Oklahoma City Bombing Anniversary: Coping with the Aftermath (May 08, 2005)
On April 19th, 1995, Oklahoma City police officer Jim Ramsey put aside his fear of heights and rescued two women trapped on a seventh floor ledge of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. One year later, he received a standing ovation as he was awarded the Oklahoma City Police Department’s highest citation for bravery. But Ramsey’s feelings of enormous guilt and depression eventually took control of him, leading him to start gambling, stealing, drinking and using drugs and causing his divorce and resignation from the police force. Ramsey tells his story. Also, in the intervening and chaotic hours between the bombing and the arrest of Timothy McVeigh, suspicions were erroneously cast on ‘foreign’ sources. Among those forced to deal with these initial accusations was Oklahoma’s Arab population. KGOU’s Scott Gurian visits the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City and speaks to President Imad Enchassi as well as Salam al-Marayati, Executive Director of the Los Angeles-based Muslim American Public Affairs Council; Ibrahim Hooper, Communications Director for CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Sahar al-Moswi, an Iraqi exile and former Oklahoma City resident who blames the loss of her child on an angry mob. And we hear from author and Professor Lane Crothers about the militia movement behind the Oklahoma City bombing. What motivated Timothy McVeigh, and how strong is the movement today?

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