Catholic Ragemonkey

Hard to believe
Today marks the ninth anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Nine years ago the calendar must have been lined up much as it is this year: I had just spent Easter week at home with my family and returned to seminary college. And it was that week after Easter (a Wednesday that year) that the terrible deed was done.

Previous to the bombing I had not known one thing about Oklahoma City's Federal Building. But watching the news coverage of the event from the seminary TV lounge, I realized that just days before the bombing, I had been on the opposite street corner from the Federal Building, returning a passport application to the downtown Post Office.

May healing continue to happen in the lives of the many people traumatized in any way by that horrific event nine years ago. Perhaps the healing needed most now is an emotional and spiritual one: to forgive and to move on. The vengeance desired by many victim families is as palpable as the almost daily local media coverage of the State of Oklahoma's capital murder trial of bombing conspirator Terry Nichols.