A Community of Mourners?

 

I've been doing some research on tress that are viewed as witnesses to war and tragedy.  Reading about the elm that survived the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City in 1995 I was interested to learn that hundreds of people were brought together to write the mission statement for the memorial that commemorates the 168 people who were killed in the blast.

Survivor Tree

At over 90 years old, the Survivor Tree is an American elm located in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City. It survived the bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. The most destructive act of terrorism on American soil before September 11, 2001, the bombing killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.

Before the bombing, the tree provided the only shade in the building’s parking lot. People would arrive early to work just to be able to park under the shade of the tree’s branches. After the bombing, the tree was nearly chopped down to recover pieces of evidence embedded in it from the force of the 4,000-pound bomb. But investigators were able to recover evidence from the tree’s trunk and branches.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum was created to honor “those who were killed, those who survived, and those changed forever” by the 1995 bombing. The Memorial and Museum are dedicated to educating visitors about the impact of violence, informing people about events surrounding the bombing, and inspiring hope and healing through lessons learned by those affected.

Hundreds of community citizens, family members of those who were killed, survivors, and rescue workers came together to write the mission statement for the memorial. One of the statement’s resolutions dictated that “one of the components of the Memorial must be the Survivor Tree located on the south half of the Journal Record Building block.” The Memorial design was unveiled in 1996 with prominence put on the remarkable elm.

The Survivor Tree has become a symbol of human resilience. Today, as a tribute to renewal and rebirth, the inscription around the tree reads, “The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated; our deeply rooted faith sustains us.”