4.19.03 zealotry

Today is the tenth anniversary of the FBI attack against the Branch Davidian compound in Waco Texas. Twenty-five children and fifty adult community members died.

This attack happened while the civil rights of our citizenry were not under siege.

The real tragedy of Waco and of Ruby Ridge was located not only in the loss of human life, but in the illegal tactics of the government.

Both of these horrible events directly inspired the all-American patriot and Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh. He came home from war with medals and a deep, ideological hatred for what he saw as the duplicity of the war effort. He planned and executed a full-scale terror attack in Oklahoma City precisely because he wanted to martyr himself to the cause of freedom.

One hundred and sixty-eight people died, including nineteen children. Six hundred people were injured.

Circular logic, service and consequence, dead babies on the television screen, death sentences decided and executed by armed agents and militiamen. The courts of our nation sentenced McVeigh for his crimes. Why didn't the courts have more say in what happened before Oklahoma City?

I'm honestly frightened when I remember these events and think about the fact that we are not having a national debate about homeland security and the concerted efforts to restrict our rights.

If our government and our more zealous citizens can become mired in deadly, horrific terrorist strife in a time of peace, what will happen if the government has even more power? What will happen if our rights are eroded even further?

On a moral level, the slaughter of innocents is reprehensible regardless of who pulls the trigger or plants the bomb. One act of violence leads to another inexorably, and the politics of the combatant become irrelevant.

History offers up simple lessons. Totalitarian regimes are bad. Poverty leads to violence. Societies that offer liberty and equality along with economic stability have lower rates of crime and higher rates of joy.

The only practical thing to do now is to continue to speak out against terror of all kinds; to remember and recite the Bill of Rights; to demand that our consitutional protections are honored. Civil rights and civil liberties define this democracy and we as citizens need to stand united and build coalitions across our political differences.

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