Oklahomans commemorate the anniversary of terrorist attacks

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahomans honored the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and recalled the pain the state felt after the 1995 bombing of its federal building. <br><br>The city's entertainment

Thursday, September 12th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahomans honored the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and recalled the pain the state felt after the 1995 bombing of its federal building.

The city's entertainment district, Bricktown, filled with the glow of candlelight in a ceremony Wednesday night that featured a fly over from an Air Force AWACS plane.

The crowd of about 6,000 sang along as an a cappella choir performed ``God Bless America,'' and Lee Greenwood's ``I'm Proud to be an American.''

The normally bustling Bricktown was hushed for a moment of silence as the city remembered the victims of the Sept. 11 and those who died when Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, Oklahoma City was the site of the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil. The state lost 168 people in the bombing.

Seven years after the bombing, the city is still dealing with its grief, said Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys.

Many from Oklahoma City have traveled to New York City to console those who lost loved ones.

``We don't have the answers but we do some experience that we can offer,'' Humphreys said.

Earlier in the day people gathered at the Oklahoma City National Memorial as the city's philharmonic played under the shade of the elm tree that survived the 1995 explosion.

Workers throughout downtown poured from their offices to eat lunch on the grass of the memorial to mark the anniversary with music, songs from a children's choir and remarks from community leaders.

For Shelley and Kris Riggs coming to the memorial was the first time they would publicly commemorate the attacks with their fellow Americans.

The couple, Southern Baptist missionaries, were stationed in West Africa last year and were advised to conceal their nationality in the Muslim region in the days following the attacks.

``We couldn't wear red, white and blue and carry American flags over there,'' Shelley Riggs said. ``It was important for us to do this to openly declare that I am an American and proud of it.''

They sat on the flagstone steps of the memorial shading their 4-month-old daughter with a red, white and blue umbrella, waving flags and listening to speeches.

In his remarks, Gov. Frank Keating praised the city's spirit and called for tolerance, reminding Oklahomans that with freedom comes responsibility.

``We need to respect and honor those with diverse and divergent thoughts and opinions,'' Keating said. ``We are a symbol of greatness and goodness and we need to be great and good.''

Oklahomans also took part in a national chain of hands marking the moment the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. ``Hands and Hearts United in Memory'' was a nationwide linking Americans from the West Coast to Battery Park, overlooking the Statue of Liberty in New York City.

The state also marked the anniversary with a 21-gun salute and a performance of Mozart's ``Requiem.''

About 400 people packed the Trinity Episcopal Church in Tulsa to hear a choir and an orchestra perform the musical piece at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. It was performed at the same time in every time zone in the world.

In Lawton, a 21-gun salute was fired in Elmer Thomas Park by howitzers from Fort Sill. At Tinker Air Force Base, a ceremony honored firefighters, police and paramedics.

About 57 immigrants from 26 countries on five continents became U.S. citizens Wednesday at a Tulsa naturalization ceremony marking the attacks and celebrating America's diversity.