking it was a ‘cop shop’, I parked and we went in, and asked what the best way to get to the memorial was. Turns out it was a place that prepped cars for the police department, and they were quite surprised to see us come in. After having debates about the best way for us to get there with the truck, one of the men said ‘I’m not doing anything, come on’, and drove us there, drove around the site so we could see the fence where people were still leaving memorial signs, gifts and more, then he parked, pointed out the highlights, and waited while we walked around. It is a magnificent site and I recommend going if you ever can. We got back in his car dripping wet and very impressed. He told us personal stories of where he was when it happened and of a friend who worked in a nearby building who could not go back to work there afterwards. Stephen still remembers that as the thing that impressed him the most on the entire trip.
Say a prayer to whoever you believe in that other pre-teen boys don’t have to see other memorials of such events to be impressed by. And another for the victims, and another for those contemplating such acts that they find another way.
Then hug those close to you.