Speaker 1: And we continue with our American stories. The bombing of
Speaker 1: the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on
Speaker 1: April nineteenth, nineteen ninety five, was the deadliest act of
Speaker 1: homegrown terrorism in American history. In mere seconds, a rider
Speaker 1: rental truck packed with nearly five thousand pounds of explosives
Speaker 1: tore off the building's entire north wall, damaging three hundred
Speaker 1: nearby buildings and incinerating hundreds of vehicles. When rescue efforts
Speaker 1: were completed days later, the death count was one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty eight, among them nineteen children, most of whom
Speaker 1: were in the building's daycare center. The youngest victim was
Speaker 1: four months old. Hundreds more of all ages were hospitalized
Speaker 1: or injured. On April twenty three, a memorial service was
Speaker 1: held at the Oklahoma State Fair Arena in honor of
Speaker 1: those who lost their lives. Speakers included the Mayor of
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, the Governor of Oklahoma, and President Bill Clinton,
Speaker 1: who had these words to say to the people gathered
Speaker 1: there and to a national TV audience as well.
Speaker 2: If anybody thinks that Americans are mostly mean and selfish,
Speaker 2: they ought to come to Oklahoma. If anybody thinks Americans
Speaker 2: have lost the capacity for love and caring and courage.
Speaker 2: They ought to come to Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: After President Clinton, the Reverend Billy Graham came to the podium,
Speaker 1: the most trusted pastor in America, came to address the
Speaker 1: question human beings have been asking since the beginning of
Speaker 1: time about unexplainable acts of evil. Here was Billy Graham's response.
Speaker 3: I have been asked the question several times, many times.
Speaker 3: Why does God allow it? Why does a God of
Speaker 3: love and mercy that we read about and hear about
Speaker 3: allow such a terrible thing to happen. Over three thousand
Speaker 3: years ago, there was a man named Job struggled with
Speaker 3: the same question. He asked why, because he was a
Speaker 3: good man, and yet disaster struck him suddenly and swiftly.
Speaker 3: He lost seven sons, three daughters. He lost all his possessions,
Speaker 3: He even lost his health. Even his wife and his
Speaker 3: friends turned against him. His wife said, curse God and die.
Speaker 3: And in the midst of his suffering, he asked this question. Why.
Speaker 3: Job didn't know? Why did I not perish at birth?
Speaker 3: He cried, this is the way you feel, and I
Speaker 3: want to assure you that God understands those feelings. The
Speaker 3: Bible says in Isaiah forty three to two, when you
Speaker 3: pass through the waters, eye will be with you. And
Speaker 3: when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.
Speaker 3: The flames will not set you ablaze. And yet Job
Speaker 3: found there were lessons to be learned from his suffering,
Speaker 3: even if he didn't fully understand it. And that is
Speaker 3: true for all of us as well. What are some
Speaker 3: of the lessons that we can learn from what has happened? First,
Speaker 3: there's a mystery to it. I've been asked why God
Speaker 3: allows it. I don't know. I can't give a direct answer.
Speaker 3: I have to confess that I never fully understand. Even
Speaker 3: for my own satisfaction, I have to accept by faith
Speaker 3: that God is a God of love and mercy and compassion.
Speaker 3: And even in the midst of suffering. I can remember,
Speaker 3: many years ago, lying on a dirt floor in a
Speaker 3: field hospital in Korea and looking up into the face
Speaker 3: of a soldier suspended in a frame who was horribly wounded,
Speaker 3: and the doctor said he'll never walk again, And I
Speaker 3: ask myself why. I can recall standing at the bedside
Speaker 3: of children who were dying, and I've asked myself, Lord,
Speaker 3: why I recall walking through the devastation left by hurricanes
Speaker 3: in Florida and South Carolina, and typhoons in India and
Speaker 3: earthquakes in Guatemala and California. And I've asked myself why
Speaker 3: the Bible says God is not the author of evil,
Speaker 3: and it speaks of evil, and first Thessalonians as a mystery.
Speaker 3: There's something about evil we will never fully understand this
Speaker 3: side of eternity. But the Bible says two other things
Speaker 3: that we sometimes attempted to forget. It tells us that
Speaker 3: there is a devil, that Satan is very real, and
Speaker 3: he has great power. It also tells us that evil
Speaker 3: is real, and that the human heart is capable of
Speaker 3: almost limitless evil when it is cut off from God.
Speaker 3: The prophet Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful above all things,
Speaker 3: and desperately wicked. Who can know it? That's your heart
Speaker 3: in my heart without God. That's one reason we each
Speaker 3: need God in our lives, for only he can change
Speaker 3: our hearts and give us the desire and the power
Speaker 3: to do what is right and keep us from wrong.
Speaker 3: Times like this will do one of two things. It
Speaker 3: lies will make us hard and bitter and angry at God,
Speaker 3: or they will make us tender and open and help
Speaker 3: us to reach out in trust and faith. And I
Speaker 3: think that's what the people of Oklahoma are doing that
Speaker 3: I have met since I've been here these past two days.
Speaker 3: I pray that you will not let bitterness and poison
Speaker 3: creep into your soul, but that you will turn in
Speaker 3: faith and trust in God, even if we cannot understand.
Speaker 3: It is better to face something like this with God
Speaker 3: than without him. But the lesson of this event has
Speaker 3: not only been about mystery but we've already heard. It's
Speaker 3: a lesson of a community coming together. Some of you
Speaker 3: today are going through heartache and grief so intense that
Speaker 3: you wonder if it will ever go away. Privilege of
Speaker 3: meeting some of you and talking to you, but I
Speaker 3: want to tell you that our God cares for you
Speaker 3: and for your family and for your city. The Bible
Speaker 3: says that the God of all comfort who comforts us
Speaker 3: in our troubles. Jesus said, Blessed are they that mourn,
Speaker 3: for they shall be comforted. I pray that every one
Speaker 3: of you will experience God's comfort during these days as
Speaker 3: you've turned to Him. For God loves you and He
Speaker 3: shares in your suffering. Difficult as it may be for
Speaker 3: us to see right now, Yes, there is hope. As
Speaker 3: a Christian, I have hope not just for this life,
Speaker 3: but for the life to come. Someday there will be
Speaker 3: a glorious reunion with those who have died and gone
Speaker 3: to Heaven before us. And that includes all those innocent
Speaker 3: children that are lost. They're not lost from God.
Speaker 1: Just days after that Memorial Day service, the wheels of
Speaker 1: justice began to turn. Two suspects were arrested, Timothy McVeigh
Speaker 1: and Terry Nichols, and not long after that, in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety seven, both were convicted. Terry Nichols was sentenced to
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty one consecutive life terms without the
Speaker 1: possibility of parole. In December two thousand, Timothy McVeigh asked
Speaker 1: a federal judge to stop all appeals of his conviction
Speaker 1: and asked for a date to be set for his execution.
Speaker 1: The request was granted, and on June eleventh, two thousand
Speaker 1: and one, McVeigh, at age thirty three, died by lethal
Speaker 1: injection with the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. He
Speaker 1: was the first federal prisoner to be put to death
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three. The Murror Building was demolished for safety
Speaker 1: reasons in nineteen ninety five, and the Oklahoma City National
Speaker 1: Memorial Museum later opened in its place. On this day
Speaker 1: in history. In nineteen ninety five, the victims of the
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City bombing were honored with the memorial service. This
Speaker 1: is our American Stories.