Commentary: Finding hope after the OKC bombing

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Apr 19, 2005 by David Page

Hope has been a recurring theme during the 10 years since the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

In a new exhibit at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, Tom Brokaw says, Oklahoma City is a place of hope and a city reborn. Brokaw is the narrator of a video that is part of the exhibit, Changed Forever-Forever Changing.

Memorial officials have declared A Decade of Hope 1995-2005 to honor those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever.

But hope was hard to find in April 1995 when Oklahoma City became the site of what was then the worst act of terrorism on American soil. The lives of families and survivors were changed forever.

The 168 people who lost their lives have been remembered on April 19 each year at ceremonies at the memorial. The traditional remembrance ceremony always includes 168 seconds of silence and reading the names of those who were killed.

Memorial officials estimate that 387,000 people in Oklahoma knew someone who was killed or injured in the bombing.

One room in the museum has photographs of the 149 adults and 19 children killed in the bombing. It is a deeply emotional display.

Another small area of the museum includes part of the Journal Record Building that was left in damaged condition caused by the bombing. It is the area where my office was and where I was at 9 a.m. on April 19, 1995.

Hope was not apparent when I left the Journal Record Building after the bombing, but help was. I was offered aid for my injuries by the guys at the parking garage across the street. A man with what appeared to be an office first aid kit offered bandages.

I was taken to Presbyterian Hospital where I received about 30 stitches for my injuries. My wife came to get me at the hospital.

But life goes on. The next day I was back at work with other members of the editorial staff putting out another issue of The Journal Record. That edition is among the exhibits at the museum.

An information stand for museum visitors explains in a short paragraph that my office was in the area. The information includes a two-word sentence - Page survived.

Since the first time I saw that information stand when the museum opened in February 2001, I thought that short sentence was incomplete. Other people who were in that area of the building survived, and should have been included.

Survivors who were in the editorial department that day include Jessica Mitchell. She is now special publications editor for The Journal Record.

One of the objectives of the Oklahoma City National Memorial has been to inspire hope and healing. Jessica provides a model for a survivor's hope.

She and her husband were among the early visitors when the museum opened in February 2001. Jessica was pregnant with her first child at the time and her due date was just several weeks away. Her son was born in March 2001.

Now, as Oklahoma City observes A Decade of Hope, Jessica is on maternity leave from The Journal Record. Her second child, a girl named Kaylee, was born March 24.

Jessica walked away from a bomb-damaged Journal Record Building on April 19, 1995. Hope survived. Jessica's children provide the proof.