Outside a town hall, a man in military fatigues carries a sign (see photo) reading, "I own a gun and I didn't bring it -- yet!" In New Hampshire, a man wasn't waiting to bring a gun to the president's town hall meeting. Openly carrying a gun, he carried a sign reading, "IT'S TIME TO WATER THE TREE OF LIBERTY!" This was a reference to a quote by Thomas Jefferson; "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Clearly, he wanted to express his willingness to resort to violence.When Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was arrested in 1995, he was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Abraham Lincoln on the front, with the words "sic semper tyrannis (thus always to tyrants)" -- a quote from John Wilkes Booth as he assassinated Lincoln. On the back of the shirt was the picture of a tree, three droplets of blood, and the words, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." McVeigh felt no need to demonstrate his willingness to resort to violence -- he just went ahead with the mass murder. When he parked his bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building, he killed 168 innocent people without warning. It was the highest death toll from an act of terrorism in the US until 9/11. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack committed by a so-called "homegrown" terrorist -- i.e., one who kills his own countrymen. Timothy McVeigh was an American and he thought he was more American than you or me or anyone in Washington or that building he tore the face off. McVeigh believed he was a patriot. In truth, he was a racist, a traitor, a murderer, and a fool.
McVeigh came to become that racist, treacherous, murdering fool by getting sucked into the militia movement. It's tempting to call this a political movement, but it's probably truer to say it's a cult. Almost nothing they believe is true, from the historical to the biblical to the present, and they're taught that only they know the truth.
And, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, they're back... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
