Currently at the Memorial & Museum

We Come Here to Remember...

Those powerful words inscribe our Memorial’s Gates of Time and the granite entry of our Memorial Museum. Why do we come to remember? Why are Memorial’s important? Those are not uncommon questions.

We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever...so that we can learn. Learn from their lives, their loss of life, their legacy of life. Mother, father, brother, sister, friend, co-worker, teacher, child - they all had an important title in someone’s life. What can we learn from these lives taken so innocently in these acts of terrorism on American soil?

We have a responsibility to remember so that these heinous acts do not become a part of our everyday lives as they are in some foreign countries. I once had a foreign journalist say to me, “If we had a memorial for everyone killed in an act of terrorism, we would have a Memorial on every corner.” To which I just responded, "That is exactly why we built this place." We can teach about the people’s resiliency to these acts and how Americans will not be defeated.

We must use these important Memorials to teach. We must educate about the prevention of home-grown terrorism, wherever it may occur, and the mitigation of its effects using the Lessons Learned from the Oklahoma City bombing.

We have spent the past decade working with our friends from the Pentagon, Shanksville and New York City. We shared our Lessons Learned through reviewing our community response, justice, the impact of violence and terrorism and how we handled the Memorialization process in Oklahoma.

It has been an honor to stand side-by-side with people from all three cities to help them in some small way rebuild. Through countless meetings, photographs, video clips and artifacts, people will now learn the human side to these acts of terrorism and can put an innocent face with such a cowardly act.

Together, we will work for years to come, teaching about the senselessness of these acts and the responsibilities we have to move forward.

Today, our heart is in New York as they open the 9/11 Memorial for the first time. There is so much pressure with opening these hallowed grounds and yet so much to learn. As visitors begin to pour onto that site, our hearts and prayers are with the people of New York City as they join us on this important journey.

Because as long as we come here to remember, we will change lives.

Kari Watkins
Executive Director, Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

9/11 Rebuilding Lessons from Oklahoma City

Governor Fallin Statement on 10th Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks

Seven Oklahomans were killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City and at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. While they lived and worked in other states, they left family and friends in Oklahoma to remember and memorialize their lives. Click here to read about them in the Tulsa World

Shared Experience Timeline

	September 13, 2001 This full page ad from the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, ran in the New York Times.
	September 2001 In the Hope Bear Project, more than 600 Hope Bears were sent to schools in the three cities, New York City, Washington D.C., and Shanksville, PA.
	September 2001 The Memorial & Museum is the site of a special Prayer Service held around the Survivor Tree on the Friday after the September 11 attacks planned by Lt. Governor Mary Fallin.
	April 19, 2002 The Memorial & Museum opens A Shared Experience - 04.19.95/09.11.01, a special exhibit highlighting the similarities between the two terrorist attacks.
	October 2002 The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation visits the Memorial & Museum several times to discuss the memorialization process with OKC Memorial staff.
	July 2004 Memorial & Museum staff visit the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and discussed the memorialization process.
	June 2006 Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani visits the Memorial & Museum.
	November 2006 The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation visits the Memorial & Museum in November 2006 as part of their exhibit planning process.
	April 19, 2007 The Memorial hosts a televised conversation with Rudy Giuliani & Ron Norick, former mayors who helped rebuild two great American cities.
	May 11, 2007 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg visits the Memorial & Museum.
	September 11, 2007 A flag ceremony at the Memorial & Museum commemorates September 11.
	November 2007 9/11 Memorial traveling exhibit visits the Memorial & Museum.
	November 2007 9/11 Memorial staff visit the Memorial & Museum.
	December 2009 Joe Daniels, President and CEO of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, spends the day at the Memorial & Museum.
	September 2010 Memorial Executive Director Kari Watkins and Executive Vice-President and Director of 9/11 Memorial Museum Alice Greenwald tour the Memorial site in New York City. They have collaborated many times regarding the memorial process.
	April 19, 2011 The National 9/11 Flag travels to the Memorial & Museum for an official stitching ceremony.
	August 12, 2011 A team of firefighter-bicyclists ride across the country to honor those who lost their lives during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and stop at the Memorial & Museum.

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