Final Score - McVeigh: 168 Feds: 1

[Eric Cordian]

As I was watching the coverage of the Tim McVeigh execution, I couldn't
help think that it was bigger than the coverage of the moon landing in
1969.

How the definition of what unites us as a nation has changed since then.

Technological excellence, versus an absolute exercise of unbridled state
power against a single unarmed individual, who no longer poses a threat to
anyone.

While most of us would define "terrorism" as violence against civilians
and civilian infrastructure for the purpose of sending a political
message, the US government cleverly defines it as any violence by a
subnational group designed to influence opinion.

Thus, in the minds of our government, it is not killing that is wrong, it
is presuming to do so without the Imprimatur of statehood, and the power
to defiantly thumb ones nose at the logical consequences of ones actions.

Tim McVeigh's crime then becomes not "murder," but "impersonating a
government."

I can forgve him for that.

Tim McVeigh's legacy is that it's going to be a *real* long time before
the Federal Government again attacks its citizens with tanks and snipers
for simply saying "no" to a government official, and the term "collateral
damage" is never going to be smugly used again to describe dead children
killed by the American military in some country on the receiving end of a
"message" from our President.

I think that's a GoodThing(tm).

History should remember Tim McVeigh as a decorated Gulf War veteran, who
gave his life to save his country, albeit in a rather creative and not
universally appreciated way.

I can forgive him for that too.

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"