04/23/2026
Informational post:
This week 31 years ago, something horrible happened within our country. Timothy Mcveigh blew up a Federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. While the events were horrific and many people died, something beneficial came out of this experience.
Francine Shapiro, the developer of EMDR, was contacted to help survivors, EMS, and families deal with the tragedy which had occurred. Francine was able to find nearly 100 mental health providers from around the country to come and provide free services to these individuals.
This was the initial stage of the development of the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Program (EMDR/HAP). Over the last 30 years, HAP has been able to train more than 40,000 clinicians in EMDR and provide services all over the world. In 2002, the organization rebranded their name to Trauma Recovery/Humanitarian Assistance Program (TR/HAP) while focusing on the organization’s Missions and Values.
I am proud to have been trained by and be a part of this organization.
31 years ago, as a 7th grader in middle school, I wrote a poem. As young and as far away as I was from Oklahoma City, this event affected me. And my young mind didn’t know how to comprehend it all… so, I wrote a poem.
Little did I know that as an adult I would be helping people over come their own personal struggles with a technique that was utilized during the event which prompted me to write the poem.
Title: Terror in the Streets
Big, bad, black bombs
Burst buildings, hearts, and blobs.
Tourists, tick, tumbling children
Screaming out in horrifying pain.
People watch, trickle tears
How dare you bring out all those fears!
Trembling terrors tear tender hearts
Treacherous, ticking, time bombs.
For those who died,
Children cry.
How dare you take lives!
Old and young weren’t there to die.
Older ones were helping others,
Younger ones were playing.
Some were mothers,
Some were laying.
Finally frantic tears fade.
Now, there’s a park made.
Published in the Fields of Gold: The National Library of Poetry in 1996
