Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/07/17

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Subject: [Leica] Photo student harassed in Seattle by Homeland Security
From: msmall at infionline.net (Marc James Small)
Date: Sat Jul 17 16:52:53 2004
References: <Pine.LNX.4.58.0407161502210.21711@mail.2alpha.net>

At 07:30 PM 7/16/04 -0400, B. D. Colen wrote:
>Yup. We know exactly who is likely to be a terrorist. A nice, white,
>home-grown Army vet from Oklahoma who got some fertilizer, some heating
>oil, and killed how many men, women and children? And then the Feds
>initially ran all over hell looking for Arabs.
>
>Of course our main threat right now are radical Islamists from somewhere
>outside the U.S. of A....Of course there are also those millions of
>black males locked away in our prison system - many of them locked away
>for offenses that would get white suburban offenders probation - who are
>ripe for recruitment by extremists.
>
>And then there is the All American boy from Marin County - remember him?

BD

You are confusing apples and oranges.  The white guys in the middlin' West
are upset about events such as Waco and Ruby Ridge and their objection to
the US government's existence is political, not religious.

The objections of the Islamic terrorists to the US government and US
society are religious and cultural, quite a different thing.  The guy from
Marin County was simply a cross-over, an anomaly, if you will.

I will not speak in defense of the methods chosen by McVey and his cronies
but, in the end, there are a substantial number of folks throughout the US
who feel dispossessed as they oppose the current thrust of increasing
government coercion yet cannot get their representatives to respond to them
with anything other than brush-off and dismissive letters.  I understand
why these guys feel this way though I do have access to my Congressman,
know my State representative and Senator quite well, and can gain ready
access to either of my US senators.  (These guys will listen patiently.
The State delegate and the US Congressman will speak intelligently with me
about my issues but may not respond by chaning their position;  the others
will be polite but will probably not consider changing their votes as a
result of my input.)  

McVey and his ilk would respond more reasonably if the US government got
off this "gun possession = gun nut" attitude.  What happened at Ruby Ridge
is intolerable and what happened at Waco was a blazing wrong, what with the
US agents killing a number of women and children located at the compound.
I suspect that the best thing which could occur would be for Senator
Daschle, whose state has arguably the hightest ratio of these rightist
rebels, to open a dialogue with them.  But that is not on his Party-driven
agenda so we probably will never know if he could do some good.

(And, it is interesting to note that the GPO had identified the Murra
Building as a potential target four years before McVey did his thing.  Yet,
the local GPO administrator who set up a model day-care center -- and what
sort of idiot would set up a day-care center in an identified terrorist
target? -- was later promoted and shipped off to even greater
responsibilities.  I trust the govenrment to do right no more than do the
McVeys of this universe.  And by what right do Federal workers get free
day-care services?  Who ever authorized such an abuse of my tax dollars?)

Marc

msmall@infionline.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!




Replies: Reply from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] Photo student harassed in Seattle by Homeland Security)
Reply from timatherton at theedge.ca (Tim Atherton) ([Leica] Photo student harassed in Seattle by Homeland Security)
In reply to: Message from pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein) ([Leica] Photo student harassed in Seattle by Homeland Security)
Message from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] Photo student harassed in Seattle by Homeland Security)