Friday, October 7, 2011

October 6, 2011

Oklahoma City

One objective only.  Visit the Oklahoma City Memorial.

We toured the site, took pictures and then had a nice, one on one, informative and inspirational chat with one of the NPS Rangers.  He pointed out the many symbolic features of the site and related how the site affects people in many different ways.  Not much I would choose to seek out in Oklahoma City but this is a must do experience.

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Reflecting pool looking west.  Pool is located where street was.  Building was to left.

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One chair for each person who died.  Building was located in space that is now the grassy area.  Chairs are placed approximate location of people when bomb exploded.  Large group in middle were in building.  Smaller groups on each side and behind are where people outside the building were located.

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Tree that survived the blast.  Note building to left.  The black spots are where windows were.  All were blown out of course.  They have been bricked in and painted black. Forgot the symbolism intended.

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On the east and west end of the reflecting pool are two gates.  See pool picture above.  The time on the east end (top picture) gate is hard to see in this picture.  It reads “9:01”.  The time on the west gate is “9:03”  The bomb exploded at 9”02.  The east gate represents the time of innocence. The west gate represents the time when Oklahoma City and in fact all of us were changed forever.



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