On Sept. 11, Duncan Middle School students got to reflect on the 30th anniversary of another American tragedy.
DMS eighth-grade students joined the Duncan High School student body to attend the Journey of Hope assembly, which focused on the bombing of the Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The incident, which tool place April 19, 1995, resulted in 168 deaths and marks the largest act of domestic terrorism in United States history.
The Murrah Building destruction/loss of life is usually put in the same category of American tragedy as Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
“It was a tragedy that affected all of Oklahoma and it united all of us,” eighth-grader and Student Council president Huck Petersen said. “I feel like we should remember it more because sometimes it is overshadowed by 9/11.
“I feel like they bombed it because they didn’t agree with us, and it effected us today by making us go through more precautions and it damaged and destroyed the surrounding buildings.”
The goal of the Journey of Hope visits to Stephens County is to help kids keep in mind the history that exist in Oklahoma and the loss of life for the United States.
Eighth-graders Griffin Evans and Kayan Patel said they felt that 9/11 often overshadows what happened in Oklahoma City.
“It was so sad and rest in peace for those people,” Patel said. It made us stronger after the bombings. The lives that were lost during the bombing still effects us today with those people being gone.”
Evans had similar thoughts.
“I think it was bad and the bombing made us stronger,” he said. “It happened because they were mad at the government. It still effects us today.”
For eighth-grade Mason Sanders, the Murrah Building bombing is one that should not be forgotten by the nation, let alone Oklahomans.
“The bombings were messed up,” Sanders said. “They affected us by uniting all of us and making us stronger. The city as a whole is now forever changed.”
For information about the Murrah Building bombing, check out the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum website.
