Monday, July 29, 2006; Posted: 11:25 a.m. (CDT)
For six months now, a special traveling exhibit, "The Enemy Within, Terror in America," has been teaching visitors to the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum the history of terrorist attacks in our nation. However, you only have a few more days to view it. The exhibit leaves for its next stop this Saturday. KSBI-TV's Kealey McIntire took one final tour through the exhibit and tells us how it explores the more than 230 years of hatred and terror this country has encountered on its own soil.
Ten-year-old Veronica Santana and her family traveled from Texas to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.
"I've always wanted to see it and finally the day has come," said Santana.
Santana came solely to learn about the bombing. However, since February the exhibit, "The Enemy Within, Terror in America," has been teaching visitors about all terrorist activity that's taken place in American history.
The exhibit begins in the 1700s when the British wanted to kidnap George Washington and kill his crew. It also teaches everything from the WWI era, homegrown terrorist groups, militia extremists, and it ends with what the U.S. is doing now to protect our homeland.
If you haven't seen it yet, time is limited. The exhibit leaves for its next stop August 6.
The museum's Marketing Director Nancy Coggins tells us it's been a hit over the last six months.
"We've had a really great response with middle school and high school students," said Coggins, "even college students coming through and the general public have been saying, 'Wow, that's stuff I didn't know.'"
Oklahoma City has its own legacy that will travel along with the exhibit from city to city: it's a firefighter's helmet belonging to a firefighter who helped in the actual Oklahoma City Bombing, and it states, "We will never forget."
"It's very neat, we've very excited to be able to continue to reach our mission, which is teaching the impact of violence and obviously this exhibit goes a long way in doing that," says Coggins.
For Santana and her family, that's exactly the lesson they learned.
"It's a really good history lesson about it, to know what happened to the people, what happened to the place," said Santana.
"The Enemy Within" is the first in a series of three national exhibits the museum will display in the coming months.
The exhibit is located in the second floor of the Oklahoma City National Museum, admission is free with general Memorial Museum admission. Admission to the Memorial Museum is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and $6 for students.
