Day Seven – Oklahoma City

by Ben Goldstone:

We started off the day with breakfast at the Holiday Inn and got on the road to go to Oklahoma City, OK. We stopped for lunch on the way and continued to OKC where we observed the Families Belong Together immigration rally on not separating children, in front of the capital building. It was very interesting to see how the citizens of Oklahoma view the separation of families of immigrants and to be at a political rally.

 

We then went to Catholic Charities to discuss immigration and refugees. We learned about how the Catholic Charities organization helps support the local refugees and immigrants through social, legal, and clinical services. I think the speaker, Damon, was very well spoken and it was very interesting to learn about the organization.

 

Next we visited the Oklahoma City bombing memorial. The site of the first modern act of domestic terrorism in America. Seth, our counselor, spoke to us about the events of that day and then a Park Ranger guide, Andrew, spoke to us about the memorial and the events that led up to the bombing. He was very exciteful and  informative. During the tour it started to rain, but we made the best of it by going inside, and some of us watched a visual simulation on the bombing while others asked Andrew questions.

 

After that we stopped at Carino’s Itallian Grill for dinner. Then we ended this wonderful day with bowling and fun.

On the way back to the hotel we went back to the OKC Federal Building Memorial because it stopped raining and we were able to walk out into the memorial. We all agreed it was a very powerful reminder of the tragic events.