Ten Years Ago

I walked into my American History class (Social and Geographical History of the United States) and someone told me "'they' just blew up a building in Oklahoma." Isn't that where I was going to move next summer? Indeed it was. And indeed 'they' did. Details were sketchy at first, but the death toll started rising - administrators made an announcement over the PA. We saw it at lunch, on the TV in the restaurant. I went home and watched the 24-hour CNN coverage that night. President Clinton made a speech promising to hunt down and punish the evildoers responsible. I, like many others, caught the religious overtones in Clinton's speech: he was implying that Islamic extremists committed the crime.

But it wasn't.

It was two white conservative Christian males who thought they were being patriots. They put (what they considered to be) the good of the United States over the individual rights of its citizens. They referred to the dead children in the Murrah building's daycare as "collateral damage," necessary and Utilitarian casualties to fighting their war to liberate the American people.

But these two were brought to justice. No new federal agencies were created. No color-coding system was displayed on our televisions warning us of the next attack. The Army did not invade Idaho, or Oregon, or Michigan to assault the other members of the militias to which McVeigh and Nichols belonged. There was no more "collateral damage" beyond what the evildoers themselves perpetrated. And they were caught, tried, convicted, and in one case executed within six years.

Ten years ago. How times have changed.