Why Is Oklahoma City Bombing Wrong

Imagine a cloud of black smoke covering the sky of your hometown or having to make the choice if you should jump to your death out of a skyscraper because if you didn’t, then you would burn alive. Imagine calling your husband while on a plane while knowing that will be the last time you tell him you love him. Imagine the fear you would feel not knowing if your loved ones survived a terrorist attack. This nightmare on an imaginations became a terrible reality for New Yorkers and American citizens. On September 11, 2001, four aircrafts were hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists. Two of the aircrafts flew into the twin towers in New York City, one aircraft crashed into the Pentagon, and the fourth aircraft crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. These terrorist attacks that took place on September 11 resulted in many casualties, an increase in airport security, and the United States invading Afghanistan and the Middle East.

At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a 5,000-pound bomb, hidden inside a Ryder truck, exploded just outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The explosion caused massive damage to the building and killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children (Rosenburg, 2011). On April 23, four days after the bombing, President Bill Clinton addressed the public and gave an effective, excellent speech.

A terrorist attack is one of the most frightening things that one can encounter. They are unpredictable, random, senseless, and devastating. One of the largest and most well known acts of terrorism was the attack on the twin towers on September 11, 2001. During the attack close to 3,000 people were killed (September 11) and the nation of America was left in complete and utter fear. The laws and regulations passed as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 have been helpful to American society because of new safety precautions, assurance that nothing of that magnitude would ever occur again, and an overall increase of safety for American citizens.

Timothy Mcveigh’s personality can be explained sociologically as being both ritualism and rebellion. Timothy McVeigh was part of what can be seen as the pinnacle of conformism during the years before the bombing, the military. McVeigh, by all accounts, was a soldier who won praise by taking orders very well and following all the rules, his medals won during the Gulf War prove this. However, like many other people who join the military (gang-members, racial nationalists, survivalists) Timothy McVeigh had perhaps not-so “patriotic” motives for joining. Nowadays people join the military for reasons other than because they believe in a countries value system, people like McVeigh join for the military training and knowledge of things like explosives, survival, discipline, etc. They in a way use the system against itself. At face value Timothy McVeigh did follow the means towards achieving societies goals, but he wanted nothing to do with the ends. He saw himself as a freedom fighter whose destiny was to overthrow the US Government.

On April 19th 1995 the worst terrorist attack on US soil took place in the heartland of America. The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was targeted and almost completely blown to pieces by one enormous homemade bomb. The unthinkable had happened at the beginning of an average day at the office. This day would be remembered for the rest of America's history, unlike any other day, as a blatant attack on the United States government.

For Mike Cross, September 11 was a different story. He started out his day by going to work for Planning Systems Incorporated in Stephenville until he heard about “a plane that crashed into a tower, you didn’t know it was a terrorist attack.” Mike’s office had an irregular approach to the situation, nobody made a big deal about it. Nobody went home. “It seemed like a far off distant place of New York.” Before 9/11, “Terrorism wasn’t in the vocabulary.” After the attack, nothing went back to the way it was before. “Everything was looked through the lens of terrorism.” The trust between fellow men and coworkers was gone, lost in the past. “Everyone was viewed as suspicious… and

Terry Nichols received life in prison. “Until September 11, 2001, the Oklahoma City bombing was the worst terrorist attack to take place on U.S. soil.”A bomb carried in a Ryder truck exploded in front of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995. “The blast killed 168 people, including 19 children. More than 500 people were injured.Timothy J. McVeigh and Terry L. Nichols were convicted of the attack.” Just because, one person messing around caused an accident, this wasn’t supposed to happen. This accident was so bad we have lost many people. It’s very upsetting to the people that was lost the members and i’m sure were very angry.

The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, in Oklahoma on April 19, 1995. The nine-story building, built in 1977, was named for a federal judge and housed fourteen federal agencies including the DEA, ATF, Social Security Administration, and recruiting offices for the Army and Marine Corps. Carried out by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the bombing destroyed the vast majority of the building, killing 168 people. There was also 500 injuries (Stickney, Pg 103) The blast destroyed or damaged 324 other buildings within a 16-block radius, causing an estimated $652 million worth of damages. (CNN.com) The Murrah building was chosen for its glass

The trial for Terry Nichols had a different result compared to the one for McVeigh. Nichols' trial took place after McVeigh's trial. On December 24th 1997, the jury found Nichols not guilty in 10 of the 11 original charges against him. He was found guilty of one charge of conspiracy and eight lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter. The jury deadlocked as how to sentence Nichols and left it up to the judge (Gorov, 1998). On June 5th 1998 the judge, US District Court Judge Richard P. Matsch, gave the 43-year-old Nichols a life sentence for his role in the bombing (Haynes, 1998).

Although like everything in life, people need certain boundaries. When being questioned about the bombing, Timothy McVeigh would admit that the cause was hatred towards the American government. He was one of many that that was enraged with the events in Waco, Texas and Ruby Ridge. The early 1990’s were described to be a time of “dramatic upheaval” (Clinton). People were upset, and the easiest thing to do for some was to gather and oppose their own government. “But the sense that Waco and Ruby Ridge were somehow not the fault of those who were advocating violence and armed to the teeth and prepared to exercise it, but the government that was attempting to enforce the law. And so it became symbolic” (Clinton). They were so busy pointing fingers; they forgot the beauty of brotherhood and violated their freedoms. Freedom of speech is not bombing a federal building just because you disagree with their methods. The boundaries set in place by the government attempt to limit those who corrupt freedom. In events such as the Oklahoma City bombing, blameless American people faced the fallout of McVeigh’s destruction. What was supposed to be an ordinary day at work turned into a day of misery that left people without a mother, a father, a son, or even a

“McVeigh and Nichols had publicly expressed strong opposition to the federal government” (Funk and wagnalls new world encyclopedia, 1). They were both so mad at the government for things that they could not control. They could have acted differently about the whole situation but sometimes people get so mad that they do not think straight. As a result from the bombing we have a memorial that stands where the federal building used to stand. The memorial consists of the gates of time, the reflection pool, the survivor wall, and the field of empty chairs.

On April 19, 1995, a detrimental explosion targeting the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma took place. This incident of domestic terrorism and the mastermind behind the explosion was credited to Timothy McVeigh who used a truck-bomb to kill 168 people and injure countless others (History.com Staff, 2009).

The time I was at the store there, was a shoplifter trying to steal some stuff. I had to make the decision to trip the guy and help security catch the guy. I had to make that split second decision and decide if it was necessary to trip this guy. If I did not do the right thing and trip the guy, then he could have gotten away with all of the merchandise. But there was also the chance that when I did trip the guy, he could have came back to hit me. Obviously, this scenario is not as bad as the scientists decision, but it can certainly relate.

I am thankful today that none of these people were seriously injured or ever missing, because I know that is not the case for everyone. As goes for how it impacted the world, I think that it shows us that accidents can happen at anytime to anyone, even to the most experienced of people.

On September 11, 2001 a normal Tuesday morning an American Airline Boeing 767 plane loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashed into the north tower of the World Trade center in New York City. The impact left a massive burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes later after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767- United Airlines flight 175- appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the world trade center and sliced into the south tower near 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. It was evident that America was now under attack; at this point we knew that the U.S had been a target of terrorist. What is a terrorist, some may say that terrorism is the evil acts of a group or individual geared towards another group that has a political motive but also cause fear among a group of people. That is true but would it be a called terrorism, if you