Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/07/17

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Photo student harassed in Seattle by Homeland Security
From: bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)
Date: Sat Jul 17 17:50:46 2004

Sorry, Marc, but I never suggested that McVey and his brothers in arms
were religious nuts - I simply suggested that they were terrorists, and
was noting that our current system of profiling wouldn't catch them.
In my book McVey=Osama and I don't give a rats ass what McVey thought
his justification was; Osama has just as much 'right' to be stirred up
by American military presence in Saudi Arabia as McVey had to be stirred
up by Ruby Ridge or Wako - and McVey and Osama deserve the same fate.



-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Marc James Small
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2004 7:35 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: RE: [Leica] Photo student harassed in Seattle by Homeland
Security


At 07:30 PM 7/16/04 -0400, B. D. Colen wrote:
>Yup. We know exactly who is likely to be a terrorist. A nice, white, 
>home-grown Army vet from Oklahoma who got some fertilizer, some heating

>oil, and killed how many men, women and children? And then the Feds 
>initially ran all over hell looking for Arabs.
>
>Of course our main threat right now are radical Islamists from 
>somewhere outside the U.S. of A....Of course there are also those 
>millions of black males locked away in our prison system - many of them

>locked away for offenses that would get white suburban offenders 
>probation - who are ripe for recruitment by extremists.
>
>And then there is the All American boy from Marin County - remember 
>him?

BD

You are confusing apples and oranges.  The white guys in the middlin'
West are upset about events such as Waco and Ruby Ridge and their
objection to the US government's existence is political, not religious.

The objections of the Islamic terrorists to the US government and US
society are religious and cultural, quite a different thing.  The guy
from Marin County was simply a cross-over, an anomaly, if you will.

I will not speak in defense of the methods chosen by McVey and his
cronies but, in the end, there are a substantial number of folks
throughout the US who feel dispossessed as they oppose the current
thrust of increasing government coercion yet cannot get their
representatives to respond to them with anything other than brush-off
and dismissive letters.  I understand why these guys feel this way
though I do have access to my Congressman, know my State representative
and Senator quite well, and can gain ready access to either of my US
senators.  (These guys will listen patiently. The State delegate and the
US Congressman will speak intelligently with me about my issues but may
not respond by chaning their position;  the others will be polite but
will probably not consider changing their votes as a result of my
input.)  

McVey and his ilk would respond more reasonably if the US government got
off this "gun possession = gun nut" attitude.  What happened at Ruby
Ridge is intolerable and what happened at Waco was a blazing wrong, what
with the US agents killing a number of women and children located at the
compound. I suspect that the best thing which could occur would be for
Senator Daschle, whose state has arguably the hightest ratio of these
rightist rebels, to open a dialogue with them.  But that is not on his
Party-driven agenda so we probably will never know if he could do some
good.

(And, it is interesting to note that the GPO had identified the Murra
Building as a potential target four years before McVey did his thing.
Yet, the local GPO administrator who set up a model day-care center --
and what sort of idiot would set up a day-care center in an identified
terrorist target? -- was later promoted and shipped off to even greater
responsibilities.  I trust the govenrment to do right no more than do
the McVeys of this universe.  And by what right do Federal workers get
free day-care services?  Who ever authorized such an abuse of my tax
dollars?)

Marc

msmall@infionline.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!



_______________________________________________
Leica Users Group.
See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information



Replies: Reply from reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid) ([Leica] Photo student harassed in Seattle by Homeland Security)
In reply to: Message from msmall at infionline.net (Marc James Small) ([Leica] Photo student harassed in Seattle by Homeland Security)