Time: Fri Jul 18 16:03:52 1997
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Date: Fri, 18 Jul 1997 15:42:32 -0700
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From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: OKC-Eulogy: Wilburn (fwd)
<snip>
>
>--------------------------------------
>TEXT OF MEMORIAL BULLETIN
>--------------------------------------
>
>IN MEMORY OF
>GLENN DALE WILBURN
>November 2, 1950 - July 15, 1997
>
>SERVICES
>Thursday, July 17, 1997
>City Church
>10:00 a.m.
>
>OFFICIATING
>Dr. Larry Jones
>
>PALLBEARERS
>John Cash
>Richard Reyna
>Charles Key
>Lynn Scott
>Dennis Maley
>Bruce Shaw
>
>INTERMENT
>Rose Hill Burial Park
>Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
>
>UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
>Hahn-Cooke/Street & Draper
>Funeral Directors
>
>* * * * *
>
>TRANSCRIPT OF REMARKS BY DR. LARRY JONES:
>
>I've known Kathy Wilburn for probably 25 years and this message that I'm
>going to give this morning has been in the making since the Oklahoma City
>bombing. I want you to know that it is not a normal funeral message because
>before Glenn passed away, he and I talked. He had a lot to talk about. So
>I trust this morning that the message that you hear, that you will remember
>in your memory and mind that this is a message from Glenn Wilburn.
>
>A moment ago, we read from John that Lazarus, whom Jesus loved very much was
>sick and they sent for him. He waited a few days, but when he got there
>Lazarus had been buried. And Martha ran to him and she saw him and she
>said, "If you had just been here, our brother would not have died." And
>there's probably not anybody here who at some time or another has not had an
>experience where we've said, "Now Lord, if you had just been here, this
>wouldn't have happened." I'm sure there are people who have said, "Lord, if
>you had been at the Murrah Building on April 19, 1995 at 9:02 a.m., you
>wouldn't have let the bombing take place." How could an all-loving,
>all-knowing, and all-powerful God permit that to happen?
>
>Everybody has a whine. And the best line is that of Henry Lowery (?) who was
>a comedian and he learned that his son had been killed in France. He said,
>"In times like this, there are three courses a person can take. First you
>can become angry and you become bitter. Second, you can endeavor to drown
>your sorrows in drink. Or thirdly, they may turn to God."
>
>Well, Glenn became very angry. He had lost his two grandchildren, Chase and
>Colton. They were killed. I have worked in many, many disasters. I have
>been in earthquakes, I've been in famines, I've been in floods, I've been in
>many, many war scenes. And something I learned very quickly was after a
>disaster takes place, sometimes there is a disaster after the disaster that
>is just as painful.
>
>When Glenn realized that he was going to look into the Oklahoma City
>bombing, he said to Kathy, he said, "Honey, I want to talk to you about this
>because this is going to be really dirty." Kathy said, "Glenn, I know and
>accept the heat."
>
>I think it has best been said of Glenn's feelings by reporter J. D. Cash in
>his newspaper article where he said, "Glenn believed at least one of those
>involved in the Oklahoma City bombing conspiracy was a government agent or
>informant who was part of an operation by the ATF to entrap members of
>various white supremacist organizations. 'There is much more involved here
>than just executing Timothy McVeigh. There is the matter of bringing to
>justice all of those involved who have yet to be indicted. And then there
>is the matter of those in government who must answer for why they used my
>grandchildren and five other persons as bait for a fool-hearted sting
>operation. At some point I hope the facts about all of this will come out.
>And when my goals are better understood, then maybe people will better
>appreciate my methods.'"
>
>I went to an attorney, and I said, "Can you help me here? I'm not a
>lawyer." And he said, "Well, let me say a couple of things to you." He
>said, "Number one, there are good people in government, and under oath, they
>will tell the truth. And there will be some who, being human, will not tell
>the truth." But he said, "The truth will come out." But secondly he said,
>"The government should not try to suppress this case on technicalities. A
>government secure in what it had done should have no problem in giving full
>knowledge of what it did."
>
>People ask, "Why don't Glenn and Kathy just let the government do the
>investigating?" But you know, that's what they planned to do. And then
>right after the bombing, there was a small meeting and one of the mothers
>who had dropped off at the day care center said, "When I dropped my child
>off, I saw the bomb squad." That mother lost her son in the bombing.
>
>An attorney who was running an errand that morning, he saw the bomb truck
>and the trailer downtown. A private investigator en route to work saw the
>bomb squad. And a lady who worked near the Murrah Building looked out the
>window and she said to a Texas newspaper, "I saw the bomb squad and I said
>to a co-worker, 'I wonder what's going on here. Well, we'll probably find
>out soon enough.'"
>
>And then after the explosion, Glenn called downtown and asked, "Was there a
>memo sent out prior to the bombing on April 19th?" He was informed that
>there was not a memo sent out. He goes home, turns on the television, and
>two hours later on CNN, the head of that department in Washington, D.C.
>said, "Yes, a memo was sent out to federal offices because April 19th is a
>red-letter day for many groups."
>
>And then of course, Glenn learned that Timothy McVeigh was in Arizona when
>the bomb was supposed to be built. He also learned that Michael Fortier and
>his wife had no alibi for April 16th through the 21st.
>
>And then so many people said, "Just wait for the trial and everything will
>come out."
>
>There was not one person who saw Timothy McVeigh at the Murrah Building who
>was in that trial in Denver, Colorado. And the reason was, every single
>person who saw Timothy McVeigh saw somebody with him.
>
>Now, here is the question. Why do Americans not trust their government?
>Chief Justice Earl Warren said on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, "We
>may not know the whole story in our lifetime." And my question is, Why
>won't we know the whole story of the assassination of the President of the
>United States?
>
>My father-in-law and I watched Watergate day after day. And the classic
>statement was, when asked a question, "At that point in time, I can't
>remember what I said or what I heard."
>
>I just can't wait to hear somebody to stand up and say, "At that point in
>time, I lied. At that point in time, I covered-up."
>
>Well, Glenn and Kathy were not alone because there have been a minimum of 68
>radio, TV and newspapers who have come to their home and said, "We, too, are
>looking for the truth."
>
>You see, many people do not trust our government because on March 22, 1973,
>Richard Nixon said to his staff concerning Watergate, "I want you to
>stonewall." Less than a month later, he said to the press, "There will be
>no whitewash at the White House." And then he said in an interview after he
>was impeached [sic] and was out of office, these words: "When the President
>does it, that means it's not illegal."
>
>We don't want to become a nation as Alexander Solzhenitzen said of the
>former Soviet Union, "In our country the lie has become not just a moral
>category, but a pillar of the state."
>
>When Glenn and Kathy started their investigation, they were told, "Now,
>you're going to harm the trial in Denver." Friends stopped calling. One of
>their best friends, Jannie Coverdale, disagreed with them. And just about
>everything they did, they'd tape.
>
>And now stories are beginning to circulate. The stories are beginning to
>change. One story that changed was changed because at the end of Kathy's
>interview, that person said, "I am afraid of the bad guys, and I'm afraid of
>the FBI."
>
>If I'm not mistaken, we are living in the United States of America, and this
>frustrates me, what is taking place. Because you see, I spent considerable
>time in the Soviet Union. I was in Poland. I experienced the regime of
>Coceascu (sp?) in Romania. I got thrown out of Nicaragua. I got detained
>in Ethiopia. And I saw the phenomenal fear that those people are living
>under. And I am beginning to see that Americans are living under fear of
>their government. And I don't think that we should fear our government,
>nor should we fear each other. I thought that was what freedom was all
about.
>
>I think Glenn's attitude can best be characterized by Elliott Rozell (?) in
>his book, "The Town Beyond the Wall," as he talks about a Holocaust survivor
>and a concentration camp inmate. This is what he says in this book from the
>concentration camp. He said, "I want to blaspheme. I can't quite manage
>it. I go up against God, I shake my fist, I froth with rage. But it's
>still a way of telling God that He still exists and the shout becomes a
>prayer in spite of me."
>
>Kathy told me that she understood Glenn's anger. And before he passed away,
>we all agree, we know that stress and anger breaks down the immune system in
>the body and that it's very possible in this case that the load that Glenn
>Wilburn carried literally took him to the grave. It's like the old Russian
>proverb that says, "The mind talks to the body, and the body talks to the
>mind, and the end result is a fatal conversation."
>
>And so I said, "True, heart surgery may hurt, but it cures." I really
>believe with all my heart, when Watergate happened, if President Nixon had
>stood up and said, "Something very foolish has happened in my
>administration. And since the buck stops here, I'm going to take full
>responsibility and I apologize to the American people. And I assure you it
>will never happen again," Watergate would have gone away.
>
>There's an African proverb that goes like this: "The lies of many will be
>caught by the truth as soon as she rises up." And I guarantee you, when
>lies rise up, truth rides sometimes a fast horse.
>
>I really believe after the Oklahoma City bombing, if our government had
>stood up and said, "This is actually what happened...." I don't know all
>the story because they haven't told all the story. The truth did not come
>out in Denver. Had they said, "This is what happened...." I don't know if
>they had any foreknowledge. I am told that they did. "And we were trying
>to put people like this in jail. Something went wrong. And we apologize to
>Oklahoma City and to the nation. We're sorry for what happened. We want
>you to forgive us. And we work doubly hard so that it never happens again."
>
>Had THAT happened, I don't think we would be here today burying Glenn
Wilburn.
>
>You see, this man was an accountant. Two plus two equals four. If he had
>put on your tax return if he were doing it 2+2=5, there would have been a
>knock at his door and they would have said, "Mr. Wilburn, would you give us
>all of the papers that you have on Mr. So-and-so, all of the receipts.
>We're trying to investigate this. We think a mistake has been made." And
>Glenn Wilburn would have given everything over to them.
>
>Kathy and Edye, they worked at the IRS. They know the importance of truth.
>
>You see, Huxley said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you
>mad."
>
>As Glenn Wilburn began to find out the truth, it did make him mad. Glenn
>Wilburn was not a member of the militia. He was not of any
>white-supremacist group. He was not a member of the KKK or, to my
>knowledge, of any other group other than Glenn Wilburn was an unregistered
>member of the Happy Grandfathers' Club. He just loved to take his two
>grandboys down to Coit's to get a frosty rootbeer. He was Kathy's knight in
>shining armor. Glenn Wilburn was not a dumb okie.
>
>He believed the truth ____________ for our Lord said, "Ye shall know the
>truth, and the truth shall make you free."
>
>Have you ever stopped for one moment and realized that the ethical standard
>that George Washington put forth somehow got lost in history? When his
>father asked him who cut down the tree, he said, "Pa, you know I can't tell
>a lie. I cut it down with my hatchet." Now, if George Washington had said,
>"Pa, I don't know who cut down the tree," then they'd have to get a special
>investigator. Then they'd have to have hearings, and we'd have had to have
>committees.
>
>Feed The Children received over 30,000 letters during the bombing. My wife
>went through every single letter and card and reduced it down to 80 put
>together that we'll call "Circle of Love." I think what this little girl,
>whose name was Barbara, a fourth-grader, what she said, Glenn had in a
>letter. [indiscernible] "...A tear rolled down my cheek. I start to think
>of how the children ______. I start to ask God why He let them pass so
>suddenly, but then I stopped and said, I said to myself, 'God didn't do
>this. People on God's green earth did this sudden bomb.'" Then she says,
>"I drifted off to sleep."
>
>I want you to know that Glenn worked through his anger to God. I asked
>Kathy, I said, "What was the last thing you two did together?" And she
>said, "The last thing Glenn and I did together was pray, and he prayed
>first. Glenn prayed and he said, 'Lord, forgive me that I didn't become all
>that you wanted me to be.'"
>
>I can't help but be reminded of the scripture in II Corinthians 5:10 that
>says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each
>one of us may receive the things done in the body according to what he has
>done, whether it be good or whether it be bad." Ultimately truth will come
>out. When? We don't know.
>
>[indiscernible] The scripture says, when Jesus was coming to Lazarus, that
>Jesus wept. There are a lot of interpretations as to why he wept. Some say
>that he was a friend to the family, and he was. But someone else said this:
>he was weeping because he was getting ready to call Lazarus back from the
>next life to this life. A doctor of cancer said, we're not in the land of
>the living going to the land of the dying. We're in the land of the dying
>going to the land of the living. And en route, Jesus comforted Mary and
>Martha. And one of the things you always find about our Lord, he was always
>entering the circle of suffering of those he converted.
>
>[PERSONAL REMARKS TO THE FAMILY MEMBERS BY NAME]
>
>Whatever the answer as to the why there is evil and suffering in the world,
>this much is true. God took His own medicine. _________ When Jesus got to
>the tomb, he said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that liveth and
>believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."
>
>I want you to know Glenn is with Chase and Colton and with the Lord, and he
>is literally waiting on you.
>
>Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb. He said, "Loose him and let him go."
>But he did something else, for he said, "I am the resurrection and the
>life." Mary and Martha were also loosed.
>
>I'm not going to tell you that you're not going to cry, that you're not
>going to have hard days, that you're not going to ask why. But I do want to
>say this. ___________ We are loosed today because our Lord said, "You
>shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And so the
>spiritual truth will set you free.
>
>This is not the end. Some say death is a comma that leads to a deeper kind
>of life. And so we always come to the unanswered questions, the heartaches,
>the rejection, all the pains of life. When Jesus went to see Mary, he
>stepped in and said, "I am the resurrection and life. He that believeth in
>me shall never perish."
>
>I want you to know something. Jesus Christ has that last word and that's
>all we're going to say about it. Glenn became ill. Yes, he would like to
>have lived. But he was ready to go because he believed in Christ who died
>for his sins with simple childlike faith. He trusted him as his savior, and
>as he went through all his life, he knew that when it came down to it, Jesus
>Christ has and is the final answer.
>
>Let us pray.
>
>==========================================================================
>[End of Transcript of Eulogy at Glenn Wilburn's Funeral]
>==========================================================================
>
>
>
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