The terrorist attack on American soil

As the nation prepares to close the book on one of the most brutal and senseless terrorist attacks on American soil, it is worth reflecting how much has changed in our sense of safety and security in our own communities.

We are not talking about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The book is very much open on them.

Instead, we refer to the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people - the shocking, incomprehensible terrorist attack by a couple of middle-class Americans who thought the government was their enemy.

Timothy McVeigh was executed in June 2001. This week, Terry Nichols was convicted of 161 murder charges. In a few weeks, we will know his sentence.

Looking back just nine years for context, we read a comment from an Oklahoma City nurse who said three events in her lifetime were etched on her memory: the assassination of John Kennedy, the explosion of the Challenger and the Murrah Building bombing. Now, of course, the Columbia shuttle and 9/11 can be added to the list - grim reminders that the inconceivable can become reality in the blink of an eye.

The context of less than a decade of history can also reveal just how narrow-minded, delusional and selfish are terrorists who believe their cause is worth the lives of innocent people. No one cares about the cause McVeigh and Nichols thought they were promoting. We all care about the 168 futures - the day-care children among them - snuffed out by a bomb.

Today, the focus is on foreign terrorism. We depend on the federal government to alert us when the threat is high. We are at war with that enemy. We are urged to help track down people with names like Aafia Siddiqui and Yahiye Gadahn.

We are more fearful in airports, at large public events, about even our suspicious neighbors. But remember that the people in Oklahoma City, like those in New York and Washington, were sitting in their offices preparing for a routine day at work when terrorism struck.