We hear daily reports of terrorism -- yes terrorism -- linked to the Tea Party. The last time I checked this included racial and sexual insults, bricks thrown through windows and spitting. The most recent event involves Rep.Tom Perriello (D-Va.). A Tea Party activist mistakenly published Perriello's brother's address and urged other Tea Baggers to drop by and pay him a visit. Perriello's brother later discovered a cut gas line at his home.
As much as I wish it won't happen, it seems that there is going to be a major, violent incident involving Tea Party activists. Democratic lawmakers have already been assaulted and their families have been targeted. (Even the Mafia doesn't do that.) I wonder when the Tea Party will have their Timothy McVeigh movement?
Older people will remember the political atmosphere of the mid-'90s which spawned the Militia Movement, a bunch of angry, blue-collar white men, who were frustrated with the political and economic system. (Sound familiar?) That movement ran into a wall on April, 19, 2005, when Timothy McVeigh, a disgruntled Gulf War vet, denoted a truck bomb in front of the Oklahoma City Federal Building.
That effectively marked the beginning of the end of the Militia Movement. The bombing killed 168 people, ordinary federal workers who had gone to work trying to make a decent living. It also killed 19 children, who were housed in the day care in the Murrah building's basement, and created 30 orphans. The defining image of the Oklahoma City bombing was a shaken firefighter pulling a dead infant from the building. The photo later received a Pulitzer Prize.
This kind of rage is not new to sections of this country. During the Civil Rights Movement children were often the victims of indiscriminate bombing, as portrayed in Spike Lee's "Four Little Girls," which detailed the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four girls during Sunday service. During the 1960s, black people jokingly called Birmingham, "Bombingham."
After the Oklahoma City bombing, public opinion turned against the Militia Movement, who were branded as baby killers - and no one wants to side with people like that. I hope and pray It doesn't come to that, but from recent events it seems just a matter of time before the Tea Party gets its McVeigh moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment