Final Roll Call for the First Generation of Truth Seekers (RIP VZ Lawton)

By Holland Vandennieuwenhof

The documentary A Noble Lie: Oklahoma City 1995 was released in December of 2011, the culmination of sixteen years of active resistance to the official story of the Oklahoma City bombing. The filmmakers dedicated two years of their lives to production, pouring every spare hour and spare dollar into making sure that the truth tellers’ story was told. If anything, A Noble Lie is a testament to the strength of the truth, the weakness of the lie and the will of whatever forces govern this plane to see evil exposed. But that was nothing compared to the long years in the wilderness the truth seekers faced from day one. We were just privileged to tell their story. As for justice, well that is an ideal we can strive for, and should. But the very fact that these atrocities occur tells us that justice is fickle, elusive and pinned down perhaps only by whatever the next world holds for us.

And with that we note with honor the recent death of V.Z. Lawton, a survivor of the bombing and a man who resisted the herd impulse to ignore his own eyes and ears in the face of authority. V.Z., 81 years old, passed away on July 23, 2012 after succumbing to cancer. Few men can say that they have been truly tested. Fewer still can say that they prevailed. V.Z. did both many times, and cracked jokes in-between.

V.Z. faced his mortality with a determination and hope that still shone from his eyes, and with a lack of fear that defined his presence on this earth. He had confronted death before. On April 19, 1995, seventeen years ago, V.Z. was sitting at his desk in the office of Housing and Urban Development in the A.P. Murrah Federal Building when the structure began to shake, the lights went out and something fell from the ceiling fell and struck him in the head, knocking him out cold. When he regained consciousness, he saw that the floor had collapsed to within inches of his desk. He stood over the stilled maelstrom below, half the building lie in ruins, crushed bodies beneath. He turned around and immediately went to the aid of his injured co-workers. He guided, carried and led them down several flights of stairs and busted open a warped steel door with his shoulder. After getting checked out at the hospital, he began walking home. He picked glass out of his body for months.

"Government complicity in the OKC Bombing and the 9/11 attacks has been proven not only by the obstruction of justice but by the use of terrorist dupes, be they willful dupes or not. And by all indications, these actions continue. Apparently some have failed, others will not..."

Key to the Truth in Oklahoma
4.19.95 and 9.11.01

by Holland Van den Nieuwenhof

I
Oklahoma seems to attract more attention in the news than seems due to your typical Great Plains State such as Kansas or Nebraska or North Dakota. I once asked a visitor from North Dakota if anything had ever happened in his state since being reasonably informed on current events and history, I was unaware of that state ever making it into a national headline.