Oklahoma City Hoists New Flags on Fourth

Oklahoma City residents hoisted their red-white-and-blue flags into a bright blue sky on a Fourth of July that took on added meaning this year because of the bomb that tore apart the downtown federal office building.

“The pessimism and despair of April 19 are over,” Gov. Frank Keating told a crowd of thousands at the first of many Fourth of July ceremonies to honor the volunteers who helped after the bombing. It was the first time the flags at the state Capitol had been raised to full staff since the bombing.

At 9:02 a.m., the time of the explosion, members of military, law enforcement and relief groups raised clean new flags up 14 flagpoles on the south steps of the Capitol, accompanied by a drum roll and the roar of four F-16 fighters flying overhead.

Volunteers and rescue workers from California, Virginia, Maryland, Florida, Arizona and other states joined in the ceremonies.

Elsewhere, about 200,000 people gathered in Bristol, R.I., for the nation’s oldest continuous Fourth of July parade. Some people showed up as early as 3 a.m to stake out vantage points; by parade time, spectators were lined up 15 deep.

About 3,000 people marched, more than the entire population of Bristol in 1785, the first year of the celebration.

In Philadelphia, We the People 2000, a nonprofit, nonpolitical group, awarded its Philadelphia Liberty Medal to Sadako Ogata, the U.N. high commissioner responsible for the safety of more than 20 million refugees worldwide.

“You called some of your earliest settlers pilgrims. We would call them refugees,” Ogata said. “If it weren’t for the courage and initiative of the earliest refugees, would America be what it is today?”

History took a back seat to tradition of a sort at New York City’s Coney Island, where Edward Krachie choked down 19 1/2 hot dogs in 12 minutes to unseat the defending champion in the 80th annual holiday frankfurter-eating contest.

“At the moment right after, it was a little tough,” said the 6-foot-6, 350-pound Krachie, his stomach slightly unsettled.