April 19, 1995, on our minds as Woodward digs out

April can be a rough month.

Emergency responders from miles around swarmed in after a tornado slammed through Woodward last weekend. Some of these same emergency responders flooded into Oklahoma City 17 years ago after terrorists bombed the Murrah Federal Building and killed 168 people, many of them children. Our heart still cries for their families.

We cannot let April 19 pass without a nod to these men and women who go where the rest of us dare not go, do what we cannot manage and see what we could not bear. Firefighters, law enforcement agents, emergency medical crews, search and rescue teams of humans and their animal partners go where they are needed, when they are needed, and more often than not without being asked.

My husband – full disclosure here: he is a retired firefighter – has an art print by Katherine Huggins, who for a time was affiliated with Oklahoma State University Fire Service Training. The drawing is of an eagle. Embedded in its outstretched wing is the image of a firefighter in full bunkout gear.

The print says: “To those who fight for it, life has a flavor the protected never know.”

I think of Katherine’s drawing, and the verse, when a soldier heads to war, when an emergency siren sounds, when tragedy strikes and the men and women who have dedicated their lives to saving us, protecting us and helping us, rush to their posts and to our aid.

Everyday people can be heroes. We see that in the aftermath of tragedy and catastrophe. Thanks to our heroes, Oklahoma, though forever scarred, is moving on from the horrific bombing that left a hole in our state capital and a hole in our hearts on April 19 - 17 years ago.

Thanks to the heroes at Woodward, whether a rescuer in uniform, a country star like Larry Gatlin taking the stage and reaching out with his song or a neighbor offering a hand, that community’s storm survivors, too, will move on. It’s going to take awhile.

April is a rough month.

Contact J.B. at jbittner05@gmail.com.

Woodward tornado survivors need support, not scams

I didn’t grow up in Woodward, Okla. I moved there as a young adult to be editor of a local newspaper. I married one of her sons and the community welcomed me and let me call her my home. Half my life has been spent there. My family is there still. Now tragedy and devastation, brought on by a massive tornado, have knocked my adopted hometown to her knees. And, 150 miles away, it’s ripping my heart out of my chest to see her pain, her loss, her despair. Our friends and neighbors are trying to salvage rain-soaked wedding pictures and keepsakes that can’t be replaced. They are picking up, cleaning up, clothing their children and helping themselves. They will get through this - together. Because they are tough and they're strong and they have faith, and each other. But today – before Woodward has even had a chance to bury her dead – we hear that crooks and thieves are preying on her people’s misfortune and confusion. People impersonating federal disaster workers are contacting Woodward tornado victims and soliciting money – lying that it’s a part of the process. I can’t even put into words what that makes me want to do. Woodward is a strong, independent community of good, honest, hard-working people. Woodward, Okla., is the heart of the oilfield and the wind industry. Much of the world’s iodine is extracted from the earth there, just north of town. This community’s people are farmers and ranchers, educators, professionals, public servants and manual laborers. They are Hometown, America. They don’t ask for anything and they are ready to give and give and give. Be at Woodward when a child is lost or a house burns or a family needs a roof or a meal or a gift for a child at Christmas. You will know in an instant you have been allowed in to a special place. This is a community that doesn’t know how to take. And now, after Mother Nature has taken so much, shameless people with no conscience are swooping in at the town’s weakest moment and trying to take the little bit its storm victims have left. A country singer from Woodward crooned a few decades back that the people in Northwest Oklahoma are the salt of the earth. Heck, I don’t even know what that means. But I know it’s a good thing. And those good people are battered and hurting. They are looking back on huge losses and looking ahead to enormous struggle. We can’t take back what has changed their world, but we can help them through it. If your heart calls you to donate to Woodward’s tornado victims, do it through a reputable organization, like your church or your civic club or the American Red Cross or the Salvation Army. If you donate through a relief organization make sure you designate the money is intended for the tornado victims in Woodward County and Northwest Oklahoma. Bank of Western Oklahoma in Woodward, 580-254-5525, is overseeing a tornado relief fund to take monetary donations. But if you or anyone you know is even thinking about reaching out to these folks in a way that is anything less than charitable, honest, helpful and sincere, let me paraphrase the video that thunders across the JumboTron at Boone Pickens Stadium when our Oklahoma State Cowboys take the field. If you hurt my homefolks, I’m coming for you. And Hell’s ridin' with me.