There is a
Department of Homeland Security ad campaign featuring a poster offering "rewards
for justice,” displaying the photos of non-white kids, Arabic, Asian, African
and Latino. "Stop a terrorist...and save lives" according to the
poster. It is asking these kids to “snitch” on an adult they believe is
planning a bad act. The principle problem with this is, of course, the “suggestion”
of racial profiling.
But the Boston Marathon bombers were whites who
happened to be practicing Muslims—not surprising in that the Caucasus region they
immigrated from was a place where conversion for "practical" reasons occurred
during the Ottoman Turks’ centuries long rule; the elite Janissary corps
originally was constituted of Christian military recruits who converted to
Islam. Why were the perpetrators ignored by federal agencies despite
warnings from Russian authorities? Because they didn’t “fit” the racial or
ethnic stereotype?
Terrorism has been
committed in the U.S. since the country’s founding. George Washington’s
Christmas Eve raid on Trenton could be construed as a “terrorist” act. The Ku
Klux Klan’s activities were certainly “terrorist” in nature. The following are
terrorist acts committed on U.S. soil that have one “peculiar” thing in common:
May 4, 1886: In
Chicago, a labor rally at the Haymarket Square is the scene of a bomb explosion
after police forced the dispersion of the rally. Seven policemen were killed or
would die from injuries from the blast. However, four workers were killed by the
police and 70 wounded in subsequent gunfire; most of the police officers who
were wounded by gunfire was likely by “friendly fire.” Eight anarchists were
convicted in a plainly prejudicial setting that failed to prove that any of
them had actually thrown the bomb.
October 1 1910: 21 people
were killed when a dynamite bomb was set-off near The Los Angeles Times building, causing part of it to collapse. The
bombing was blamed on the International Association of Bridge and Structural
Iron Workers union, in retaliation for the virulent anti-union stance by Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis.
July 22, 1916: 10 people
were killed by a bomb during a Preparedness Day parade in San Francisco; the
now defunct “holiday” was supposed to honor the country’s readiness for
potential entry into World War I. Anti-war labor activists were charged with the
act.
April and June,
1919: A series of bombings—some of them through the mail, most of those failing
to detonate—in at least six cities. The bombings were blamed on followers of
the anarchist Luigi Galleani.
September 16, 1920: Nearly 40 were killed and 300 wounded when a bomb in a
horse-drawn wagon exploded near Morgan Bank in Manhattan. Although no one was
actually brought to account for the crime, it was generally believed that
anarchists were behind it.
May 18, 1927: 44 were
killed by explosives in a school in Bath, Michigan. A man named Andrew Kehoe,
apparently angry at his defeat in a local election and an impending foreclosure
on his farm, killed his wife, and set off explosions on his farm. Apparently
Kehoe had already planted explosives at the school, which a timing device set
off off at the same time of that which occurred at the farm.
Nov.1 1955: 44
people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 was bombed by a man named John
Graham in an insurance scam; Graham’s mother was among those killed.
Jan. 6, 1960: In
fact, at the time many airlines offered temporary life insurance policies that
one could purchase from a vending machine, at least for the duration of a
flight. On this day, 34 people killed when
a National Airlines flight was bombed in what was believed to be another
insurance scam.
August 1, 1966: 19 people
were killed by Charles Whitman during a sniper shooting rampage from the
observation deck of the Tower of the University of Texas, on the Austin campus. Whitman,
who was believed to have serious mental health issues, perhaps due to a tumor
in his brain, had already killed his wife and mother. He had told others that
he was “hearing” voices telling him to act in “bad” manner.
Dec. 29, 1975: 11 people
were killed when a bomb exploded from a locker at La Guardia Airport; no one
was brought to justice for it, although Croatian nationalists were thought to
be likely suspects.
April 19, 1995: 169
died in the federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. Timothy McVeigh was charged and
executed for the crime. Evidence that a white supremacist group aided McVeigh
in carrying out the act was never followed-up on.
July 27, 1996: Two
dead and 111 wounded at the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. Security guard Richard
Jewell was originally blamed for the bombing, but it was subsequently found that
the real perpetrator was Eric Robert Rudolph, an anti-abortion fanatic who was
responsible for three other acts of domestic terrorism.
April 20, 1999: 13
killed at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO; the shooters, both students
at the school, subsequently committed suicide. This act was just one of many
that have occurred in recent years where “touched” persons have resorted to
mass shooting in “revenge” for some perceived personal slight by the society at large.
What do all of
these terrorist acts have in common? The perpetrators were white, and this is
just a fraction of the total that occurred in the past. Time and time again, these
terrorists have gone unnoticed by authorities, and even after the acts most of
them are just seen as mentally-challenged without examining their motives. Jared
Lee Loughner, who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, AZ in 2011 was simply
locked away and out of sight, forgotten. They are “Americans,” and no one need
be the wiser about them; the “others” are not “real” Americans, after all, with less "understandable" motives.
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