Bloomberg Tours Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial

Friday, May 11th 2007, 5:57 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial on Friday, gathering ideas for a remembrance of the attacks that struck his city and issuing a reminder to be vigilant against terrorism.

Bloomberg began an abbreviated tour of the museum on the second floor at an exhibit acknowledging the connection between the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

``It was sort of a senseless, violent act that took innocent people's lives and it had an impact I think on this whole country,'' Bloomberg said. ``Why? Nobody can explain. But I think all we can do is make sure that we don't forget and our successors don't forget.''

Bloomberg also walked through a gallery of artifacts that family members of the 168 people killed in the bombing chose to keep on display at the memorial in remembrance of the victims. He also saw exhibits displaying the immediate aftermath of the bombing and walked through the Field of Empty Chairs, where one lighted seat is in place for each of the 168 who were killed.

Bloomberg asked several questions of the memorial's executive director, Kari Watkins, as he took the tour. He pointed out that he is charged with raising money for a foundation remembering the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

``We sent a bunch of people from New York to come here and see what we could learn from your experience, how you tell a story, how you get that balance between a message to the future and recounting what happened in the past, how you grieve publicly and yet have hope for the future,'' Bloomberg said.

Light rain forced Bloomberg to make his remarks inside the museum, and a few more raindrops began to fall as he took in the outdoor part of the memorial. He left a bouquet of flowers hanging in a fence where visitors have left artifacts since the April 19, 1995, bombing.

Bloomberg also signed the guest book inside the museum, writing: ``Never forget, and thank you for your help in our time of need. May God bless.''

``We always have to be vigilant against terrorism,'' Bloomberg said. ``We have to make sure that people who have real problems don't try to take it out on others, and I think one of the things that ties us together is not only that we had a terrible tragedy in New York on 9/11 but maybe one of the things that I'm most proud of is that 31 members of our police department and fire department came here to help, including 10 firefighters who were then killed on 9/11.''

Bloomberg, who was to speak at a commencement ceremony at the University of Oklahoma later in the evening, was escorted by university President David Boren. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett introduced Bloomberg, saying ``Oklahoma City and New York City are always joined together in history because of tragedies that occurred but I think we're also joined together in the manner in which we responded to those tragedies.''

``We're all in this together. It's our future, it's our children's future that we have to protect,'' Bloomberg said. ``Terrorism and mentally deranged people affect all of us, and attacks like the attack here in Oklahoma City and the attack in New York are attacks against freedom-loving people all down the row who are all in this together.''

Bloomberg said he is ``not running for president'' but spoke of a new generation of mayors pushing for immediate change on issues many politicians avoid.

``I think the public is just tired of this paralysis that seems to have taken hold in Washington where our elected officials don't seem to be able to focus on what people really care about _ energy independence, public education, how we're going to pay for retirement and how we're going to have medical care for everybody,'' Bloomberg said.

``I think what you're really seeing is mayors stepping to the forefront.''

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican presidential candidate, has visited the memorial twice within the past year, once before a motivational speaking engagement last June and once for a terror symposium marking the 12th anniversary of the bombing in April.