Domestic terrorism: New trouble at home
On Sept. 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks that devastated our nation, a man crashed his car into a building in Davenport, Iowa, hoping to blow it up and kill himself in the fire. No national newspaper, magazine or network newscast reported this attempted suicide bombing, though an AP wire story was available. Cable news (save for MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann) was silent about this latest act of terrorism in America. Had the criminal, David McMenemy, been Arab or Muslim, this would have been headline news for weeks. But since his target was the Edgerton Women’s Health Center, rather than, say, a bank or a police station, media have not called this terrorism — even after three decades of extreme violence by anti-abortion fanatics, mostly fundamentalist Christians who believe they’re fighting a holy war.
This sort of thing happens with greater frequency than any of us realize- though the reason we aren’t aware of it is that the Mainstream Media simply doesn’t tell us about it. Remember the “When an attractive White girl disappears, it’s national news…but when an African-American girl disappears, well, who cares?” scenario? Same theory, different story. The sad truth is that, if you believe the Mainstream Media, White folks just simply aren’t capable of the same sort of heartless terrorist acts that swarthy, brown-skinned Islamofascists are. Muslimaniacs commit heinous, indiscrimate acts of hate-fueled violence. White folks defend their beliefs by committing heinous, indiscrimate acts of hate-fueled violence. Therefore, White folks get a free pass.
My, how quickly we’ve forgotten Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph, Paul Hill, Terry Nichols, and Timothy McVeigh. We’ve allowed the Mainstream Media to goad us into becoming so fixated on the threat of terrorist attacks for swarthy Muslimaniacs that we’ve completely ignored the reality that perhaps an even bigger threat faces us from people who look like we do.
You have a responsibility to protect your neighbor’s life, and to use force if necessary to do so. In an effort to suppress this truth, you may mix my blood with the blood of the unborn, and those who have fought to defend the oppressed. However, truth and righteousness will prevail. May God help you to protect the unborn as you would want to be protected.
- Rev. Paul J. Hill
No reasonable person would dispute the reality of the threat of terrorism from violent Islamofascist groups. One need look no further than 9.11 to confirm that fact. Unfortunately, we’ve allowed ourselves to become so heavily propagandized and conditioned to fear the Swarthy Evildoers, that we’ve almost completely ignored the reality of homegrown terrorism. Why? Perhaps because the Swarthy Evildoers just…well, they just LOOK like terrorists, don’t they? With the beards and their accents and their disturbingly evil right-to-left cursive script, their very bearing strikes fear into the hearts of good, God-fearing White Christian Americans. It’s almost as if we’ve convinced ourselves that it’s our patriotic duty to fear and suspect anyone who even “looks” Muslim…’cuz they could be ANYWHERE, don’tchaknow??
The threat of terrorism, whether homegrown or from without is hardly a new thing. Americans have been targets since long before 9.11. It’s just that 9.11 brought that reality home to us in such a dramatic, tangible, and barely-comprehensible fashion that we now think we know who and what we need to fear.
The problem, though, is that we’re only getting part of the story. There are extremists within our own borders, people who look just like you and me, who are every bit as willing to kill if it holds out the hope of advancing their narrow agenda. Folks like Randall Terry and Operation Rescue, for instance, are only too willing to engage in behavior up to, and including, the bombing of abortion clinics if it will, in their minds, advance their agenda. Terry, of course, will strongly deny any commitment to or inceitement of violence, but he has been more than happy to reap the rewards of abortion clinic bombings in the past. You can’t make an omelette unless you first break a few eggs, eh?
Since 1977, casualties from this war include seven murders, 17 attempted murders, three kidnappings, 152 assaults, 305 completed or attempted bombings and arsons, 375 invasions, 482 stalking incidents, 380 death threats, 618 bomb threats, 100 acid attacks, and 1,254 acts of vandalism, according to the National Abortion Federation.
Abortion providers and activists received 77 letters threatening anthrax attacks before 9/11, yet the media never considered anthrax threats as terrorism until after 9/11, when such letters were delivered to journalists and members of Congress.
After 9/11, Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups received 554 envelopes containing white powder and messages like: “You have been exposed to anthrax. … We are going to kill all of you.” They were signed by the Army of God, a group that hosts Scripture-filled web pages for “Anti-Abortion Heroes of the Faith,” including minister Paul Hill, Michael Griffin and James Kopp, all convicted of murdering abortion providers, and a convicted clinic bomber, the Rev. Michael Bray. Another of their “martyrs,” Clayton Waagner, mailed anthrax letters while a fugitive on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list for anti-abortion related crimes.
And don’t even get me started on racist, Right-wing militias….
Domestic terrorism is neither a new nor novel threat to our homeland’s security. The threat from within is arguably every bit as dire as that from the Swarthy Evildoers. It’s just that it’s easier to demonize and marginalize folks who “don’t look like us”.
Isn’t it about time you started to get the whole story? Fear the Swarthy Islamofascist Evidloers if you must. After all, some of those folks really do wish pain, suffering, and horrific death upon us. Nonetheless, we’re deceiving ourselves if we think that our biggest threat comes from Evil Brown People.
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE CAT LITTER, y’all!
