Editor’s note: Due to a technical mistake, this Bobby Ross, Jr., post is running a day late. The mistake was all mine. (tmatt)
At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, I had just stepped off The Oklahoman’s eighth-floor newsroom elevator when we heard the boom and saw the smoke in the distance.
In all, 168 people died in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City — the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
Twenty-five years ago, my Oklahoman colleagues and I found ourselves covering the biggest story of our lives, even as we joined our grieving community in shedding tears over an unfathomable tragedy.
I was blessed to tell many stories of victims and survivors.
No single profile stuck with me, though, like the one about a blue-eyed, light-brown-haired baby named Danielle, who was killed in the second-floor America’s Kids Day Care. A quarter-century later, I caught up with Deniece Bell-Pitner, Danielle’s mother, whom I first interviewed in the bombing’s immediate aftermath.
In my story, published on the front page of The Oklahoman last Sunday, Bell-Pitner described how she progressed from anger at God to relying on him.
“I realized, ‘He’s the only way I’m going to get through this,’” she told me.
Another bombing-related angle: I wrote a retrospective piece for The Associated Press on an April 23, 1995, prayer service that began the healing process for Oklahoma and millions of TV viewers around the world.
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. No hugs or handshakes: Pandemic complicates storm relief: You may — or may not — have heard that 100-plus tornadoes struck the South over two days this week, killing more than 30 people.
The COVID-19 pandemic has, for obvious reasons, eclipsed some ordinarily major news.
But I was pleased to see AP veteran Jay Reeves, based in Birmingham, Alabama, explore the coronavirus outbreak’s impact on disaster relief. Bottom line: Volunteers — many of them with faith-based groups — “are still trying to provide all the help they can, but from a distance.”
No hugs or handshakes: Pandemic complicates storm relief https://t.co/RYL2eDWu7e
— Jay Reeves (@Jay_Reeves) April 14, 2020
2. In Ohio, the Amish take on the coronavirus: Some stories are just a joy to read. This one by New York Times feature writer Elizabeth Williamson certainly qualifies. And the photos by Erin Schaff are equally impressive.
The basic storyline: “A famously traditional community has mobilized to help hospitals with medical supplies, even as it struggles with reconciling its communal way of life with the dictates of social distancing.”
Related: This journalist did her job: She hopes it didn’t expose her to COVID-19
3. Searching for salvation during a pandemic: The Atlantic’s magnificent religion writer Emma Green is back on the beat after a three-month hiatus. That’s terrific news for religion news consumers.
In her first story since returning, Green talks to Jimmy Dorrell, pastor of the Church Under the Bridge in Waco, Texas.
“This is what church looks like during a pandemic: distanced, clouded by the threat of disease, but stubbornly persistent,” Green writes about Dorrell’s congregation.
Want a little more background on the Central Texas church? Check out my 2018 Religion News Service feature on “Fixer Upper” stars Chip and Joanna Gaines offering a temporary home to the congregation during Interstate 35 roadwork.