President Bush to Dedicate Oklahoma City Bombing Museum Today; Chairman Bob Johnson Discusses Memorial's Intent
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A museum dedicated to the Oklahoma City bombing opens today. It's been almost six years since the blast killed 168 people and injured more than 500 others. CNN's Tony Clark has had an advanced look at the $7 million exhibit funded by private donations. He is in Oklahoma City this morning with an overview of what is inside -- Tony.</s>TONY CLARK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It has been almost six years since the Oklahoma City bombing. And if the memory of that day has faded from anyone's mind, all they have to do is walk into the museum behind me and it all comes right back.</s>CLARK (voice-over): You step into this museum and you step back to April 19, 1995.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.</s>CLARK: The sound is of a Water Resources Board meeting across the street from the Murrah building. It is just after 9:00 a.m.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... receive information regarding...</s>KARI WATKINS, MEMORIAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: And as the bomb explodes, you see the faces of the 168 victims and you begin to realize they weren't faceless individuals in that building, they were all individuals.</s>CLARK: The sounds and the destruction surround you: the concrete rubble, the offices that are torn apart, and the everyday things of life now symbols of lives that have been shattered. This is the dress Florence Rogers was wearing when the floor collapsed in front of her desk, killing the eight coworkers she had just called into her third-floor office.</s>FLORENCE ROGERS, BOMBING SURVIVOR: It brought back April the 19th very vividly, and I just kind of stood there and found myself sobbing.</s>CLARK: The museum tells the story of the Oklahoma City bombing with hundreds of photographs, hours of video and countless artifacts and interactive computer stations. There is a wall of justice that talks about Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the men convicted of the attack. But the real focus, through pictures and personal mementos, is on the 149 adults and 19 children who were lost -- children like Aaron and Elijah Coverdale.</s>JANNIE COVERDALE, VICTIMS' GRANDMOTHER: It makes people know that, hey, they were here. They lived. They were here and they were important to us.</s>CLARK: And for people like Tom and Marsha Kight, who lost their daughter, Frankie, it is even more.</s>MARSHA KIGHT, VICTIM'S MOTHER: It also tells a story of a nation coming together and wrapping their arms around us and embracing us and giving us hope when we didn't have a lot of hope.</s>CLARK: In the end, hope and remembrance is what this museum and this memorial is all about. Tony Clark, CNN, Oklahoma City.</s>CLARK: The president, President George W. Bush, Mrs. Bush, will be joined by U.S. Sen. Don Nickels, state officials, survivors and others today at 1:00 Eastern time for the dedication of the museum, and then it will be open to the public from then after. Bob Johnson is the chairman of the Oklahoma City Memorial Trust. Bob, what was it you tried to get across with this museum?</s>BOB JOHNSON, MUSEUM CHAIRMAN: This is an educational center that will assure that the world never forgets what happened here and how very senseless this tragedy was. But it also captures the response of Americans consisting of thousands of acts of virtue, which I think provides great hope for mankind.</s>CLARK: But when you walk in, especially after you hear the audio of the bombing and you see the destruction and the chaos, it seems as if it was a very difficult road that -- difficult line that you had to go to try and make it dramatic, but not just as horrible as it was.</s>JOHNSON: There was no question, Tony. We did walk a very fine line to tell this so powerfully that we create an indelible memory of what happened here but yet not go over that line and either sensationalize or offend. And I'm very assured by family members, survivors who have gone through in the preview that we have hit that mark.</s>CLARK: There are a lot of audio tapes. You hear a lot from survivors -- not only survivors, but people who lost loved ones. It is a very personal museum, isn't it?</s>JOHNSON: No question. And what sets this museum and this memorial apart from others is that the family members, survivors, rescuers, have been a very integral part of everything we've done. And it's so important for them to have this facility so that we can hopefully find a way to prevent such violence.</s>CLARK: Was there any kind of hesitation to include Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols as part of the museum?</s>JOHNSON: They are part of the story. But you will note when you go through the museum that we have not glamorized the perpetuators. We have to tell the story as it happened, but we have told it in such a way that you focus on the losses suffered here, the senselessness of this kind of violence as a means of changing government, but not so much focus on McVeigh and Nichols as individuals.</s>CLARK: Bob Johnson, thank you very much. As Mr. Johnson said, over the past three days survivors, victims' families, rescuers and others have had a preview of the museum, and the response coming out of it is that it is a very powerful museum. Tony Clark, CNN, live in Oklahoma City.</s>LIN: Now, President Bush will speak at today's dedication of the Oklahoma City Bombing Museum. He is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. in Oklahoma City, but that is 2:00 p.m. Eastern here on the East Coast. We will bring his remarks to you live, of course.</s>COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: It sure looks powerful.</s>LIN: Yes.</s>MCEDWARDS: Boy, some of those images.</s>LIN: To relive it with the sounds and the images of it...</s>MCEDWARDS: Yes.</s>LIN: ... very powerful indeed.