DATE=4/26/2000 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=OKLAHOMA MEMORIAL MUSEUM NUMBER=5-46202 BYLINE=MICHAEL LELAND DATELINE=OKLAHOMA CITY INTERNET=YES CONTENT= Voiced At: Intro: The United States' newest national memorial honors the victims and survivors of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The memorial includes a reflecting pool and a field of 168 empty chairs - one for each of the 168 people killed in the bombing. Later this year, a museum will open next to the park. V-O-A's Michael Leland reports the museum will tell the story of the bombing and its aftermath, and promote nonviolent solutions to conflicts. TEXT: /// Church bells and jets act (establish, fade under text) /// The dedication of the Oklahoma City National Memorial was accompanied by the ringing of church bells downtown, as military jets passed overhead. Jeannine Gist, whose daughter was killed in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, was among those attending. /// GIST ACT /// All of the anniversaries prior to this have just been painful, but this memorial is really something special. We have something to offer the world. You can look out there and see those 168 chairs representing the 168 victims. /// END ACT /// By the end of the year, the memorial that park officials expect will soon become the state's top tourist attraction will be joined by a museum. Bob Johnson chairs the Oklahoma City National Memorial Trust, which oversees the memorial site. /// FIRST JOHNSON ACT /// In this museum, we will house the experience of April 19th, 1995 and the days that followed. You will become more acquainted with the 168 innocent men, women and children who perished from the bombing. You will learn more about who they were as individuals. /// END ACT /// The museum will be housed in a former office building that was heavily damaged in the bombing. Visitors will not only learn more about the victims, but also have a chance to hear stories from survivors and rescue workers. Television monitors will play news reports from the bombing and aftermath. Exhibits will also show visitors how rescue teams carried out their duties, and how urban rescue equipment and procedures have changed as a result of the bombing. Mr. Johnson says some of the images will be graphic and upsetting, but the museum will have an area suitable for children and families. /// SECOND JOHNSON ACT /// Hopefully, when they leave here, they will not only have a better understanding of what transpired here, both the good and the bad, they will also leave with the feeling that there is far more good in the world than bad. /// END ACT /// /// OPT /// The museum staff is already reaching out to children throughout the United States. It has developed a school curriculum on the bombing, on violence and violence prevention, and on memorials in general. Museum archivist Jane Thomas says schools requesting a curriculum also receive one of the hundreds of stuffed toy bears left by visitors at the bombing site during the last five years. /// FIRST THOMAS ACT /// The real asset that the "hope bear" brings is that you can talk to students about conflict situations and finding nonviolent solutions, and it is just something they hear. When they are sitting there looking at a bear that comes from a bombing, you have their attention. /// END ACT /// The bears are among more than 50-thousand artifacts collected from a chain link fence that used to surround the bombing site. Ms. Thomas says people still leave items when they visit, but she is finding an increasing number of mementos that have nothing to do with the Murrah Building attack. /// SECOND THOMAS ACT /// One day there was an old dog on the fence, a stuffed toy. There was a note around his neck saying, "This dog belonged to our 17-year-old daughter. It was her favorite stuffed animal. She was killed in an automobile accident and we brought the dog to you." /// END ACT // /// END OPT /// Mr. Johnson of the Memorial Trust hopes the museum will encourage people to think about violence and its effects on a community. /// THIRD JOHNSON ACT /// People who visit here receive the imperative that we reject violence as a means of affecting government change. That they learn more about the senselessness of violence, that they learn of the losses of innocence and security that result from a terrorist attack. /// END ACT /// Memorial visitor Leanne Waddell was looking at the field of empty chairs on the park's opening day, and says the site already makes a powerful statement about terrorist violence. /// WADDELL ACT /// We all have a voice. We can speak our minds. We are allowed. We are so free here. If what they (the bombers) wanted to do was to say something, we would have listened. Anybody will listen to you. It is a shame they thought that an act of violence this severe was what it would take for someone to listen to their side. /// END ACT /// The museum will also include a research center on the prevention of terrorism and political violence. The facility is expected to open in December. (Signed) NEB/MJL/gm 26-Apr-2000 16:06 PM EDT (26-Apr-2000 2006 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .