THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 11, 1995 TAG: 9509090048
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
ROSES.
They tossed roses into the bomb crater.
The final scoops of rubble collected from the gutted Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City rattled into the bin on May 4.
The next day there was a ceremony of closure - after all the broken bodies that could be found had been removed.
Fire and police buglers played ``Taps.'' Then, one by one, the rescuers and their kin stepped forward toward a strand of red tape bordering the crater's rim. Outstretched arms tossed roses into the pit's rubble.
Hundreds of roses. Some shredded their blooms slowly, pinching petal by petal from the bloom, the petals rocking in the wind before sinking into crater's ragged maw.
But the last rose is the book - the published remembrance of the 168 lives claimed by senseless violence on April 19, 1995. It's titled ``In Their Name: Oklahoma City: The Official Commemorative Volume.''
It is no pleasure to read, for there is too much pain and suffering in it. But those who buy the nonprofit book by Random House will be contributing to the fund for Oklahoma City victims and their families. The price is $25.
An explanation for the senseless bombing - which carved the federal building from roof to ground like a giant chainsaw - is not to be found within its pages.
But the stories of the survivors, the rescuers, the doctors, the families, are all told with sensitivity and compassion. And only the most hardened among us can view the photos unmoved.
The world remembers the photograph of the bloodied body of Baylee Almon, an infant cradled in the arms of helmeted firefighter Chris Fields, which appeared on the cover of ``Newsweek.'' But there are many other equally remarkable color shots in this book's pages. They capture the scale of the tragedy and the heroism of strangers from across the country who rushed to the scene (including a 56-member team of Hampton Roads firefighters and and rescue workers).
One of the most touching is of a helmeted Miami firefighter and his dog, Aspen, a yellow Lab. The dog has a remarkably forlorn look and deep sorrow in its eyes as its weary master, Skip Fernandez, enfolds him in his arms.
The dog stares into the distance, outfitted with an orange rescue coat emblazoned with a cross.
Beneath it is the grim text:
``When my dog finds someone alive, he barks. When he finds a body, he whines. . . . he's done more whining than barking.''
The book has many gripping narratives. One is from blind man Raymond Washburn who managed the federal building's snack bar. He pulled himself from the debris and was led from the crippled structure after the explosion.
Washburn said he'll never forget the sounds of the victims screaming. ``I knew just about everyone in the building. . . . Counseling has helped me talk it out. . . . I ask a lot, `Why us?' That's one day I was glad I couldn't see.''
``Why us?'' indeed.
As author Tisk Durkin writes, the bomb played no favorites with its brutality. Raymond Lee Johnson, a son of the Seminole nation, perished with Adele Higginbottom, a Daughter of the American Revolution.
The deadly seed of government hatred that grew like a tumor in the mind of the bomber was directed at those who serve ordinary people best - federal workers at the local level. Friends and neighbors.
The photographs of those dead federal workers and the many children and adults who merely happened to be in the building on that tragic day are the most compelling in the book. Each comes to life again in their color photos, placed side by side, their smiling faces like those found in school yearbooks: A laughing Antonio Cooper Jr., 6 months old, had just learned to crawl and say ``da da''; Donald Fritzler, an architect who had dropped into the Social Security office about a business matter; Peggy Holland, 37, an Army recruiter who taught summer Bible school at Knob Hill Baptist Church; Anita Hightower, 27, a Job Corps employee who moved to Oklahoma to care for a sick aunt. . . .
Virginia Beach Fire Capt. Robert Harwell, who was with the local fire and rescue team in Oklahoma City, hasn't read the book, but he's seen some of the photos.
````It was good to see the names and faces of some people we got to know out there,'' he said.
Nearly every page breaks your heart. The Rev. Billy Graham wrote the foreword. He tells us to renew our faith and reaffirm our commitment to banish hate and violence from the nation.
From so many deaths, the sweet fragrance of roses. . . and wise words to live by. ILLUSTRATION: The Random House book was published in remembrance of the 168
lives lost in Oklahoma City.
KEYWORDS: OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING by CNB