Fifteen years ago today, Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P.Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma CIty, killing 168 innoncent Americans. As terrible as McVeigh’s act was, I fear that there are lessons that we as a nation have refused to learn. Our collective refusal to do so imperils our security and our ability to clearly define and address terrorist threats both within and without. Our ignorance of and inability to admit to the threat of domestic terrorism only proves how little we’ve learned over the years.
First, Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist, every bit as much as any swarthy, bearded Islamofascist. McVeigh allowed his hatred of government and the perceived superiority of his beliefs to color and justify a heinous act of murder that snuffed out 168 lives and ruined those of scores more. Despite McVeigh’s protestations, no one deserves to die, particularly when someone else is making that decision. This was not “war”, and the 168 innocent lives that McVeigh snuffed out were not “collateral damage”. This was murder, politically-motivate violence directed against innocent women and children who should have had no part in McVeigh’s personal war. This was 9.11 BEFORE 9.11…and yet how often do we remember it that way?
Second, McVeigh was in 1995 what we’d called a “teabagger” today. Those of you who think it fashionable to parade around carrying weapons and signs peddling ignorance and hatred are McVeigh’s kin 15 years removed. No, you may not be lighting a two-minute fuse in front of a federal office building, but you know full well that there are people among you capable of doing exactly that. Your willingness to embrace those who would advocate violence as a legitimate tool of dissent only demonstrate how little you truly understand what America is about.
Real Patriots don’t demean, insult, and focus on destroying those they disagree with. Real Patriots understand that dissent is the lifeblood of a healthy democracy. Real Patriots understand that no one is talking about taking away their liberty, their health care, or their guns.
(By the way, isn’t it interesting how these issues all burst to the forefront once there was an African-American in the Oval Office??)
If members of today’s Tea Party had even the barest grasp of history, they’d understand that we have two choices: we can move forward together and work toward solving our problems, or we can fail separately. I’ll leave it to you to figure which option most of the Tea Party prefers.
