A 30 year old reminder of the power of a vote
April 19, 1995, I was the District Manager of the Social Security Office in Columbus and was driving to Jackson for a meeting at noon with the Mississippi Area Director. It was a beautiful Spring Day, and I left early. I arrived at the Federal Building about 10:30 and noticed an unusual number of police around the building. I went to the Jackson SSA office on the second floor to visit Johnanne Reed, the District Manager. There were several managers in her office and all were staring at the TV. She said the Oklahoma City Federal Building (which looked like a twin to the Jackson Federal Building) was bombed this morning and the Social Security Office was on the first floor. We did not know if this was a random act or was someone targeting all federal buildings.
The TV was reporting that someone had parked a large truck in front of the building and at 9:02 ignited a bomb which blew off the front of the building. The Social Security Office had just opened and people were in the lobby. They were not enemies or radials just folks trying to file for benefits, change their address or obtain a new Social Security Card. The entire building collapsed into the Lobby of the Social Security office killing 16 SSA employees and everyone in the Lobby.
As we watched, the first responders and bystanders had rushed to the building to help and transport the injured. At the end of the day, the death toll was 168 including 19 children at the day care center and 853 injured.
The FBI and ATF were on the scene immediately investigating the bombing. They found a rear axle to the truck that had a VIN number and it was traced to a U-Haul dealer in a nearby town. Within hours they had identified the suspect and notified all police agencies. As it turned out, the bomber-Timothy McVeigh was stopped by a local policeman for a traffic violation and was in jail.
Today the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are maligned as ineffective and bias. I have known agents, and I know that this is not the truth. They are skilled at the work they do and show no bias in the treatment of anyone regardless of their political affiliation. The same is true of the first responders.
Timothy McVeigh was so angry with the government that he decided to commit the worst terror attack by an American against Americans. He did not realize that the Constitution (it’s not just a piece of paper) gave us the proper way to change the government – by the VOTE. The VOTE is more powerful than a two-thousand-pound diesel and fertilizer bomb. If you are dissatisfied with the elected officials and want to change things, GO VOTE. We owe it to those who died in Oklahoma City.
Sherman Meadows
Columbus
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