Commentary - Mar 27, 2004 - Printable Version
- 1/31/01: Somewhere Over Middle America
by Mark Faulk (Author's note: This is an editorial written four days after the fatal plane crash that took the lives of two Oklahoma State University basketball players and eight members of the OSU athletic department family. On the eve of OSU earning their first trip to the Final Four since that tragic event, it seems appropriate to print it now. Good luck, Cowboys, and all OSU fans, you certainly deserve your time in the sun.)
It's 3:00 PM, Jan. 31st, 2001, and I'm on my way to New York from Oklahoma City. My daughter, Rachel, a sophomore at Oklahoma State University, is at Gallagher-Iba Arena, attending a memorial service for the young men who lost their lives in a plane crash four days earlier, including a good friend of hers, sophomore Nate Fleming. My thoughts are with her, and the thousands of other students attending the service. At that exact moment, her father is flying somewhere over Middle America. The irony is not lost on me.
I look out the window and see the clouds below. They look as if they would provide a soft cushion for the plane if needed, but I know it's not true, just as it wasn't true in Denver last Sunday. I've never been a nervous flyer, but for the first time, I feel fear and apprehension every time time the plane dips and jerks, and my heart jumps when the landing gear descends under me with a loud clunk. Never have I been so relieved to land safely. I say a prayer of thanks and call my daughter as soon as I'm in the terminal, just to let her know I'm okay.
Life is precious, and I can't begin to offer words of comfort for those who lost their loved ones, just as I'm at a loss to find the right words to comfort Rachel. Andre Williams said that Nate would ask his teammates to "get him a ticket", in other words, to blow out the other team so that he would get a chance to play. Well, Nate, fellow teammate Daniel Lawson, and others who lost their lives that day, got their tickets, and are in a better place for it. As for those left behind, if adversity makes us stronger, than the people of Oklahoma may be the strongest people in America. Add this sad event to the Murrah Building bombing and the May 3, 1999 tornado, and we have survived more tragedy in the last few years than most see in a lifetime.
My prayers are with you, and to Rachel and my family, I'll see you soon. I only wish everyone could say the same.
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1/31/01: Somewhere Over Middle America (Mark Faulk, Mar 27, 2004)
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