MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK

Letters

Discussion

March 15, 2010

THE PEOPLE SPEAK: Pay attention: This is not kid stuff



About the time that the actions of suicide bomber Joe Stacks were being discussed in the hushed tones of personal tragedy, his brother-in-arms was wheeling across the United States with a plan to plug bullets into anyone in DC who happened to work for the government.

He succeeded, and last week, we saw John Patrick Bedell’s rampage spun the same way, shrouded in talk of mental illness, marijuana use, focusing on anything but true task at hand, which would be to compare both murders’ blogs and actually read what they say.

What they say sounds like Rush Limbaugh. What they say reads like Republican talking points:  Private property = Good. Government = Bad.  

But it’s easy to miss this common thread, if you ignore that huge chunk of radio spectrum fueling the hatreds of listeners already armed and rarin’ to go.  

Try it sometime: Find a Rush Limbaugh listener, offer him a brew, prompt him, and he’ll gladly tell you outright: “The government has it coming. They deserve what they get.”  

You’d think that by the 21st century, Americans would recognize that such talk is not kid stuff, that such talk is not a handful of white men blowing off steam, but the opening salvos of an armed assault.

And although our terrorists are clean-shaven and hide behind the Bible, rather than the Q’uran, the tactic is the same: Kill innocent people and call it heroic.

BEN KOELLER

Henryetta

Text Only
Letters