Twenty three years ago this month, domestic terrorists bombed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  It was “9/11” before 9/11.

The death toll included 168 men, women and some of their children. Another 680 people  were wounded, some of them disabled for the rest of their lives.

They worked in dozens of different agencies with very different backgrounds and lifestyles.  Their common link: All of them — workers, spouses, children — were members of the federal family and still are.

The official name of the FBI’s investigation was OKBOMB.  Although one of the perpetrators was caught shortly after the blast, millions of hours were spent on the investigation. Millions of pieces — several tons, in fact — were collected and tens of thousands of people had a hand in solving the case.

Twenty three children — one of them then-unborn — lost at least one parent. Everyone’s life was forever changed and would never be the same. No way.

But shortly after the horrific act, the Federal Employees Education and Assistance fund pledged to those children full-ride scholarships to the school of their choice. Twenty three years and $1.3 million later FEEA, with a lot of help from federal workers, retirees and some very generous outsiders, made good on that promise.

Steve Bauer, FEEA’s then-executive director, spent more than 20 years dealing with the survivors, sometimes bailing them out of trouble or depression to get their degrees.  Sometimes he talked them off an emotional cliff.  He was “SuperDad” for a long, long time.

Many of us, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, siblings can imagine, if only a tiny bit, what the Oklahoma City fed families went through.  But only a little. We honor them — the dead, maimed and survivors — once a year, which is fine.  But for them this is a 24/7 life-altering memory that will never, ever, go away.

Although they could have chosen any school, anywhere, regardless of tuition, many of the “kids” decided to stay close to home, often to be near relatives, parents and friends. Many, although they had a shot at becoming lawyers, doctors or almost anything else, chose the healing professions: Medicine, nursing and counseling.  These were jobs where they served ordinary people like their parents had done before their lives were cut short.

Ordinary government workers, and a lot of retirees,  including GEICO and Blue Cross-Blue Shield, came up with the money, and a lot of it, to make good on the college-for-all promise.

It is easy, and it feels good, to write a check then move on.  Running an emotional marathon for two-plus decades is not easy. And it was not, but it worked.

Not bad, as they say, for government work.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Amelia Brust

Medline, an Illinois-based company, produces more than 1.5 million of its ubiquitous Kuddle-Up blue and pink-striped hospital baby blankets each year.

Source: Quartz

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