Word: oklahomas
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...same time, however, this sort of all-too-easy anti-terrorist speak only serves to muddle our understanding of what went on in Oklahoma City. We must ask ourselves in the first place: Ought there to be legislation designed especially for crimes of this sort? And if so, is it reasonable for Congress to draft this legislation in the throes of national outrage over the bombing...
Everyone from President Clinton to Senator Dole is cashing in on the tragic events of Oklahoma. They are turning the bombing into an occasion for meditating on the (shattered) American dream, rather than an opportunity for carrying out a substantive evaluation of what happened at Oklahoma City, and why. To be sure, that is the role of the courts, and we should expect to hear much about the bombing--O.J.-style--in the years to come. Yet, the government has already proved itself incapable of simply letting the judiciary handle this matter. At the very least, the legislatures should meddle...
None of this is meant to diminish in the least the magnitude of the human tragedy at Oklahoma City. The images of that day will forever be ingrained in the national consciousness: limbs and lives--and most terrifying of all, babies--strewn about in a smoldering pile of death. There is not, nor will there ever be, a bill or verdict powerful enough to undo the spectacular crime committed in Oklahoma City. But it is naive and irresponsible for our media and our political leaders to fail to address the substantive reasons for the bombing, rather than dwell...
...inquiry into the genesis of the bombing must begin with a re-consideration of the events at Waco two year ago. As evidenced by the fact that the Oklahoma bombers chose to carry out their attack on the second anniversary of the FBI raid on the Branch Davidians, Waco was a formative moment in the unfolding of the sort of hatred and fear of the federal government that came to a head in the Oklahoma bombing...
...walks away from the Kelley article with the strong sense that Waco was not a minor federal snafu, but a watershed in American religious and political history. One walks away also with the beginning of an understanding of why the Oklahoma bombers conceived of their sinister plan in the first place. The heavily armed militias that are becoming ever more popular in this country do not simply fashion a delusional vision of the abuses of federal power. Waco proves that their seemingly outlandish claims are not entirely without grounding...