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As of this writing, the jury was still out on life or death for Timothy McVeigh, and I was trying to figure out why I haven't felt more outrage about this case.
After all, they tell me it was the largest act of
domestic terrorism in American history. That ranking, of
course, is a matter of rather selective definition of
domestic terrorism.
The shelling of Atlanta in 1864, or the massacre at Sand
Creek later that year -- those might have all killed scores
of civilians with the aim of changing the attitudes of the
survivors, and the actions might have been in contravention
of military orders, but somehow they don't qualify as
domestic terrorism.
Nor is the bombing of government office buildings in and of itself terrorism, since the U.S. government wouldn't commit terrorism, and on June 27, 1993, our government launched 24 cruise missiles with bombs against a government office building in Baghdad. The idea, I guess, was to teach Iraq a lesson, although the victims of that night-time bombing, perhaps a few janitors, probably had little to do with plotting the attempted assassination of former president George Bush when he had visited Kuwait that April.
So I'm tired of this terrorist
angle. The only
real difference I can find between despicable acts of
terror and noble acts of war is government sanction.
McVeigh is a murderer, pure and simple. He killed 168 people. Any of us might have been among them, since all of us visit federal offices from time to time. And federal employees are not aliens from another planet -- by and large, they're decent people like forest rangers, veterans' benefit administrators, census statisticians, weather forecasters, etc.
[[So why haven't I felt more anger and outrage about that?]] I know I should. I'll do the fashionable thing these days and blame the media, with their fixation upon the survivors and relatives of victims: interview after interview talking about vengeance and closure, as if that were the only reason that McVeigh was on trial.
The result of this narrow focus, at least to me and a
few people I've discussed this with, is that the McVeigh
mayhem becomes a crime against some people in Oklahoma
City
rather than a crime against the people.
The distinction is important, according to what we were taught in school.
When we studied American history, especially the history of this area, we read about vigilantes and lynchings, where victims and their friends and relatives took the punishment into their own hands.
As civilization arrived on the frontier, the regular judicial processes took over, and that, we were told, was for the best. America values liberty and life, and a murder is not just a crime against the victim and his relatives and friends, but a crime against the entire fabric of society.
To preserve that social order, we learned, citizens must forswear private vengeance and support the judicial processes of inquiry, trial and punishment.
But this focus on angry, vengeful people (and, I want to make it clear, if I were in their shoes, I'd be angry and vengeful too) tends to obscure the fact that McVeigh's crime was against all of us -- the people of the United States -- not just against some people in Oklahoma City. That's hard to keep in mind with all the misdirection on the news.
As for whether McVeigh should get death or life without parole, well, there are good arguments either way, and I'm glad it's in the hands of the jury. I doubt McVeigh much cares -- he saw himself as a soldier of sorts, and death is one of the risks of combat.
Consideration of morality and courtrooms, though, evokes a recent controversy, concerning a judge in Alabama who wants to display the 10 Commandments in his courtroom.
Naturally the right-thinkers are rabid in his defense, despite the constitutional prohibition against government establishment of religion.
But rather than oppose the judge, why not insist that he add a few other biblical quotes to the courtroom wall:
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what
judgment ye judge, and with what measure ye mete, it shall
be measured to you again.
Or Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is
God's throne. Nor by the earth, for it is his footstool...
But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay; for
whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Eliminating testimony, oaths and judgments might complicate matters for American courts, but the Bible seems pretty clear on those topics, anyway, even if it's rather ambiguous about capital punishment.
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