Victims Everywhere

When I say that many have burned with the fires of injustices done to them, I’m not just referring to minorities (blacks, American Indians, etc.). Everyone is an actual or potential victim of injustice in this most violent and dangerous society in recorded history. What white, middle-class "salaryman" (as the Japanese refer to their cookie-cutter, dark-suited corporate clones (7)) does not squirm uneasily at the thought of being cut coldly from the cramped womb of American business? We all know that loyalty in the workplace is a thing of the past, and that earning a living is a dog-eat-dog affair, masked at most by a thin veneer of gentility. (8)

Hypocritical, Corrupt Leadership

Our so-called "leaders" spew platitudes of horror at the concept of violence (see Nancy Reagan’s "words of wisdom" at the beginning of this article), but their dismay is almost always directed at those who resort to actual physical violence. Violence, however, is a much more subtle concept that generally begins with well-hidden attacks (emotional abuse, pollution of the environment with poisonous chemicals, etc.) on those least able to defend themselves -- children, minorities, animals and the very Earth itself. Only when provoked beyond endurance do the victims fight back, often in self-destructive, kamikaze-style orgies. (9) The creators of the problem are generally well-removed (by virtue of their wealth and power) from the wrath of the wronged, and proceed to whine self-righteously about the general decline in "morality." My condemnation is a blanket one, applying to business, political, military and religious leadership. No one has clean hands! (10)

Instruments of Violence

Let’s talk about the "what" of American violence, i.e., the exact ways in which violence has manifested in America and spread throughout the world. I’m starting with this because if you’re as vicariously gore-drenched as I am, then you only react to the "good stuff" -- the blood and guts described as graphically as possible! We’ll talk later about the "who" of American violence because most of you won’t give a shit anyway.

The flag-waving U.S. of A. is among the world’s leading producers of murder and has been for centuries. As one writer recently observed:

"Homicide is an old American tradition. This country keeps producing theatrical new varieties of murderers -- the duelist, the gunslinger, the Indian fighter, the lynch mob, the vigilante, the assassin, the mafia hit man, the psycho killer, the serial killer, the disgruntled postal worker, the gangster, the gansta. And for each of those celebrated types, there are scores of more prosaic murderers who fit no category, ordinary people who simply lose it one day and kill somebody -- usually, statistics show, a relative or a friend." (11)

More specifically, only the Bahamas and Ecuador exceeded our homicide rate in a 1987 study by the World Health Organization. (12) In fact, we rank first among Western and other industrialized nations and have done so for as long as data have been available. Murderers have included such key leaders as President Andrew Jackson, Vice-President Aaron Burr and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, and Americans loved it! Even the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed violence when Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in a 1921 opinion: "A man is not born to run away."

We’re a nation of "true believers" (see section below on "Bible Thumpers"), and our fanaticism coupled with our technology has been exported worldwide. Would the vicious Arab-Israeli conflict (which some think may lead to the fabled biblical Armageddon) have happened if America had not joined with Great Britain to force creation of Israel in the 1940’s? Decades of Middle Eastern terrorism have served as examples for angry people elsewhere in the world. The result is explained succinctly in a recent Time article on the Tokyo subway nerve gas attack:

"The events in Tokyo were a clear warning to the world. Terrorism has taken a step across a threshold that security experts have been anticipating with dread for decades. It has been known that there are groups out there that are willing to kill at random. There is proof that they are able to use chemical weapons, and possibly biological and radioactive ones as well, that can destroy far more people than conventional bombs and bullets. Now that nerve gas has been used on ordinary citizens, it may possibly happen again: The fact that terrorists are copycats and hungry for publicity makes it a near certainty. With one act, the spectrum of danger has broadened into a threat more terrifying than ever before -- and one far more difficult for governments to forestall." (13)

In short, my point is that this event (with its potential for mushrooming into further random, apocalyptic mayhem) has shown the world that virtually any small group and even some well-motivated individuals can do the same or worse. None of this would likely have happened had America not shown the way by its actions and technology!

Impacts of Violence

Next let’s talk about the "who" of American violence, i.e., the vulnerable groups most impacted by our long, nasty history. Our three-hundred-year genocidal campaign against Native Americans, and a similar lengthy campaign to enslave and suppress millions of Africans, are both too well documented to need much repetition (14) In addition to what we do here, we also export our cultural pus. Most Americans are too indifferent to care much about the poisoning of countless Vietnamese by Agent Orange during our ill-fated war of extermination in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the killing of as many as 200,000 Iraqi soldiers and civilians in the Persian Gulf War, or the death and permanent crippling of hundreds of thousands by Union Carbide’s 1984 release of deadly gas in Bhopal, India.

Let’s focus instead on a group supposedly near and dear to our hearts -- our children. According to a recent article:

"The link between televised violence and desensitivity to acts of aggression is now supported by more than 200 studies that conclude exposure to televised violence is a contributing factor to subsequent criminal behavior.

... A child watches an average of 24 hours of television per week. By the seventh grade the average child will have witnessed 100,000 acts of violence and 7,000 murders on television. The surveys also conclude that the poorer a family, the more likely the television will be an unmonitored babysitter." (15)

The same article also made this pithy, factual observation:

"It has been cynically observed that the death of one person is a tragedy, while the death of thousands is but a statistic. The horrible fact is that nearly 50,000 children in the United States were shot to death from 1979 to 1991. The numbing exposure to murder as entertainment -- ranging from televised violence showing the use of force as standard and positive to video games like Mortal Kombat where victors rip the spinal cords from their adversaries -- contribute to rendering the loss of life meaningless." (16)

Thus it is obvious that American children are schooled in violence from their earliest years. They see it every day as entertainment and in real life. Our children are no better off than the pitied children of Northern Ireland. Indeed, Charles Manson’s dire warning that our children would be coming right at us is becoming ever more clearly accurate. "This is the lull before the crime storm," says Criminologist James Fox. "There is a tremendous crime wave by children coming in the next 10 years." (17) Do we care? Obviously not -- Americans continue to spend more on pets than education(18), and television, movie, video game and other entertainment violence continues unabated.

A recent article observed:

"...most important among social factors [in the creation of serial killers] may be America’s long-standing celebration of lawless violence. ... In such a culture, who should be surprised to find sexually repressed conformists acting out pent-up violent fantasies? Small wonder, too, that most killers come from poor backgrounds, adding a financial sense of worthlessness to their anger. In all respects, they know they have failed to live up to the wealthy, macho American ideal." (19)

In short, couple physical violence in entertainment and real life with other kinds of violence -- poverty, environmental pollution, sexual repression by "Bible Thumper" (see below) parents, etc. -- and the ultimate result is children who grow up violently abnormal, producing among other things the spate of serial and mass killings celebrated in hundreds of recent books, articles and movies. (20)

Bible Thumpers

Do Bible Thumpers (a.k.a. fundamentalists or "fundies") do any better than the rest of us poor sinners in this world of woe? No fuckin’ way, dudes and dudettes! As put so cogently in a recent editorial:

"Today, radicals again are threatening the stability of our republic. But this time the danger may be worse, because many Americans don’t take it seriously. The ë90’s extremists may seem less frightening because they are better dressed than their ë60’s counterparts. Instead of scaring people with guns and black leather jackets, as the Black Panthers did, today’s radicals reassure Americans by wearing suits and carrying Bibles." (21)

Reckless radicals such as conservative author/commentator Rush Limbaugh, fundie TV preacher Jerry Falwell and fundie radio preacher Bob Larson attack Democrats, Catholics, Mormons, Pagans, gays, feminists, environmentalists and everyone else outside the white-bread "norm" of their narrow world (22). Indeed, as these examples show and as I concluded in an earlier essay, the most hate-filled individuals I have ever met have been fundies acting under their "God’s law." (23)

In short, religionists have proven to be not one whit better than the rest of us. I have no idea whether there is a god, many gods or no god. I suspect that everyone else is in the same boat and wish we could all be less dogmatic about the subject! (However, I do enjoy delving into unusual points of view, especially branches of so-called "dark" occultism linked to the writings of horror author H.P. Lovecraft.) (24)

Will It Get Any Better???

That depends on what you mean by "better." You see, some Americans think that more violence is "better." Like the infamous "Full Force Frank,"(25) some people groove on serial killers, mass murderers and worse (26).

It’s also important to bear in mind that studies show that about three percent of adult U.S. males are sociopaths. (27) Further and more generally, the Second Law of Thermodynamics indicates that natural systems tend toward increasing decay/disorder (entropy) with only pockets of temporary order created by external energy. (28) Why should human "society" prove to be any more moral than Mother Nature, who kills and eats her own?

My recommendations: be as kind as conditions allow, and learn to relax, while watching for those few who might be crazier than you. It ain’t gonna get any better, and you just might as well get used to it. Mother Nature will always have the final say! In fact, if the situation continues to worsen, you too might be driven to fire another sour cherry into the American pie....

Postscript - October 19, 1995

Here are some afterthoughts exactly six months after the Oklahoma City bombing and completion of the foregoing article. I was appalled initially at the self-serving mewlings of public figures about Oklahoma City, although thankfully the volume declined as the public’s short memory caused trendy media vampires to feed elsewhere. (29) Few had learned that the 1993 World Trade Center bombing portended worse to come. (30) It still didn’t register with many that Oklahoma City might be both actual and symbolic retribution for the evil we’ve done throughout the world. (31)

Particularly disgusting was the sanctimonious Sunday religious ceremony led by President Clinton after the Oklahoma City blast, with a maudlin sermon by The Reverend Billy Graham. (32) The Reverend Graham said the heinous nature of the crime will be overcome by the goodness of Oklahomans. (33) If American conduct after the blast is any indication of the future, I doubt it. (34)

It’s ironic that Graham is the "granddaddy" of religious funding scamsters! (35) As much as any American religionist, Graham has been a student of evil and human suffering (or "theodicy" as it’s known to theologians). Yet he had nothing for us but the usual platitudes that fail to answer the ancient question: "If, as monotheistic religions proclaim, God is good, God is omnipotent and God is omniscient, how can bad things happen?" (36) Graham’s rant, as much as any other I’ve heard, simply demonized anything that seemed threatening. (37) I had hoped that someone would lead me beyond my original conclusions, but I was disappointed as usual.

Another interesting development is that the search for the bomber(s) may turn out to be yet another example of the foolishness of a police and news media "rush to judgment." (38) Timothy McVeigh, the prime suspect in the bombing, has been shown to have been 800 miles away from where key government witness Michael Fortier said he was at a crucial time. (39) Conspiracy theories involving many groups seem to be proliferating in magazines, rightwing conferences on the Internet and elsewhere. (40)

I’d summarize developments since Oklahoma City by saying that my original conclusions hold. Religious and political bullshit artists continue to pontificate, the media enthuses over every trendy fad, and disaster looms ever closer as we follow mindlessly our "macho, warrior God." (41) This much is certain: minorities of all kinds must become more vigiliant (and probably more militant!) as fundies and other reactionaries become more brutally repressive and corrupt. (42) One can only guess where it will all end.

RESOURCES

Okay, kiddies, besides the background materials identified in footnotes, here are some places for purchasing further reading materials and tapes as well as "tools of the violent trades":

Books, Zines and Tapes

AES-NIHIL PRODUCTIONS, 7210 Jordan Ave., No. B-41, Canoga Park, CA 91303. Catalog is $8.00 ($12.00 foreign), but price is refundable with orders of $50.00 or more. Excellent source for videos, cassettes and photocopies of rare publications dealing with Manson, The Process and many other "dark" counterculture subjects.

AK Distribution, P.O. Box 40682, San Francisco, CA 94140-0682. Telephone 415/923-1429. Catalog is free. A fine publisher and distributor of countercultural books and ëzines. They also have catalogs of second-hand books and political audiotapes.

AMOK, P.O. Box 861867, Terminal Annex, Los Angeles, CA 90086-1867. Telephone 213/665-0956. Catalog contains over 4,000 titles and is $12.95. I’ve found that they take a long time to deliver goods, but it’s been said that this problem has been corrected.

Loompanics Unlimited, P.O. Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368. Catalog is $5.00. Also very worthwhile if strangeness is your game!

Newspeak, 5 Steeple Street, Providence, RI 02903. Telephone 401/331-3540. FAX 401/273-9023. Heavy emphasis on conspiracy, UFOs and fringe science, but also stocks other interesting countercultural publications. Joan d’Arc is always willing to chat about new and upcoming items of interest.

Paladin Press, P.O. Box 1307, Boulder, CO 80306. Catalog always includes interesting articles and is $1.00. Stocks a wide variety of underground titles dealing with everything nasty from homemade explosives to revenge and beyond.

Qvimby’s Qveer Store, 1328 N. Damien Ave., Chicago, IL 60622. Telephone 312/342-0910. Catalog is $5.00. No, this is not a homosexual emporium but a source for some of the neatest underground ëzines I’ve seen, plus a wide assortment of the newest countercultural books. They’re always willing to answer queries about their stock.

Supplies

NIC Law Enforcement Supply, P.O. Box 5950, Shreveport, LA 71135. Telephone 318/688-1365. Catalog is $4.00.

Phoenix Systems, P.O. Box 3339, Evergreen, CO 80439. Telephone 303/277-0305. Catalog is free.

Your Supply Depot Ltd., 632 West Algonquin Road, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone 708/640-7774. Catalog is $1.00.

FOOTNOTES

1. Ironically, I completed the final draft of this article on April 19, 1995, just before learning about the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building.

2. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution , January 17, 1994, p. A11. 3. Quoted in Anthony Hecht’s The Hidden Law: The Poetry of W.H. Auden.

4. The Cincinnati Enquirer, July 27, 1994, p. A14.

5. The Washington Post, September 5, 1994, p. D1.

6. The Denver Post, April 5, 1994, p. B-07. My intent is not to criticize any of these people (since I merely sit at a computer to prepare this "epistle"!) but to point out that fatigue wears down even the hardiest souls. In view of this and the footnote immediately below, there certainly is something to be said for "co-opting the system" by working within it.

7. Time’s April 3, 1995 cover story "Prophet of Poison" covers the Tokyo subway nerve gas attack and includes some discussion of Japan’s narrow, conformity-ridden society at p. 33. See also "Lost without a Faith" in the same issue at p. 34. The subheading of the latter article reads, "In the spiritual vacuum of the postwar years, some Japanese seek new gods." It might be fairly argued that Japan is the ultimate example of the perils of American "kulchur" -- mindless conformity at any cost by an overcrowded populace. Family life, health and the environment perish in an ocean of overwork -- all sacrificed for the so-called "greater good" of the corporation.

8. Martin Sprouse, Sabotage in the American Workplace -- Anecdotes of Dissatisfaction, Mischief and Revenge (1992). Pressure Drop Press, P.O. Box 460754, San Francisco, CA 94146.

9. The fiery 1974 death of members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (alleged captors of heiress Patty Hearst) is merely one example. A poignant story appeared in the May 18, 1994 Los Angeles Times (p. B1) on the twentieth anniversary of the SLA’s infamous shoot-out with police.

10. I won’t bore you or insult your intelligence by citing examples here. Everyone knows that major newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal publish stories about the corruption of key leaders in all areas of American life. Corruption is just one more form of violence and often leads to actual physical violence as wronged parties take the "law" into their own hands. This is the well-known lex talionis (law of revenge) so beloved to Satanists such as Anton LaVey. See, e.g., his Satanic Bible and Satanic Rituals.

11. Peter Carlson, "The American Way of Murder." The Washington Post Magazine, June 19, 1994, p. W10. By way of "ordinary" example, Cleveland, Ohio had a recent case where a man appeared normal to those outside his home yet had done hundreds of paintings and drawings of horribly mutilated women. He then proceeded to do the same to his wife, who was found shot, mutilated and with a carving knife buried to the hilt in her chest. A detective said, "What he did to her would make Jack the Ripper blush." The Plain Dealer, April 9, 1995, p.11-A. It was truly a case of life imitating art!

12. Ibid. This and other data in this paragraph are taken from Carlson’s excellent article.

13. Bruce Nelan, "The Price of Fanaticism." Time, April 3, 1995. This is an excellent overview of the potentials for modern terrorism. Among other things, it notes that our sense of American immunity was truly swept away by the February, 1993 detonation of a huge but conventional bomb under New York City’s World Trade Center. The article includes a particularly graphic "Catalog of Terror" itemizing the types, mechanism, quantity, difficulty and cost of seven kinds of large-scale terrorist devices.

14. Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is just one of thousands of heart-rending accounts of the slaughter of American Indians. Similarly, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1851 Uncle Tom’s Cabin describes the plight of slaves in the infamous American South. More literate readers might recognize novelization when they see it and complain that it does not reflect real life, but fiction based closely on facts often has an enormous impact. Charles Dickens’ novels led to controls on English child labor in the 19th century. Upton Sinclair’s 1906 The Jungle described the grossly unsanitary practices of the Chicago meatpacking industry, which led to passage of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

15. The Washington Times, August 9, 1994, p. A16.

16. Ibid.

17. USA TODAY, April 12, 1995, p. 8A. Criminologist Fox "...has accurately predicted murder rates for 20 years...and sees two dangerous trends converging: [1] A huge group of teen-agers is moving though the nation’s population. The number of teens ages 14 to 17 began increasing this year and will peak in 2005. [2] Because this age group is committing far more murders than it used to -- up 165% between 1983 and 1993 -- the nation’s overall murder rate will rise as well."

18. Wish I’d saved the article in which this appeared, but you’ll just have to take my word for it! };-)

19. David Heilbroner, "Serial Murder and Sexual Repression." Playboy, August, 1993, p. 78.

20. Suggested introductions to the phenomenon of serial and mass murder: Elliott Leyton’s Compulsive Killers, Joel Norris’ Serial Killers, Michael Newton’s Hunting Humans and his Serial Slaughter, Colin Wilson and Donald Seaman’s The Serial Killers, and Robert Ressler and Tom Shachtman’s Whoever Fights Monsters.

21. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, August 12, 1994, p. A13.

22. Computer-literate listeners to Larson’s daily one-hour talk show (5PM-6PM EST) frequently "war dial" 800/223-CLUB to block potential contributors from calling. This drives Larson to fits of rage in which he threatens to prosecute everyone he can catch doing it.

23. "Serial Murder & the Satanic/Ritualistic Crimes Myth," published in Danger #1 (c/o Dan Kelly, P.O. Box 148161, Chicago, IL 60614) and EsoTerra #5 (c/o Chad Hensley, 630 South Carrollton Avenue #110, New Orleans, LA 70118). Dan Kelly also published seven issues of Evil, a fine ëzine for "true crime" buffs, with special emphasis on the rigors of serial and mass murder.

24. One fine example is Dr. Stephan A. Hoeller’s "The Old Ones" which explores the question "Do dark gods influence our world today?" Fate, December, 1993, p. 49. See also letters to the editor in the December, 1994 and April, 1995 issues of Fate.

25. Full Force Frank spewed six issues of each of two ëzines entitled Singin’ Dose Anti Psychotic Blues and Livin’ in a Powder Keg and Givin’ Off Sparks, plus The Marc Lepine Memorial Scrapbook (in honor of the Montreal madman who slaughtered 14 women and wounded 13 other people in a University of Montreal classroom building). Claiming to be a psychopath and imminent mass murderer, Frank raged in print from early 1989 until August, 1991, when he mysteriously disappeared following alleged harassment by the FBI. It’s been suggested that he may have been "...a decoy used to solicit confessions from ëlike-minded’ murders involved in the small press." Trevor Blake, "Full Force Frank -- Murderous Zine Publisher or Blow-Hard Fan Boy?" Ben Is Dead #24.

26. Send two first class stamps for the latest "Crime & Criminals" catalog from Kregg Sanders, P.O. Box 1331, Danville, IL 61834-1331. Kregg purveys a huge selection of letters, art and other collectibles from every serial and mass murderer of note. I would also be remiss if I failed to mention Jim and Debbie Goad’s infamous ëzine of wrath Answer Me! See especially their "Night of a Hundred Mass-Murdering/Serial-Killing Stars" in Issue #2, and their "Killing Me Softly, Roughly and Just About Every Other Fucking Way Imaginable -- 100 Spectacular Suicides" in Issue #3. You can get the first three issues in a single softcover volume from AK Distribution (address in the "Resources" section below).

27. James Alan Fox and Jack Levin, Overkill -- Mass Murder and Serial Killing Exposed (1994), p. 19. Plenum Press, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013-1578.

28. "How is it [the universe] getting to wherever it is going? This is where that great liberator of the human spirit, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, illuminates our understanding. The essence of this is that things happen naturally in the direction that increases disorder in the universe. All natural events, including those that result in works of art and the mental events involved in their appreciation, are driven by purposeless decay into corruption. It may be a bleak view of the world, but there it is." The Independent, December 24, 1994, p. 13.

29. One example: the Unabomber, apparently jealous at being slighted, resumed his 17-year campaign of murder through the mails, and persuaded The Washington Post and The New York Times to join forces in printing his 35,000-word manifesto in a special 8-page supplement. The New York Times, September 19, 1995.

30. One exception is Dennis Farney’s poignant essay "Violence No Longer a Stranger In Heartland -- If It Ever Was." Farney recognizes that "...a truer reading of history, perhaps, is that, even here [in a Heartland city] evil and violence have always been part of human history." Indeed, "...violence has been woven through the history of the Heartland like a scarlet thread." Among other examples, "...[t]he white man killed the Indians. The cowmen fought the farmers." The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 1995, p. A4.

31. "If God permitted this unparalleled act of domestic terror to take place -- as many people here have come to conclude -- what sign was the Creator sending to a community once so self-assured in its faithfulness? ... ëWe have, to some degree, been stripped of our innocence in the Midwest,’" said one preacher. Los Angeles Times, June 10, 1995, p. B4.

32. The Boston Globe, April 24, 1995, p. 1. "Your pain is unimaginable," said Clinton. By whom? Certainly not by native peoples here and throughout the world, who have been victimized by America in every way imaginable. "It is a terrible crime to steal a child’s trust in the goodness of humanity," said the wife of Oklahoma’s governor. What would the people of Vietnam, Iraq and countless other nations think of her hypocrisy? "In a particularly poignant moment, Graham told parents of the children who died that ëany child that young is automatically in heaven and in God’s hands.’" How the fuck does Graham or any other fundie know that???

33. Ibid.

34. "When Muslims asked to be part of the April 23 interfaith prayer service to promote healing in the community, they were rejected. Nor were any local black ministers part of a nationally televised service with President Clinton and Billy Graham. The black Christian community felt so excluded that ministers brought in the Rev. Jesse Jackson for a separate memorial service." Los Angeles Times, June 10, 1995, p. B4.

35. Time’s November 15, 1993 cover story on Graham, entitled "A Christian in Winter," said nary a word about his 1978 financial scandal. However, The San Diego Union-Tribune (February 17, 1995 at p. E-4) noted: "Seventeen years ago, the Charlotte Observer reported that Graham’s ministry had a $22.9 million secret fund that it didn’t want to reveal, fearing the public would think it too rich."

36. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, May 7, 1995, p. B1.

37. "At the memorial service in Oklahoma City, Billy Graham said he often wondered how God could condone such tragedies. I thought for a second he was going to confess doubt, an exhilarating prospect, but he did no such thing. Satan existed, he assured us all. The devil was responsible. I scoffed. America’s favorite matinee-idol preacher, golden hair and golden voice, terribly handsome but intellectually dormant much of his life, really had no answer at all. He merely affixed a label to something that cannot be understood, only identified." The Record, May 30, 1995, p. N07.

38. Several cases are cited in imprisoned activist Lise Olsen’s brilliant, impassioned article in Earth First! (August 1, 1995, p. 19). Here’s one classic example. The FBI attempted to indict environmental activist Judi Bari for supposedly setting off a bomb accidentally that she was transporting underneath the front seat of her Volkswagen Beetle. It turned out that the bomb was equipped with a mercury switch designed to detonate when the car began moving, something no one would do to herself, and the FBI was forced to exonerate her.

39. The Plain Dealer, September 29, 1995, p. 6-A.

40. See, e.g., Paranoia #10. Also, check out these Internet conferences: usenet.alt.conspiracy, usenet.alt.politics.nationalism.white, and usenet.alt.politics.white-power.

41. "Most Americans worship an extremely violent God. He was asked to bless U.S. violence in Vietnam, in Laos and Cambodia, in Nicaragua and Panama, and most recently (with Billy Graham spending the night at the White House as the bombing began) in the Gulf War. The vision most Americans have that their nation is carrying God’s banner in the world and that their ëdream’ has uniquely the divine stamp of approval must be understood as the key justification for all acts of violence abroad whether covert (by the CIA) or overt through the armed forces." The Toronto Star, May 7, 1995, p. F7.

42. As to repression, it is ironic that two viciously authoritarian forces (right-wing fundamentalists/survivalists on one side and the ATF and FBI on the other) clashed at both Waco and Ruby Ridge. As to corruption, Congressional testimony indicates that government agents probably perjured themselves in both cases. The October 9, 1995 derailment of an Amtrak train by the self-styled "Sons of Gestapo" may be retaliation by right-wingers for losses at Waco and Ruby Ridge, although it is too early to know if the note left at the derailment site is genuine. The Plain Dealer, October 10, 1995, p. A1.

As to corruption more generally, the well-known excesses of Detective Mark Fuhrman and others in the infamous O.J. Simpson case are only the tip of the iceberg! Falsified autopsies, fingerprints and other evidence are becoming a nationwide scandal. Gary Taylor, "Fake Evidence Becomes Real Problem." The National Law Journal, October 9, 1995, p. A1.

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"Lawyers and priests, a motley crowd,
To the earth their pale brows bowed,
Like a bad prayer not over loud,
Whispering - Thou art Law and God."

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