OKC Bombing Memorial Good Place for a cry
Following my father’s burial in early January I needed to be alone and have a nice cry — it happens that I was passing by the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial so I figured that was an appropriate place for a grown man to openly cry in public.
The calmness of the water stands in stark contrast to the horror of that morning 13 years ago today. The simplicity of the design is powerful and moving. I’d been there numerous times over the years but this time it proved a more personal place to grieve.
I visted the Memorial back in the late 90’s at night.
Very quiet and very sad as well.
A different year, a different place, same date: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/apr/18/memorial-place-of-peace/ . . . we all need places to grieve. One of the strongest for me is the Viet Nam Memorial (the wal) in DC (not the travelling versions). I haven’t been to OKC since this memorial was completed, so I can’t make any educated comments on its impact in reality, but when viewed as a plan, it doesn’t seem all that much different in scale than the area around the arch and along Market St., so its specialness must come from its enclosure and the locals’ memories and connections to the event.
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The challenge, as evidenced at ground zero, is balancing the personal need to remember with the societal need to find closure and move on. Apparently, OKC was able to devote this site in perpetuity to a tragic event without creating too many larger negative impacts. The Lorraine Motel in Memphis is another such example. I’m not aware of any similar sites locally, other than the various soldiers and sailors memorials – does that mean that we’ve had no tragedies over the past 2 decades, or that we simply didn’t have the money to build memorials of this scale?
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One of my prouder accomplishments in Denver was having the Parks Board adopt a policy that parks are places of celebration and that naming a park for anyone requires a 7-year waiting period after they’ve died. Cemetaries are the places for tombstones and silent contemplation. We simply don’t have enough public property to remember publicly everyone who dies, even those who die tragically, and as time passes, the perceived public need diminishes for most of us. The struggle in DC, to find places for evermore memorials, is luckily something we don’t face here.
Only obliquely related: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sonics/2004359754_sonisale19.html OKC is moving up in the world and getting an NBA franchise. The question is at what cost, for both Seattle & OKC? Anything we can learn?