10 years after Oklahoma ity bombing, 6 years after Columbine- Where were you?

[Alex Toon]

Today is one decade after the Oklahoma City bombing, which later was the original date of Columbine. These affected us in huge ways. But where were you when these happened?
I was too young to remember Oklahoma City,but there was an assembly in school that talked about what happened. Shortly after Columbine,a guest speaker came and talked to the 4th grade about safety and preventing bullying, which is what they thought caused the killings.

I'm sorry if this may evoke sad memories, but I am just asking your opinion.

[Lord Dalek]

I think we were all too consumed in OJ to care about the Oklahoma bombing.

Columbine, however, was frightening. They wouldn't let you bring even a super soaker to class for years in my town.

[Eibhlin]

We were?

We couldn't have cared less that 168 men, women, and children were slaughtered by a truck bomb as they were going to work or daycare, all because of OJ? OJ was more important than the worst act of domestic terrorism on US soil? Are we really that Shallow?

Sorry, not me.

I lived in New Jersey at the time. April 19th is my sister's birthday and I was at work. Nothing was said there, but when I got home, there it was all over the televison, the shattered face of the Murrah Building, black smoke against a clear blue sky, and our local TV station going live to the local OKC affliate.

The man that is now my husband was a federal employee, and lives in the Oklahoma City area. At the time he was a great friend, and I feared for his life, since I could not call him.

I now live in Oklahoma, I have been to the Murrah site several times since the bombing, includuing visting the National Memorial. It is very affecting emotionally. I also work for a local bank and I see the mother of Bailey Almon, the little baby in the famous photograph lying so limply in the firefighter's arms. I have worked with people who lost relatives in the bombing. Oklahoma is still recovering.

As for Columbine, while I was not a child or in school at the time, I felt for the families of the victims and was frightened for the children going to school everywhere since tyhis act spawned so many imitations later.

However, I guess Lord Dalek is right in a sense, because the whole incident itself was driven from my mind on May 3rd 1999, less than three weeks later, when the strongest tornado ever recorded destroyed a good portion of the city I live in. Certain things take presidence over others i guess.

[Cartman]

Where was I?

When the OK City bombing ocurred, I was in 7th grade. I must have been in class at the time.

As for Columbine, I would have been in class as well. This time I was a junior in high school.
Now if you want to go further with the 9/11 attacks, I was still asleep in my bed when that happened.

[SuperLuigiBros]

This is actually the first I've heard of the Oklahoma City bombing (shows how much I know about current events), but I would've been 5 at the time so I wouldn't know much about it.

As for Columbine, I was in 3rd grade at the time. We must've had the day off or something, cuz I remember that very same day a young girl in my neighborhood almost drowned in a nearby pool (she was saved, thank God).

[silverwings]

Was ten for OC bombing. Don't remember much about it. I was probably in class, though.

Was in middle school for Columbine. It was a scary time. I remember the school having an anti-drug (D.A.R.E.) assembly. When they turned off the lights for the movie portion, everyone (and I mean everyone) jumped whenever a door opened or closed. We were just really paranoid. Thankfully, nothing happened.

[Weatherman]

Oklahoma I don't rememebr very well. I would have been thirteen, so definately in class. Wouldn't have heard about it till I got home.



Columbine? I think I was in band, or something like that. It was my senior year of highschool. Didn't really change much around school for us, but we did have alot of discussions about it.

[Daughterof_Evil]

For Oklahoma City I was in the fourth grade. A girl had been eating lunch with her mom and her mom told our teacher that something major had happened just north of us (OKC is about three hours away), and our teacher rolled an AV television in and we watched it. I don't think anybody could comprehend what was happening at the time, since we were all pretty young. Now that I think about it, I thought of that day on 9/11, seeing kids all over the country watching the events on TVs in their classrooms, and I wondered if they were as apathetic as I was back then.

Columbine I was in eigth grade, I believe. Everyone was completely paranoid. You couldn't say or do anything without the teachers and fellow students thinking you were planning on killing people. I remember a particular math class where the teacher weirded us all out with this "heart to heart" talk about the events, and it kind of devolved into students not-so-subtly pointing fingers at a troubled student who wasn't in the class.