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By Ian Lopez

Today was another full day. A day of learning, hope and sadness. The bus pulled up to the Oklahoma City bombing site, where once the Alfred P Murrah Federal building stood, around 3 PM. We got the history of the bombing from Billy and a park ranger. Some of us had never heard, or had little to no knowledge, of this event. We heard how Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols pulled up to the front of the building, set the bomb, and pulled away. We also heard how there was even a day care center in the building and little children died.  The Memorial is representative of the Nation transforming from a time of innocence at 9:01 AM to a Nation saddened, horrified, and changed forever by 9:03 AM. The Memorial has a reflecting pool with big walls on both ends of the pool. One wall has 9:01 etched in it and the other has 9:03 etched in it. The reflecting pool represents 9:02 AM, when the bomb went off.

After going to the Memorial, we went to see a movie called “I  Am” (www.Iamthedoc.com) that Billy had seen a month before and wanted to take us. It is about the fact that we are connected to each other on very real ways and levels and we are also wired to be good and care about others. Many of us found it a powerful movie about humans.

We went to dinner and then had some fun bowling.

After bowling on our way back to the hotel, Billy surprised us by having the bus stop again at the Memorial at night. One of my fellow travelers said he thought it was interesting that “in the day we entered in the 9:01 AM gate which represented innocence but at night, after we had heard the story of what happened, we came in the 9:03 AM gate which is the gate of knowing”. Being there at night was so much more powerful. The Memorial  has 168 chairs representing each person who died. At night these chairs are lit up from the bottom and the small chairs that represented the children who died were even more visible.

I  feel that the point that “I Am” made of understanding we are all connected, was really driven home by Billy’s story that he told us at the Memorial which, to me, is too powerful for words. It was about his college friends who were killed in Pan Am flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland. The point he was making was that we are connected to people and events we don’t even know so isn’t it in our best interest for everyone to be doing well. It is how we choose to live our lives whether we can make these connections positive or negative. I feel we all walked away from this day knowing more about sadness and disaster, but, more importantly, about hope, love, and the power of human connection.

Today we started off by sleeping in until 8:30! After a quick bite to eat we met as a group to discuss the issue of gun control to get ready for our upcoming meetings with both sides of the issue. We went back and forth for an hour and then we left Dallas and were on our way to Oklahoma City. The bus ride was 5 hours of singing, dancing, and group bonding. For lunch we stopped in front of a few restaurants and had our choice. Most of us chose Chic-Fil-A and it was amazing.

learning about both sides of the gun control debate

When we got to Oklahoma City we went to the site of the Murra Federal Building bombing site. The memorial consisted of two large walls filled with a reflecting pool and a memorial for all the lives that were lost during the tragedy. The memorial itself was beautiful but it didn’t really hit home for me.
We left the memorial and met with a man, V.Z. Lawton, who is a conspiracy theorist on the attack in Oklahoma City. When we got to the meeting with him, he informed us that not only was he a conspiracy theorist but that he was a survivor of the bombing.  He told us his amazing story of survival but also the ideas they have of who was responsible for the bombing.

	meeting with V.Z. Lawton

After the meeting we were on our way to dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse. The food was not amazing but good enough. During dinner, it started pouring rain outside as well as lightning, and the baseball game we were supposed to go to was canceled. Instead of calling it a night, we hit up the movies. Most of us went to the same movie and on the way back to the hotel we joked all about it. We thought the night was over, but Billy had other plans. We stopped at the bombing memorial once again and we took another look at it at night. At first some of the kids were skeptical on why we had gone back to the memorial but we all tagged along. Seeing the memorial at night changed my entire perspective on the event. The chairs that symbolized each person who died were lit up. The walls had the minute before the bombing and the minute after the bombing illuminated. After a few minutes of silent meditation, some of us shared our thoughts on being at the memorial and then got on the bus and headed to the hotel for the night. The overall day was interesting and I hope our trip to Dodge City is just as exciting.

We began the day by going to the Women’s Museum in Dallas. This museum shows the history and struggle for women’s equality in America. Many of us enjoyed spending time in the section that played songs written and performed by women. There was a lot of dancing.

After this museum we got on the bus and drove to Oklahoma City. Our first stop was at the site of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. We had time to reflect at the memorial. It was a great memorial that was very well set up, quiet and pretty. There are two big walls at opposite ends of a reflecting pool. On one wall is an engraving with the time 9:01 and the other had 9:03 on it. This represents the last minute before the blast and the minute after the blast. On one side are 168 chairs that represent the lives lost, including children. Each chair represents a chair not at the family table.

After this we got a presentation from one of the few survivors of the blast, Mr. VZ Lawton. He gave us a horrifying and detailed account of surviving the blast. Mr. Lawton and Chris Emery, a filmmaker who is finishing a documentary on the bombing, told us about a few various conspiracy theories that they feel may be more truthful than the story that we all know of Timothy McVeigh being the only bomber.

When we finished our meeting with them we went to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory, where we ate and celebrated Blake Engelhard’s birthday with some cake.

Then it was time for us to walk down the block and see the Oklahoma City Redhawks play the Iowa Cubs in a Triple A minor league baseball game. It was a pretty sweet game followed by an equally sweet fireworks display.

On our way to the hotel, Billy had the bus stop again at the Oklahoma City bombing memorial site. The memorial was very different at night. It was all lit up and affected the entire group in a big emotional way. On the way to the memorial the bus was filled with laughing and music and then at the memorial we were silent. We had a great wrap up where people reflected on the impact of the memorial. It was the best memorial I have ever seen. It really moved me and I sat there a long time thinking about what can happen between 9:01 and 9:03 in a person’s life and other related life questions. I was not the only one.

Our day started in Dallas with a visit to the Women’s Museum. The museum honored women from different eras and time periods. There was an exhibit of famous women in sports and a timeline of important events in the search for equality for women that has spanned from the 1500s to the present day. There was a neat room that allowed guests to choose a song from a list and listen to it. The list is composed of influential women in the music industry. Throughout the museum there were biographies of important figures in the Women’s Civil Rights movement. My favorite exhibit was one on body image and careers. At the end of our visit to the museum, Shulie, our counselor, spoke about recent issues such as reproductive health, international problems and inferior pay that impact women today.

After leaving the Women’s Museum, we headed off on the ride to Oklahoma City. To break up the ride we stopped for lunch and everyone had a few restaurants to choose from.

On our arrival in Oklahoma City, we headed to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. There, we viewed the memorial to the tragic events that occurred in 1995. The memorial is set up in four sections. The first is the large square wall with an opening to walk through. At the top, it says “9:01”, the minute before the bombing occurred. The second section is a long black granite area covered with water. This is supposed to symbolize the destruction of lives at the time of the incident. The third section is identical to the first except it reads “9:03”, the minute after the explosion. The last part is a collection of chairs to the side of the other sections that symbolize the 168 lives that were lost in the tragedy. We spoke with a park ranger who gave us the events and facts of that fateful day. She told us an interesting story about a high school class that was supposed to visit the building at 9 AM on the morning of the attack but their bus got a flat tire and they did not make it on time. That story really put the severity of the bombing into perspective for us.

After speaking with the park ranger, we went across the street to hear a presentation by Chris Emery, who is making a documentary film about the conspiracies he is finding out about the bombing. They believe that Timothy McVeigh did not act alone and that the US government had some information on the possible bombing but failed to act to stop the attack. Charles Key, a State Representative from Oklahoma, also presented his thoughts on the conspiracies as well. We also heard from Janie Cumberland who lost two grandchildren in the bombing. We thought that Mr. Emery and his colleagues were very prepared and made some good arguments.

After dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, Etgar 36 went out for a night of Cosmic bowling. Everyone had a great time playing and dancing to the music being played.

Just as we thought that we were just going back to the hotel, we pulled up to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial again. Being at the Memorial at night was a completely different experience than during the day. We had a very emotional wrap up as Billy relayed a story of loss from his time at Syracuse University that had everyone in tears. Our time at the memorial at night made everyone appreciate their lives and feel the need to make a difference in the world.

I originally had this journal entry almost completed for today, but in light of the last half hour of our day, I rewrote most of it.

We started off the day with a stop at the Women’s Museum in Dallas. Naomi, a staff member, spoke about famous women in the development of America and a timeline of the Women’s Movement. The museum didn’t speak to me that much. The exhibits were good, pictures, timelines, videos and showcases of women’s contributions to culture. However, I have grown up in a time when sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between men and women, and there are female only scholarships and programs, I can’t connect with the separation of the sexes. Even though I couldn’t connect, the museum was well designed and constructed.

After the museum we drove to Oklahoma City in the continuation of our excellent journey. When we stopped for lunch, my friends and I decided to “play full out” (as Billy always encourages us to do) and started talking with the people we saw in the restaurant. We just went up to some of the locals and asked them their story… and many of them told us their story! It was enlightening to talk to people in the middle of nowhere. It turns out that playing full out really works!

We finally made it to Oklahoma City. The state is full of open fields, lots of scrub grass (as the locals call it) and it was amazing to actually be in such a place… indescribable. The skyline of Oklahoma City made it look like any other city. We went directly to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. There in the heat we spoke with Mr. V.Z. Lawton, who was a worker in the building when the blast occurred. He spoke about his experiences that day and his belief that there is a conspiracy and cover up concerning the bombing. The next speaker, who is working on a documentary film on the bombing, was equally as interesting. He believes that there were multiple bombs and bombers of the building. They believe that some of the possible bombers have connections to foreign countries as well as people in our own government and there are connections to 9-11. These are actually pretty widely held beliefs by many people who live in Oklahoma City. Our speaker’s opinions and beliefs were amazing and we all admired their convictions.

Next, we walked across the street to the memorial located on the bombing site. It was big and I couldn’t see everything in depth.

We then went to the hotel to check in and out to dinner where the food was good and the staff was very friendly. After dinner we went bowling where we bonded and had a grand time. Finally, on the way back to the hotel, we took a slight diversion back to the Oklahoma City Memorial. Billy felt that we had not appreciated the power of the memorial during the day. Boy, was he right. The Memorial is stunning at night. The rippling water and the lit chairs representing each person who died were all so moving. I chose to sit on the edge of the large pool and just contemplate. My eyes started to tear up and that was only in the first ten minutes we were given at the Memorial. I realized when we met up to do our nightly wrap up discussion I was not alone in my feelings. I think the Memorial got to everybody. During the wrap up, most people expressed pain and anger over the senseless deaths caused by this act of hatred and most were crying. It was definitely one of the most powerful events on this trip. This day was one of the days that Etgar 36 was meant to allow us to experience.

We began our day with a trip to the Woman’s Museum in Dallas. The Museum was filled with memorabilia and personal items from the women of the equal rights era. The Museum left us with a feeling of power.

After the Museum we went on a 3 hour ride to Oklahoma City. When we arrived in OKC we went straight to the Oklahoma City Memorial where we discussed the tragedy of the bombing and remembered the loss of innocent lives.

Some of us were touched by the memorial while others were distracted by the people and items around us. We then met David Yeagley, a Native American who also is an American Patriot.

He was living in Oklahoma City at the time of the bombing and he described what the city was like on that eventful day. He also spoke about the opera he wrote to commemorate the Holocaust and how we need to listen to each culture’s stories.

We were then taken across the street to meet with Christopher Emery a film producer who is making a documentary about the OKC bombing. He is passionate about the fact that Timothy McVeigh did not act alone.

His goal is to shed light on the conspiracy that he believes surrounds the bombing.

After that meeting we went to celebrate Daniel Bressler’s 17th birthday. We went to a local synagogue and had some time to play in their gymnasium and eat birthday cake. Then we went to an Oklahoma City Redhawks minor league baseball game. Luckily the Redhawks won 7-5 in extra innings.

Etgar 36 dancing the “Y.M.C.A.” between innings of the baseball game

Ben Tepfer helping lead the crowd in singing “Oklahoma” during the 5th inning

As a follow up to the afternoons activities we went back to the memorial and the scene was much more surreal and thought provoking at night when it was all light up. Many of the 32 participants felt the pain and suffering of the people who died and their families. The impact of the memorial at night was so strong that many of us were at a loss for words and the emotions were indescribable.

Today began in Dallas with a visit to the Womens Museum. Our favorite part of the museum was the music room that had musical selections from various women musicians. We the left Dallas and headed on a three hour ride to Oklahoma City. We drove straight to the sight where the Murrah Federal Building was bombed. It is a moving memorial to the lives lost. There are empty chairs for every life lost.

We were supposed to met with a member of the Oklahoma Militia but he did not show up. Fortunately, David Yeagley, who is meting with us tomorrow was so enchanted with meeting Etgar 36 last year that he was at the memorial sight just to hang out with us. He filled in to speak about what it was like to live in Oklahoma City when the America was introduced to domestic terrorism. He also enlightened us to a little known conspiracy theory about the bombing. There are many who believe that Al-Quida operatives had wired explosives in the building and that Timothy McVay worked with them and was a patsy for them. The U.S. government is hiding this story because it did not want to scare Americans by showing how lax security was and how vulnerable we are that enemies of our country could strike in middle America.

After walking around the memorial we went to a local synagogue and met members of their teen youth group. Together we went to the Oklahoma Redhawks minor league baseball game. It was a lot of fun meeting new friends and seeing the Redhawks win 6-3.

We were very upbeat from the game but the night ended with a complete 180 degree turn. Billy took us back to the memorial. As emotional as it was during the day, nothing prepared us for how beautiful, peaceful and impactful it is at night. Each chair is lit and the walls are lit. The night was more than emotional for everyone as the complete tragedy of this event sunk in. There were many tears shed at our nightly wrap up as many of us grappled with the loss of innocent lives and the question of why and how this could happen. Billy shared an especially emotional story of how some of his college friends and roommates were killed in the Pan AM 103 plane bombing in 1988 during his senior year at Syracuse University.

Etgar in the Bleachers

Baseball Game

More Baseball

Oklahoma City (federal building)

Daniel and Josh

Native American David speaking with group

Our trip continued as we traveled over to Oklahoma City. The group was amazed at the memorial of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the site of the 1995 bombing. We spoke to a survivor of the blast, who gave us a blow-by-blow account of what happened that day on April 19th.  His name was V.Z. Lawton, and he talked to us about his theory of what transpired that day. We were astonished about what we heard.

We were running late, so we took our next speaker out to dinner with us. Dr. David Yeagley, an American Indian, We discussed many topics ranging from the image of American Indians to Patriotism. He was so impressed with our group he decided to write an article about what we are doing, for an academic journal.

After Dinner we went to Celebration Station, an amusement park, and played on bumper boats, go-karts, and mini-golf. After the fun, we went back to the memorial for our daily rap session. We were all overcome with emotions as we talked about how this event has effected so many. We all walked away from this day with a new appreciation for life.