Oklahoma, the home state of Yours Truly, is endowed with an embarrassment of riches like none other in the Union. It is a place of natural beauty and mineral resources inhabited by people with a can-do industrious spirit who represent a very colorful tapestry of multiple cultures, lifestyles and faiths. As a hub of trade, industry and commerce, the state is well known in the international marketplace for petroleum, agriculture, aerospace, education and all manner of skilled labor and talent. As has been highlighted in previous posts, Oklahoma has been the origin of some useful innovations that have changed life and business among which include the parking meter, the shopping cart and the “Yield” sign. Let us not forget tourism and all the many attractions along nearly 375 miles of Old Route 66 that pass through from the Kansas state line in the northeast to the Texas panhandle in the west. Sadly, it can be fairly said that all of these things usually rank among the lesser known facts and minutia that immediately come to mind in places outside the boundaries of the Sooner State and America when someone mentions Oklahoma. This is because of one event that was forever emblazoned upon the collective memory of all humanity, that being the Oklahoma City Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building on April 19th, 1995. Those of us who had a personal connection to that building and have since at some point worked on a daily basis with fellow Oklahomans who lost family members in the bombing remember every gory detail not only about that devastating blast and its aftermath, but also what led up to it and why.
Equally as sobering as the event itself was the process many had to undergo in dealing with the reality that this act of terrorism was not carried out by any of those generally regarded at the “usual suspects.” Unlike Middle Eastern Muslim extremists who had managed to set off a bomb in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in 1993, the Murrah bomber was fully homegrown and motivated by totally different ideology. The primary perpetrator was a disgruntled Gulf War Veteran. This ex-soldier had been sufficiently swayed and moved to action by fringe white nationalist literature. The ideas he embraced were also validated by Rightwing talk radio and convinced him that federal government overreach and Deep State tyranny against pro-Second Amendment citizens was the basis for Law Enforcement sieges at Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas in 1992 and 1993, respectively. In reality, both events began when government agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service presented to the respective locations to serve legitimate federal warrants. I vividly recall one Rightwing talking head with his own radio audience referring to ATF agents as “jack-booted government thugs” and the way to take them down was a “shot between the eyes” or words to that effect. The Murrah bomber had this motivation, but also seized upon a plan that was clearly delineated in a certain rightwing dystopian novel. Indeed, the plot of said novel involved the violent overthrow of the U.S. Government which began with the bombing of FBI headquarters. This was the bomber’s main inspiration. The Murrah Building did in fact house the OKC office of that bureau. In the planning of the crime, the Murrah Building was selected over others due to its curbside proximity making it an easier target on which to inflict greater damage.
The idea that a native-born white male military combat veteran with a Christian upbringing could possibly commit such a heinous act of violence in our very midst did not go down easy or settle well with many of the Conservative persuasion. The fact his bomb did not discriminate with regard to victims was glaringly apparent. His weapon, a 7000-pound ammonium nitrate fertilizer bomb, destroyed an entire building and claimed 168 souls among which numbered Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Caucasians, African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, educated, uneducated, upper middle class, working class, working poor, military active duty and few retired persons. Also among the fatalities were nineteen small children that the bomber was noted to have callously dismissed as “collateral damage.” Hundreds of others were badly injured and/or maimed. Once the full facts were known about the bomber, many rightwing fringe Conservatives made sure there was plenty of distance between themselves and the bad actor. The author of that aforementioned novel that laid out the crime in pristine detail even went on record doing the 100-meter backpedal in record setting time making sure all knew he had nothing to do with the actual crime of real life. It would be hard to doubt that anyone who could conceptualize such an act would not have a bulging ego fed by the knowledge that someone actually took him seriously while at the same time distancing himself from the perpetrator stating, “I never had any contact with him.” Perhaps not personally or directly, but the clearly detailed description of action certainly landed where he intended, in the heart and mind of a disaffected angry unemployed lone wolf type seeking purpose. As this one criminal act illustrates better than any other example, it only takes one person to surrender their humanity for whatever reason and make a statement for their cause by inflicting mass destruction resulting in a high body count. This isn’t the only example of a lone unhinged subscriber to fringe ideology and grabbing onto an idea put forth by a bombastic talking head with a microphone and a wide broadcast audience of millions then following through with it. The list of lone wolf attacks is getting rather lengthy.
In a nation as politically tribal as is the United States in 2022, intimidation and violence have become increasingly acceptable as the first option go-to means by which to affect a desired social or electoral result. This set of tactics has become an acceptable norm of a sizable segment of one major political party. To satiate its base and grow its following, that party’s platform message requires the fuel of intense emotion consisting mostly of equal parts fear and grievance. Fear and grievance, two intangibles Conservative media has had no problem inventing and exploiting to maximum benefit. Many in that rightwing media milieu have long since taken to mainstreaming far-fetched conspiracy theories to substantiate their extreme positions and have made that into a standard ingredient in legitimizing their message. The most disturbing part of this is the extremes to which elected officials and their ostensibly learned advisors are willing to dismiss factual evidence in the name of gaining and/or retaining power. In 2020 they wasted no time in promoting certain buzz words and phrases like “fake news,” “rigged election” and “voter fraud” months before it mattered. Few things are as undemocratic as accepting the results of an election only if it favors one particular candidate. The difference between the author of that dystopian novel that motivated the criminal act committed in Oklahoma City and the chief mouthpiece responsible for the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the Nation’s Capitol in an effort to prevent certification of a legitimate election is that the sooner had a mostly underground audience and following and the latter had the bully pulpit of the Office of the President of the United States.
If an obscure fringe conspiracy theorist can inspire one morbid individual to target and murder 168 strangers, how big of a blood bath are we going to be in for when a mainstreamed one directly exhorts thousands to do similar things? What’s more, who becomes the outlaw when an elected official condemns the Department of Justice and law enforcement for simply doing their job and encouraging mob violence?
Former President indicates “big problems” if indicted
The fact that the United States is still a nation of laws and not men or women is an uncomfortable truth for many. It is very telling of the core character of anyone in any current of former leadership position whose fear is the consequences of being on the wrong side of the law and whose grievance is the process of being held to account to it. In an age of instant media communication where the more over-the-top the rhetoric the higher the ratings and the more energized the followers, how high of a body count will it take before someone deigns to dial down the bombast? In the meantime, the rest of us are left hanging on to wonder who, what, when and where will be the next target of misguided anger. I will again issue a word of caution to those wishing for “violence in the streets” and the acting out of fantasies of overthrowing their government, please, be careful what you ask for. The vast majority of those who have made such attempts previously have not met with much success or garnered any praise in the aftermath. Most have had terrible endings. When your attention gets abruptly diverted from work to a mini-mushroom cloud outside your office window, the fun and games are over. There are better ways to move on from this life instead of being a statistic and notch on some New Age Confederate’s bump stock. Memorials for such things are becoming a burden of numbers.
