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Oklahoma City Leaders Gather To Support Paris, Beirut After Terrorist Attacks

French and Lebanese flags fly at the Oklahoma City National Memorial on Tuesday.
Jacob McCleland
/
KGOU
French and Lebanese flags fly at the Oklahoma City National Memorial on Tuesday.

Religious leaders gathered in Oklahoma City on Tuesday to honor the victims of terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut.

The interfaith vigil was held under the Survivor Tree at the Oklahoma City National Memorial as La Marseillaise, the anthem of the French Republic, was sung in front of French and Lebanese flags flapping in the wind.

Eric Sundby, the president of the Holocaust Remembrance and Restitution Foundation, said Oklahoma City knows the turmoil, confusion, heartache and anger that Paris feels right now. He said Paris, like Oklahoma City, will get back up and do better than it was doing before.

“Paris will not accept any more these intolerable and disgusting crimes against humanity,” Sundby said. “Paris will fight back just as they did during the occupation of France by the Nazi Reich. Paris and France will never die.”

Following the vigil, participants signed a banner that will be sent to the mayor of Paris and the French parliament.

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Jacob McCleland spent nine years as a reporter and host at public radio station KRCU in Cape Girardeau, Mo. His stories have appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, Here & Now, Harvest Public Media and PRI’s The World. Jacob has reported on floods, disappearing languages, crop duster pilots, anvil shooters, Manuel Noriega, mule jumps and more.
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