redbuds abud

When the redbuds bloom, I think of the Oklahoma City bombing. They're blooming, too, on the site where 126 people were killed by a homegrown terrorist 21 years ago. I was there on the April 19 anniversary when memorial redbuds were planted, doing a story with Sasha Nyary and Derek Hudson for Life. In search of the militia culture that created people like bomber Timothy McVeigh, Ed Barnes, then at Time, found his way to the Ozarks and to Frank Martin, editor of the West Plains Daily Quill  in Missouri. He introduced me to Frank. I then did a story about Frank for the long dead George magazine, rediscovered the Ozarks, where I grew up, and bought an old gas station. This is Frank and Dianne Martin's redbud tree, as a storm rolls across the land. Full circle.