9:03 a.m., The West Gate of Time. The Oklahoma City National Memorial is a place of beauty and serenity, built up in the space where the Alfred P. Murrah federal building once stood. It is not a place only for remembering death and destruction, but the hope and optimism that arose in the hours and days following the event. “…war is destruction while universal peace is construction; war is death while peace is life; war is rapacity and bloodthirstiness while peace is beneficence and humaneness; war is an appurtenance of the world of nature while peace is of the foundation of the religion of God; war is darkness upon darkness while peace is heavenly light…”Abdu’l-Bahà