After the search and rescue mission was completed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, my wife and I visited the site (along with hundreds of others). The bombed building loomed in front of us, the now- famous fence erected around it. The experience was surreal. We were there, walking on the ground where, weeks earlier, rescuers, victims, and survivors were frantically dealing with an incredible situation. We were standing on the same soil crossed by a hateful terrorist, on his way to a getaway car after detonating a 4,000- pound bomb. |
The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum is undergoing some updates and enhancements based on information and evidence that were not available at the time it was constructed. The museum, which is reasonably-priced and well worth every cent of the admission fee, now has exhibits outlining more of the investigation that led to the arrests, trials, and convictions of Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, et al. One now has the opportunity to see real pieces of the moving truck that contained the 4,000-pound bomb, including one of the axles. I was taken aback to see McVeigh's gun - a glock - that he had on his person at the time of his arrest (initially a routine traffic stop in northern Oklahoma. I was intrigued to see the power drill, owned by Terry Nichols, and proven to have been used (by the patterns on the hole made by a specific drill bit) to break into a padlock. Further additions to the museum will include a hotel sign from a facility used by McVeigh while executing his mission, and his actual getaway vehicle. As I understand it, there was a delay in the revealing of the newest areas of the museum - ironically due to structural damage to the building thought to be a result of the 1995 bombing across the street. The new opening date is sometime in September. Before you visit, read my book Crumbling Spirit. It might give you more perspective on the thoughts and feelings of the people who lived through the tragedy. In my fourth grade classroom, every April, I present my experience of April 19, 1995. To enhance the presentation, I regularly order the Hope Trunk from the memorial's education department, and I have communicated regularly with the education director there, even dreaming of taking a group of students to the memorial some time if the opportunity should arise. When I was in Oklahoma City, this week, I visited the memorial and was able to finally meet the director face to face, not missing the opportunity to mention my book about the event and the days that followed, but also asking about the changes being made at the museum. Those enhancements are both extensive and expensive, but they will undoubtedly keep the place relevant and alive in the memories of many, and meaningful to those who are too young to remember it first hand. She invited my wife and me to visit the exhibits, and she comped us two tickets so we could see the changes in progress for ourselves. As always and without a doubt, the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum is world class! Without too much in review, I taught a group of second graders, at the time, just four miles from the terrorist bombing site at the Murrah Federal Building. We felt it. We heard it. We spent weeks talking about it. Since that time, I have written a book, entitled Crumbling Spirit, to share those same experiences, only the story is told through the diary entries of a 10-year-old girl named Julia. |
AuthorD. Ed. Hoggatt is an award-winning fourth grade teacher. Click Titles to Order Now
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July 2017
RECOMMENDED READING
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea Charlotte's Web by E. B. White Chippin Cleats by D. Ed. Hoggatt Crumbling Spirit by D. Ed. Hoggatt Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Holes by Louis Sachar Loser by Jerry Spinelli Mumsket by D. Ed. Hoggatt Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse Out of the Wind by D. Ed. Hoggatt Petey by Ben Mikaelsen Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman |