ON THE STREET

The Southeast Missourian asked people for their thoughts about the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City last week.

Lisa Nolan:

"I feel that it's a shame that they took innocent victims to prove a point. Our government definitely needs to find them and do something about it. There have been other bomb threats to other federal buildings, so I don't think they singled out Oklahoma City."

Peter Yaremko:

"It may be their way of letting us know that they are extremely unhappy with our country's foreign policy. Things like this are easy to do in an open society as the United States. After this, we might find that we need to have a balance of more order and less freedom."

David Barklage:

"I hope they find those responsible for it, that justice is swift and something can be done in the future that changes the attitudes of people who think that this is the way you get policy changed, because you don't. There is no objective to it other than indiscriminate killing of people."

Doug Richards:

"I think it's symbolic of things that could happen in the future and how vulnerable we really are to this type of attack. It shows how easily it can happen. I hope it would not happen again, but we live in such a free society in the United States that, unfortunately, this type of thing could be repeated."

Lisa Wilson:

"I think it's a great tragedy, but I'm glad to see people are pulling together. It's a shame that we have to have something like this to pull us together as a country. We need to be prepared, but there's always room for improvement. We're always going to have surprises in life."