169 American men women and children killed by who? Hizballah? Hamas? The Red
Army Faction? The assumption when the bomb exploded in Oklahoma city was that it
was another international terrorist attack by Arab extremists. As we know, a young
American Gulf War veteran sits on death row, convicted of murder, utter brutality
in the form of domestic terrorism. Tim McVeigh believes he is a true American, a
"Patriot" fighting for freedom. We see him for what he really is, a murderer
and American terrorist.
"The Patriot movement is a potpourri of the
American right, from members of the Christian Coalition to the Ku Klux Klan--people
united by their hatred of the federal government. Patriots come from all regions
of the country and all walks of life. Among them are real estate agents, preachers,
commodities traders, elk ranchers, electricians...," soldiers and police officers.*
"They include tax protesters, millennialists, survivalists, populists, freemen,
constitutionalists, neo-Nazis, Skinheads, Klansmen, Identity believers, Christian
Reconstructionists, secessionists, militant abortion foes, radical anti-environmentalists,
and gun enthusiasts. They all share a few characteristics: they are overwhelmingly
white, almost entirely Christian, and predominantly male. And they are bitterly disappointed
in what America has become."* The word patriot is used because that is
the single label claimed by all the varied elements of the movement.
"These
dedicated patriots advocate noting less than the dismantling--by force if
necessary--of the entire US government, and the repudiation of many Constitutional
rights. They rage against the "New World Order," but the old world order
they seek to revive is the one in which women could not vote and blacks were not
citizens. Our nation's founders created a Constitution that encourages us to keep
a watchful eye on those in power, and we improve our government when we view it with
a healthy dose of skepticism. To demand reform is patriotic. To abandon the path
of democracy is not."--Joe Roy (Southern Poverty Law Center)
* False Patriots: The Threat of Antigovernment Extremists. Southern Poverty
Law Center. 1996.
"I love my country but fear my government."
"... Arms
like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve
order to the world as well as property. The balance of power is the scale of peace."
-- Thomas Paine
"Where the people fear the government you have tyranny.
"Where the government fears the people, you have liberty."
"The
tyrants who ordered the assault on the Weavers and Waco should be tried and executed
as traitors." --Bo Gritz, Survivalist Leader
"Expect more
bombs." --Bob Fletcher, Militia of Montana
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