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<\/a><\/p>\nTwenty years ago today a significant event happened in my hometown of Oklahoma City. It was a life changer for me, for my family and friends, for my fellow Oklahomans, and for the country in general. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown OKC killed 168 fellow citizens and injured almost 700 more\u00a0on that day of April 19, 1995. The most significant event in State history, and a most terrible happening this country would suffer between the World War of the 1940\u2019s and the awful day of September 11th some six and a half\u00a0years later, will always be in the DNA of Oklahomans everywhere. Domestic terrorism in the name of Timothy McVeigh was an evil set upon all of us.\u00a0He and his action\u00a0served notice that if we, as a country, believe we are safe from losing what we have as a people, sacrifice as described in the \u201cOklahoma Standard\u201d is an action for all, a must, and\u00a0not just in the Sooner State but nationwide. \u00a0I will define the \u201cOklahoma Standard\u201d further down in this article.\u00a0\u00a0Some\u00a0 want to downplay this Standard<\/em>, and use the current\u00a0state of problems that\u00a0our\u00a0State has to overcome, as an excuse to cause discourse on Oklahomans, but don\u2019t let that disparage\u00a0you or the Standard.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0No place in the world\u00a0is perfect and if someone wants to tell you otherwise, they are lying.<\/strong><\/p>\n Driving to work on that day twenty years ago, I was not a happy man, as I was going to be late for work. Diverting through traffic in downtown OKC to get to the School Administration building at Northwest 9th and Klein, the home of my\u00a0employer, the Oklahoma City Public Schools, I skirted past the doomed Federal Building at approximately 8:06 am, a hour or so before the destruction of the facility by the fertilizer bomb. In the form of\u00a0a Rider\u00a0rental\u00a0truck that Mr. McVeigh had parked in front of the building, some minutes after my passing, that bomb\u00a0would make a significant moment in history. I have an approximate time I drove past the Murrah building as when I walked into the auditorium of the School Board I checked my watch to see how late I was, not looking at my boss as I found a seat. (Thank you John Butchee\u00a0for not\u00a0noticing my lateness). \u00a0Doing the math later, I knew what time I passed the site. It would have been 8:06 am. If I had been 61 minutes later I would have been vaporized and I\u00a0would have been one of the missing that day, for the\u00a0week, until authorities would have put two and two together and figured out that I had been at the unlucky location at that unlucky time on that\u00a0historic day. Sure, what ifs\u2026\u2026.but you could say that about the 168 and the hundreds hurt\u00a0at that moment of terror. I think about that often, especially when I pass the Memorial in downtown OKC. It is part of \u201cmy\u201d insignificant story when I compare it with others of that day in\u00a0OKC.<\/strong><\/p>\n As\u00a0one of the building leaders\u00a0of the city schools I\u00a0sat in the auditorium\u00a0and listened to some director bloviate on some indifferent information.\u00a0 It was not Mr. Butchee as he never did that.\u00a0\u00a0At the moment of 9:07 am, April 19, 1995, the lights in the auditorium, about a mile from the Alfred P. Murrah building went dark. Less than a second later the hundred or so building leaders of the OKCPS schools heard a loud but dull thud with a physical feeling of some large ever encumbering pressure from the ceiling of the large room set down upon us. It was frightening and gave everyone in the room a sense that \u201cyou better think before you act\u201d sensation. For a good second, probably two, no one in the room moved. Not a head, not a blink, nothing. Shocked by the sensation, finally and slowly, everyone, with delicacy, picked themselves up and\u00a0walked out the room, out of the corridor and out the building\u2019s side door to see\u00a0what had happened. Did our administration building have an explosion?\u00a0 Did an airplane hit a house in the neighborhood?\u00a0\u00a0What happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n As we looked around outside we could see a large smoke cloud form and rise from the downtown area.\u00a0 \u00a0Still in bewilderment,\u00a0we\u00a0all new that something had happened but what we had not a clue what it was.\u00a0 The smoke rising\u00a0above the city skyline was not good, that we knew.\u00a0\u00a0The beginning of a terrible day, week, month, year\u2026\u2026..for OKC, Oklahoma, and the United States, was the result of that moment in time<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I will say that our\u00a0Principals\u2019\u00a0meeting on that day\u00a0was over.\u00a0\u00a0Yet the TV broadcasters had not relayed what had happened\u00a0\u00a0 It had just happened.\u00a0 No information on my car radio\u00a0about what had happened as I sped away from the Administration Building. \u00a0I made a conscious decision not<\/strong> to follow any inquisitive instincts and thank God I didn\u2019t drive toward the downtown area. With some of my students at a track meet at another school, I made a b-line toward those kids, making calls on my cell, first to my school (everything was good and the school\u00a0didn\u2019t know\u00a0what had happened-yes, the school shook) and then\u00a0home where my wife told me that the blast rattled our home in Edmond, some fourteen miles away from the devastation. Driving north I could see that plate glass in store buildings as far as three miles from the bomb site had shattered and lay on various streets and avenues. \u00a0To this day I think about what might have happened if I had gone to the bomb site, what I would have had to see, and the effects of what I would have had to endure seeing men, women, and especially the children, with their bloody torn up bodies being cared for. I can\u2019t tell you exactly what would have followed in my psyche, but for a fact, I had friends that lost their way for what they saw that day, losing their marriages, their sanity, and their God. Some\u00a0lost my friendship, not for what they did, but for\u00a0what they became. And it was their decision, not mine. \u00a0It was not just like a war zone, it was worse, as the people affected were not just indiscriminate human beings, but people that you lived with, broke bread with, went to the movies with, and went to church with. My church lost seven members that day, the most than any church in the metro. It could have been more.<\/strong><\/p>\n Going to Mass that evening at St. John the Baptist Church in Edmond after the events of the day, I remember one of our members that survived the blast, walking into the church, with a smile on his face. With his little scratches on one side of his body visible, he was in shock from what he had encountered (he was one foot from falling eight stories downward from where he was sitting one moment after the explosion) and his comments were telling of his faith. \u201cI am a blessed man today.\u201d I truly never met a more happy man, with all that he had endured.\u00a0 Somewhere in our humanity, goodness always wins the day.\u00a0 For his example, I am truly gratefully. He is not a hero, not really special in reality.\u00a0 His being was, is, bigger than\u00a0his existence on earth.\u00a0\u00a0Something that\u00a0I cannot explain.\u00a0 I try not.\u00a0\u00a0Every time I see him at church during\u00a0the past twenty years I contemplate his faith in God and how a man that went through something that most of us will never have to endure would have such a positive feeling toward his fellow man and God after going through hell-on-earth. Life is, learning from him, a gift from God, something that you should \u201cthank God\u201d for each and every day. Life on earth\u00a0is not a given and you never know when it will be taken for the next step in the human experience, into the afterlife.<\/strong><\/p>\n Every Oklahoman that was here in OKC on April 19, 1995 has a story about the event. My story is unique to me, but in the long of it, only significant to me. For those that come to OKC to visit, to watch a Thunder game, to vacation in the city (yes, OKC is not just a stopover place anymore), the Memorial is a must see. Yet, for me, I didn\u2019t visit the Memorial for over ten years as it brought back negative memories. The Thunder team, every pre-season, make their visit to the Memorial, and any new team member is escorted to the Memorial within days after joining the organization. It is our personal\u00a0Alamo,\u00a0 Trade Center, Arizona Battleship. And as the above mentioned are all American life changing sites.\u00a0\u00a0The Oklahoma City Memorial is also as life changing site.\u00a0\u00a0It signifies our victory over evil, which can never be taken lightly, not that it has been. Our resolve over an act by a bad man with twisted beliefs,\u00a0a reminder of something that is called the \u201cOklahoma Standard\u201d, is encumbering\u00a0 positive human actions that benefit the whole of the city, the state, and hopefully, the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n OKC Thunder GM Sam Presti has made a big deal of the \u201cOklahoma Standard.\u201d He is a civic leader here and his support has been significant as he continues to make known of the Standard nationwide.\u00a0 The Standard as explained by the Oklahoma City National Memorial website is explained:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>April 19, 1995 altered the face of Oklahoma \u2013 and the nation \u2013 forever. But rather than bow to fear as the attackers intended, the community banded together. Cars became ambulances. Strangers became neighbors. People literally donated the shoes off their feet. Visiting rescue workers and journalists called this spirit of generosity the \u201cOklahoma Standard.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/em>In this 20th Anniversary year, the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum is asking Oklahomans everywhere to recommit to the Oklahoma Standard.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2871935957_e2f0b78864_z.jpg\")
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