Some Stories Never Grow Old

           Some of the greatest stories in history textbooks come from unimaginable events. Events that no one could predict and that no one wants to see happen again. The story of the bombing that shook Oklahoma City to its core on April 19, 1995 is one of those stories.

            Kari Watkins was one of the first people approached to help create the Memorial and Museum. To continue teaching a story that is sixteen years old is something that she feels is important for everyone to hear.

            “The memorial and museum are part of what came out of the mission statement,” said Director of the Oklahoma National Memorial and Museum, Kari Watkins, “it defines the survivor tree should be kept, it defines an education center,  it defines different elements of this place.”

            Assistant principal at Ponca City High School and former assistant principal at East Middle School in Ponca City, Paul McQueen, agrees with Watkins, especially in terms of students. “It’s important for us because, they weren’t alive then. The first year we took them they would have been born in ’92 or ’93. So they weren’t old enough to remember it.”

            One teacher at East Middle School, Joanne Minor, agrees with McQueen, saying, “this is an important lesson in what rights we had before this occurrence and after.  Most students do not understand the impact it had on our lives.  Before the bombing, security at airports were not what they are today. Students also need to know there are people, not foreign threats, but our own citizens, who will do harm if they have different views about government and policies.  Students gain an understanding about home grown terrorists and also about tolerance.”

            These are exactly the lessons that Watkins and the other people who helped to create the museum and memorial had in mind.

            “It is very clear to watch kids go through there and watch the light bulb go on, its like they get it,” says Watkins, “They get how senseless it was. They get the fact that it was a complete waste of time and human equity to go blow this place up. He got no where, except death.”

            To this day, the museum continues to be a collecting facility. They are always rotating artifacts and adding new things into the museum to help add to the story.

            “Our archives is the single largest collection of any one event. We’re very proud of what we’ve captured there and the stories we tell,” said Watkins.

            The story they tell at the Oklahoma National Memorial and Museum is one that no Oklahoman will ever forget. Even sixteen years after the bombing, and for many years to come, people will continue to come to this place for “comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity” just as the mission statement says.

Video Lead-in: Although the story of Timothy McVeigh and his actions is sixteen years old, it will never loose its importance to Oklahomans and Americans. 

The Constant Struggle For Comprehensive Coverage

            In almost any journalism school, they teach to be diverse along with being complete in your coverage. There are certain communities of people in the United States that do get a lot of coverage, but not only because they are diverse, because their community does things or something happens to them that is newsworthy. But other groups, such as the Asian-American community, are divided on how their specific community is covered and portrayed in American media.

            Members of the Asian community here in Norman felt that media could definitely do a better job at giving equal coverage to all the diverse communities within the area.

Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church is a bilingual church right here in Norman.

            Member of the Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church, Jen Teck Kao, says he wants people outside of the Asian community to know about “our culture, our heritage, where we come from, our background back in our native countries.”

            But should a journalist cover a story just for the sake of being diverse?

            Dr. Xifan Liu, professor at the Oklahoma School of Science and Math, has worked for media outlets in the United States, as well as in China. 

Dr. Xifan Lui realizes that news outlets are always looking for what the most people will want to hear.

When asked what he thought about coverage of his community in the United States media, he had an unexpected answer. He feels that, while the Asian community may not have extensive coverage, they are covered when it is important. Important being when it impacts more than just this specific community. Lui emphasized the fact that it is important for journalists to cover the important issues, and avoid choosing stories based on how diverse they make your publication appear.

He supports this by saying “[media outlets] are not interested to have comprehensive balance of coverage, that never, ever is their goal. They just cover what they believe is important, what they know will fit the taste of their readers.”

            Student at OSSM, Vincent Peng, agreed with his professor. While he did feel like there were opportunities that media outlets could use to over the Asian community, he understood why they had to choose other issues. 

Vincent Peng is a senior at the Oklahoma School of Science and Math.

           “Major areas of media are like politics, sports, and like celebrities. And these are areas that do not usually include a lot of Asians,” said Peng.

            Peng related the issue to politics, specifically. Saying that if there were two politicians that media were considering covering, one for the sake of bills he was pushing and the other just for the diversity his ethnicity provides, Peng would say cover the politician who is doing his job well, that is what people want to hear.

“What you’re going to report and what you’re not going to report; if you’re only basing that on race…as a journalist I think you should cover what’s important rather than what’s diverse,” said Peng.