DALLAS — When people gather this weekend to mark the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the deadliest act of homegrown terrorism in U.S. history, one survivor will purposely choose to stay away. The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum is not for him.
“People who were in the bombing, it’s traumatizing to go there,” said survivor Stan Mayer. “And it will never be a peaceful, wonderful place. It can’t be.”
Mayer worked on the third floor of the Journal Record Building, home to the State Historic Preservation Office, at the corner of Sixth Street and Robinson Avenue, across from the federal building. He remembers looking out the window and thinking that it was an odd place for someone to park a Ryder truck. He turned from the window when the truck exploded…