Oklahoma City bombing site becomes place for reflection

OKLAHOMA CITY - From bomb-ravaged tower to serene memorial, the transformation is nearly complete. <br><br>Five years ago: a nine-story federal office building shredded, 168 dead. A massive crater in a

Monday, April 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY - From bomb-ravaged tower to serene memorial, the transformation is nearly complete.

Five years ago: a nine-story federal office building shredded, 168 dead. A massive crater in a once-busy street. Dozens of cars ablaze. Adjacent buildings teetering. Empty lots covered with debris.

Today: 168 bronze, granite and glass chairs, framed by loblolly pines. A gently flowing reflecting pool, towering bronze gates at each end. A wall of 600 hand-painted tiles, expressions of broken-hearted children.

On Wednesday, five years to the day after a truck bomb forever changed the face of downtown Oklahoma City, thousands - including President Clinton - are expected to gather at what remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building to dedicate a national memorial that will serve as a reminder of the evils of terrorism and the triumph of the human spirit.

"We're not through, I'm not through with this event," said Dr. Paul Heath, a recently retired Veterans Administration psychologist who serves as president of the Murrah Building Survivors Association.

"But certainly, this is a monumental step forward for those of us who were affected by the bombing."

For those who survived or lost loved ones in America's worst act of domestic terrorism, and for those who helped rescue victims and pull bodies from the smoldering rubble, the 3.3-acre memorial is nothing short of sacred ground.

And it is here that many hope to find peace and comfort after five often anguished years - the initial shock and grief, the funerals and burials, the trials and convictions of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols and, at long last, the completion of the $29.1 million memorial, aimed at ensuring the world never forgets the 168 lives lost, the more than 500 injured, the 300 or so buildings in a 60-block area destroyed or damaged.

"It will provide a place for personal reflection," said Bob Johnson, chairman of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Trust. "It will provide a serene place.

"There is a real strong element of hope here that the steps we are taking in response to the tragedy will reduce the prospects of this happening elsewhere."

Wednesday's dedication will culminate a memorial campaign that began within weeks of the bombing.

International contest

It included an international design competition that attracted 624 entries from all 50 states and 23 foreign countries. It involved survivors, victims' families, rescue-workers, civic leaders and design professionals in the selection process. And it entailed almost nonstop fund raising to finance not only the memorial, but also a soon-to-be-completed museum and anti-terrorism institute in the heavily damaged Journal-Record newspaper building on the memorial's northern edge.

The events marking the fifth year after the attack begin Monday with a three-day symposium on terrorist threats in the 21st century. The bombing was carried out, prosecutors said, by former Army buddies embittered over the government's handling of the 51-day standoff between federal agents and Branch Davidians near Waco that ended exactly two years earlier.

The dedication events will begin Wednesday morning with a private ceremony for relatives of those killed, survivors and rescue workers. That ceremony will include, as has become custom on the anniversary, the reading of the names of the 168 who died - including 19 children - at 9:02 a.m., the moment the 4,800-pound fertilizer and fuel bomb packed inside a Ryder rental truck was detonated.

The public dedication is scheduled for late afternoon, with remarks by Mr. Clinton, who also attended a nationally televised memorial service in Oklahoma City just four days after the blast.

"I think not only have we created a very beautiful memorial . . . but we've handled the process in a way that has promoted healing," said Mr. Johnson. "And that, in my mind, is more important than what you see here today."

The national memorial is expected to attract about 500,000 visitors a year.

Many touched

Even in a metropolitan area of more than 1 million residents, it often seemed almost everyone knew somebody killed or injured in the blast. Thus, Wednesday's anniversary and dedication ceremonies are especially poignant for many, particularly painful for some.

Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Nate Tarver, for example, said officers who helped in the rescue and recovery efforts now decline almost every interview request, weary of talking about a devastating event that catapulted them, firefighters and other emergency workers to hero status.

And Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Anderson, who helped survivors and victims' families through the McVeigh and Nichols trials, drives by the memorial site every day, but she doesn't want to publicly discuss her feelings because "this story has never been about me, it's always been about" the victims, their families and survivors.

Dr. Heath said he often hears from people who demand to know when survivors and victims are going to quit dwelling on the tragedy and move on with their lives.

The memorial, officials said, is not only designed to commemorate the tragic event, but also to help those who enter its gates to find comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity - words that Dr. Heath said are "engraved in my heart."

"It's everything I expected and hoped for," said Dr. Heath, who served on a committee that selected the design.

The Rev. Bill Day, who lost his sister, Diana Lynn Day, in the blast, said he's driven by but not stopped at the site, which "seems to be real nice." He won't be attending Wednesday's ceremonies, he said, because "it drags up too many painful memories."

"I'm going to wait until the hustle and bustle is over with before I go down there," said the Church of Christ minister.

"The most important thing to me personally is that people consider not just my sister, but that the event and the tragedy of the thing is important enough not to be forgotten."

Not all happy

Some people, such as Jannie Coverdale, who lost two grandsons, Aaron and Elijah, in the bombing, plan to attend, but they aren't thrilled with the memorial's design.

"I wanted something for the children, something spiritual, maybe a statue of an angel and a couple of statues of children," she said. "I would have planted a lot of flowers, just something beautiful.

"But empty chairs, I don't know. We don't do empty chairs in my house when we do Christmas and Thanksgiving. We try to fill all the chairs. . . . I was on the plaza [last week], and it was like looking down into a cemetery.

"Going up there, let's face it, you see the empty chairs. It's going to make you more sad than you were."

Others, though, believe the memorial is the perfect touch, citing the power in its simplicity: the empty bronze, glass and granite chairs reflecting each of the 168 who died, illuminated at night so that they appear to be floating; the 700 names of survivors engraved in the 5-by-8-foot granite pieces harvested from the Murrah rubble and attached to the one surviving, partial wall; the tranquillity of the reflecting pool, serving as a mirror for visitors to ask what they will do with the time they have left.

"I think it's a very important moment for Oklahoma City," Dr. Robin Meyers, pastor of Mayflower Congregation Church and a speech professor at Oklahoma City University, said of the memorial dedication.

"We will never forget these people who died and never forget this spot on which this unspeakable act occurred, and we are going to take this spot and make of it holy ground."

Dr. Meyers said he particularly liked the empty chairs.

"I think it's a stroke of real artistic genius to use these chairs to represent those who are gone, but not forgotten," he said. "We can't bring them back, but we can keep their memory alive."

Mr. Johnson, the memorial chairman, said one person who lost a relative in the blast put it best: "Through this process, chaos has been transformed into hope and unity."

"I do think it will help them cope," Mr. Johnson said. "I do think this will give them a sense of peace. The permanency of the remembrance of their loved ones, I think, will be very comforting."