Okla.
Bomb Victim's Dad Speaks Out
By
KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Bud
Welch, whose daughter was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, has
every reason to hate Timothy McVeigh. Instead, he is traveling the
country, preaching against the death penalty and calling for
forgiveness for McVeigh.His crusade has taken him before Congress
and audiences across the country. On Thursday, it took him to
Terre Haute, home of the federal prison where McVeigh sits in a
cell, awaiting his execution on May 16.Everywhere Welch goes, the
61-year-old gas station owner delivers the same message: ``There's
no healing from killing people.''It is much different from how he
felt at the time of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building, the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil. The 168
people killed included Julie-Marie Welch, a Spanish interpreter
for the Social Security Administration (news - web sites).``Julie
was my best friend, my pal, my sidekick. We hung out together all
the time,'' Welch said.Welch felt only rage and sought only
vengeance toward McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the two men convicted
in the bombing. ``I just wanted them fried,'' he said in an
interview.For weeks, he drank heavily to numb the pain so he could
sleep at night. His pack-and-a-half cigarette habit went to three
packs a day. This went on for nearly a year. One day, hungover and
standing near the bombing site, he vowed to change.He brought his
drinking under control. He quit smoking in 1998. Most of all, he
started talking about forgiveness. And as news of his stance
spread, people wanted to hear him.Welch recalled television
footage of Bill McVeigh, the bomber's father. ``I could see quite
a large man who was stooped in grief. I could see the pain in his
eye,'' Welch said. `I recognized the pain because I was going
through it.''Welch was invited to speak in upstate New York and
allowed a nun to arrange a visit with Bill McVeigh and his
daughter Jennifer. As the two men discussed Bill McVeigh's garden,
they found common ground. The two Irishmen had been raised
Catholic.Welch couldn't take his eyes off a picture of Timothy
McVeigh hanging on a wall. ``I said, God, what a good-looking kid,''
Welch recalled.A tear formed in Bill McVeigh's eye.``What I found
that morning in western New York was a bigger victim than myself,''
Welch said. He put his arms around Jennifer McVeigh and hugged
her.``I said, honey, the three of us are in this for the rest of
our lives,'' Welch said.Later that night, Welch sobbed.``It was
like all of this tremendous weight had been removed from my
shoulders,'' Welch said. ``I never felt closer to God than I did
at that moment.''Executing McVeigh would only hurt more people,
Welch said: ``We're going to victimize another family now, people
who are innocent.''Welch said relatives of some of McVeigh's other
victims probably resent his message of forgiveness. About 250
people who were injured or lost loved ones in the bombing have
told the government they want to see McVeigh take his last breath.
As a result, the government is considering a closed-circuit TV
broadcast of the execution by lethal injection. ``They think they'll
get some type of healing,'' Welch said. ``There's nothing about
killing that's going to help them.'
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