Another Oklahoma tragedy

By SISTER MARGUERITE TIERNEY, CSJ- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Exactly 17 years ago, I was in a classroom in a small Catholic school in Moore, Oklahoma. I was there as a volunteer crisis intervention specialist sponsored by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Over the past 24 hours, my mind and heart have been caught up in the 300-mile-an-hour winds of the present storm.

I learned from 9/11, from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and from last year's Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings about the effect of such events on the life of a child. Just as the event triggers all such past experiences in the mind and heart of an adult, the original trauma is etched in the child forever.

I went to the Oklahoma Catholic school at the invitation of a teacher who was struggling with her preschool children, who were dealing with the mystery of war and tragedy. There were 15 boys and girls in the class.

I began with, "Mrs. T. has told me some of you are hurting about people who have died. Who would like to tell me about this?"

I expected to hear about the present. Instead, eight children spoke about past personal losses. Four had lost a parent. One little boy spoke of sitting next to a friend who was sucked into a drainpipe.

The boy for whom the teacher was most concerned was a child who knew the woman who was the last person to be rescued from the Federal Building. He shared, "I see her at her window crying to me and her children to come and find her."

After much sharing - which was without tears, more like a stoic reading from a storybook - we wrote the names of the lost on slips of paper and brought them outside to burn. As they watched the ashes ascend, the children relaxed and even sang a song.

As an adult, I am aware of the feelings of having been caught up in yet another 300-mile-an-hour blast. I am wondering if any one of those children is hugging a rescued child or awaiting news of one still unaccounted for.

I am also keenly aware of the constant repetition of tragedies on television. If you have children, seeing it once is too much. Turn off your television. Stop speaking about it in their presence. Find ways of praying for hurt people as a family. Talk to children about things over which we are powerless, like weather and evil and human suffering. In the case of bombs and guns, tell them that hurt people hurt people.

In the classroom after that 1995 tragedy, I learned so much about the true mysteries of life, death and resurrection. It is not about guns. Acts of God are food for our spiritual journey through contemplation. Hurt people hurt people.

(Sister Marguerite is an educator, counselor, spiritual director and crisis intervention specialist and founding director of Schoharie Catholic Family Services.)[[In-content Ad]]