In April 1995 I was standing in the mailroom of the middle school in Oklahoma City at which I was teaching, sorting out all the papers that accumulate in a teacher’s mailbox on any given day. I had the first hour as my planning period without students and was casually completing this chore as I and the principal who was also by the mailboxes exchanged pleasantries, when we both heard a large boom followed by a small tremor beneath our feet.

The school was on the corner of two major roads and, this being Oklahoma, it was not uncommon for cars and trucks to plow into potholes in spite of the driver’s attempts not to, so banging and shaking happened often enough to just be a common occurrence.

There seemed to be something different about this one, though, and as the principal and I surveyed our view attempting to see the truck responsible for the noise and shaking to pass by, standing at the windows that faced downtown Oklahoma City, instead of a truck we saw a plume of smoke slowing rising above the horizon in the downtown area. Not knowing the bang, shake, and smoke were actually related, I turned to the principal and said that with the boom, the shaking, and that plume of smoke, someone in OKC no longer owned what they used to.

We continued our conversation and speculating as we watched the smoke rising until the principal’s phone rang and reality and its aftermath hit.

The Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Downtown Oklahoma City had been blown up, taking much of its neighborhood with it, and as it was a governmental building, and not a privately owned one, with the perpetrators, lone or as part of a greater movement, and the motivation unknown, every public building in Oklahoma City went into lock down in an abundance of caution. Every obvious government related building from the State Capitol complex to other state and city offices, those many small city departments spread like freckles throughout the city, along with less obvious ones, schools, all grades, and libraries.

Having intended to use audio visual equipment in their classrooms that day some teachers had cable ready televisions set up. Students heard the boom, felt the shake, and some in classrooms with downtown facing windows saw the huge plume of smoke, and everyone in the building heard the constant stream of emergency and first responder vehicles rushing by the school as it was located at a major intersection. Obviously, unable to teach in classrooms filled with distracted students and the visual of the huge plume of smoke outside the windows and the blare of sirens, it was impossible to hope to return some calm. Attempting to allay student fears of something really bad, televisions were turned on hoping to end it all with just a story covering some warehouse or residence conflagration.

Instead, not only did those watching see the visuals of the destroyed building and hear the factual reportage, but they also heard the instant speculations of the pundits as to who the perpetrators were and what the motivation was with absolutely no facts beyond the obvious one, someone had blown up the building. They quickly settled on their supposed informed assertion to be proven wrong by the day after the explosion that it was clearly consistent with a Islamic extremist attacks and, therefore, it was done by Muslims.

This theory was promoted constantly, and it was obvious it was becoming the accepted narrative as people in the area of the destruction who were being interviewed either agreed with that assessment or came to it on their own. This made it necessary to protect the few Muslim and Middle Eastern teachers and students in the district’s schools as being 1995 in Oklahoma there were still those who gloriously overreacted to things of which they did not approve and Muslims at the time were a big target of their righteousness. 

9/11 was a few years away yet, but we had had the Gulf War and Muslims, all of them, had become the “enemy”.

With absolutely no experience with such a situation, teachers were required to keep the kids calm in their classes since many students had a direct relation with people who would have been in the Murrah Building, and guard all  the doors to insure that the only people who got in were city and state officials and parents who, being the legal guardian of the student and fearing something could happen to them, came to take them home.

We were to block the entry of anyone who was not a parent or official, and be able to handle whatever degree of struggle ensued when teachers insisted a panicking alleged parent show proof they were the legal guardian and the designated person to whom a student could be released.

Teachers had to make sure everyone was who they claimed to Dose: buy cheap sildenafil deeprootsmag.org Despite the fact that it is not a suitable form of treatment and is used in curing ED, male infertility and premature ejaculation. You should also learn about the effects of using purchase generic viagra steroids that have on the body. Antidepressants can buy viagra for cheap cause structural damage and kill neurons. What is deeprootsmag.org order generic levitra super force? levitra super force is a powerful software; it may be utilised quickly as well as the rest of the world. be such as someone claiming to be plain clothes law enforcement before being allowed entrance while we were to bar people from entering for nefarious reasons like dragging out any Muslims in the building, or, if it was not an isolated act of terrorism but a huge anti-government, keeping any terrorist or armed persons from entering to wreak havoc.

This was the case in every school in the district no matter how far from the explosion it was, and I am sure in other public buildings the employees were attempting to handle the moment’s effect on them.

Without knowing who had done it, why they had done it, or what their ultimate intention was in doing it, reaction was anything but casual because, if this was just the first of many actions, without any information, no one could know what or whom the next target was, or if they were after a specific unknown grouping.

Years later, this same reaction was played out on a more national stage with the attacks on the World Trade Center with all governmental agencies locking down, and, although it did play as fodder for jokes, hiding the President of the United States because not knowing who and why, he could have been a target.

According to certain accounts of January 6, 2021, a calm, happy crowd was assembled to support the president and America. After the president wished them well and said he would be there with them, he calmly walked into one of those plastic lawn tents on the White House lawn with family and friends to nosh and sip as they watched the calm, happy crowd stand outside the Capitol Building chanting his name and holding flags and banners with his name on them. 

However, the crowd did not stand and chant, but invaded, entered, and vandalized the building calling for the heads Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. This was not the plan. This is not what the president seemed to be expecting.

Who changed the plan?

What was their intention?

Why had they highjacked the event?
What was their ultimate aim?

Who might the possible targets be?

It was, after all, an invasion of the Legislative Branch with the Supreme Court Building conveniently near by if the Justices were to become targets by intention or excitement, and the White house with all its executive branch people and their friends obviously a short walk away.

Unless they knew the answers to these questions, caution would have had the president going to a safe place until questions were answered and he could be eliminated as a target rather than have the noshing and sipping continue inside a plastic tent on the White House lawn, a clear target for anyone whose part of the plan could be to take out the president.

Blaming ANTIFA and BLM for the invasion of the capitol in spite of what millions had watched happening live on television when they had merely tuned in to see the ratification of the electoral college vote and what antics might be used to prevent it with, I am sure, book having been made regarding what action Mike Pence might take, shows that, at best and artificially, no one can point to who the perpetrators were, and the insistence of those who support the previous president that it was most likely these two groups, besides supporting the idea that who the perpetrators were is in doubt, reinforces people’s questioning why, if he saw his enemies going nuts and wilding out of control, no one removed the president to a safe place as these people who hated him might turn to the White House right up the street.

He was not moved because unlike in OKC and the WTC, he knew who the attackers were and his support of them and his encouragement for their action with ongoing support after the mayhem had begun was his protection.

These were his people, and his casual observing of them points to this.

He knew what was going to happen, so he knew he had nothing to fear.