Obviously Timothy McVeigh didn't pay enough attention to John Cougar Mellencamp's song that goes, "When I fight authority, authority always wins," but never mind; McVeigh's dead now, whatever you think of him, his politics, or the death penalty.
Bombing was never my favorite way of somebody making a point, no matter how "valid" a protest; stacking up those bodies of innocent men, women and children against political injustice, well, I see no kindness in cruelty. And yet, I must confess, there might be a little bit of McVeigh in me, maybe in all of us, that hates a grabby and grandiose government and wants to be a true patriot just this once. But so much of what we do, say, read and think today is, truly, contaminated – manipulated by the mainstream media, undermined by conspiracy or spin or disinformation, infected by intrigue.
Before the execution, seeking the vox populi, I sent out an e-mail:
So, gentle friends, what are your thoughts about the assassination of McVeigh? American has done it again! Transcended "Survivor" and killed and rekilled this McVeigh person. Any comments on your rage, boredom, indifference, anger, or perspective?
These are some replies:
Timothy McVeigh was killed this morning, thrown into eternity with political expedience. Every student in my class knew who he was and what he had done. ... I can see the anger and add, "George Bush is for capital punishment. It helped get him elected." Carmen calls out to me. "Mister," she calls, getting angry, speaking with a heavy Puerto Rican accent. "We are not God. Only God can take a life because God gave it. Man is not nothing," Carmen sublimely states, "Man is something." I could have cried.
– Don Y, author and schoolteacher, Manhattan
The Europeans were going nuts about the execution and the American ghoulish response. By that I mean the fascination with playing and replaying the execution scenario, wallowing in what McVeigh's expression might or might not mean, what the most minuscule movement meant. NPR was disgusting! Voyeurism at its worst, and the TV stations were sick. How about the media lottery to be a witness? Sick. And one literary professor was agonizing that now this poem, "Invictus," would become the anthem of the disaffected, instead of the explanation of the context of the poet when he originally wrote it (long-term hospital and severe pain from bone TB) versus the interpretations of Timothy McV's state of mind and point of view. What apparently they couldn't stand was McVeigh's "I did it my way"! And we – the United States – haven't moved anywhere from the mob psychology of centuries ago, more recently seen in witch burnings, locking up various ethnic groups (Japanese, Italians etc., as we have done consistently). There isn't much difference behaviorally or ideologically between the Spanish Inquisition (and other similar events) and our fanaticism now.
– Pam L, health activist, Pa.
The essence of the state, any state, is its monopoly on violence. McVeigh is a hero when he participates in the military campaign resulting in the slaughter of thousands of Iraqi Arabs to no point or purpose, a "terrorist" when he blows up a building, killing 168 people in Oklahoma. The distinction is both semantic and real. To challenge this monopoly, whether by crime or political act, is to bring down the full force of the state. Witness the SLA (burned to death in a house in Los Angeles), MOVE (burned to death in a house in West Philadelphia) or Waco. It was the latter act that served as the catalyst transforming McVeigh into an enemy of the U.S. government.
– Jim C., editor and poet, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia
Was he not the last piece of collateral damage from the bombing?
– David L, accountant, N.Y.
One less evil person on the earth.
– Merilyn J, dance critic, Phoenix
Hmmmmmmm. So now that he's dead, all is well with the world? We fixed something? Somehow it's easier for me to understand murder when it comes about because of passion or anger or insanity. But state-sanctioned murder is harder for me to grasp. It doesn't fix anything. No one is coming back from the dead if we do this witchcraft. It doesn't stop anyone else from murdering – we put lots of people on death row, and we still have this incredibly high murder rate. I don't get it. It seems to speak to a societal bloodlust I can't comprehend, a Shirley Jackson stoning without the ending where everybody gets it out of their system, and peace reigns. I just don't understand. And no one has ever been able to explain it to me – especially Christians who keep trying to tell me how sad but necessary it all is.
– Sandy C, writer, performance artist, and mother, Mount Airy, Pa.
Every damn mainstream news story says "worst terrorist attack in US history." Right, if you delete all the history of attacks on Native Americans – for starters – and a few of General Sherman's escapades, and if you don't count generations of lynchings as an "attack," or the massacres of labor activists. If you want to talk about terror, how about shopping for food that contains no industrial poisons – or living near or downwind from toxic dumps and incinerators or nuke plants or looking for honest health care? The U.S., the biggest terrorist organization in all history, condemns terrorism. If a lie is exactly 100 percent the reverse of the truth, as the U.S. "anti-terrorism" one is, oddly, people believe it.
– John J, activist and political cartoonist, Philadelphia.
It is very hard for me to confront the atrocities committed by the murderers and the executions. I'm looking for buckets of sand to bury my head in.
– Fran M, novelist, Cherry Hill, N.J.
I respect human life, at any level. So, out of respect for those families who will never be the same, I won't add to the voluminous commentary. Each must be held in the arms of, or accountable to, their own God.
– Kim B, publisher, Mich.
Why is it that a perpetrator can be quickly caught, tried, and executed when he kills employees of the federal government, but if the victim is not a member of the government family, but only a mere citizen, it takes years and years for the wheels of justice to move – and even then there may never be an execution? It seems like government employees only work efficiently when serving their own interests.
– Anonymous reply, through AOL
I hope this barbaric gesture helps the victims and their families. If it does, I'm happy
– Sherry, attorney, L.A.
Timothy McVeigh never cared one whit about what the government did at Waco. He deliberately set off a bomb during the day, knowing the building would be filled with people. If he really was mad at our government, he would have set off the bomb at 3:00 a.m. when the building was vacant. ...
– Marlene K, graphic designer, Chicago
A friend of mine didn't think you should kill anything you don't eat, so, it would have been OK if we ate him afterwards. I like my men alive, personally.
– Lenny M, physicians assistant, Pa.