In this country, few people want to call things by their
right names, because to do so requires that people step back from their
narcissistic selves and assess what they have wrought, and what they allow to
persist. When a secret organization within government breaks the law by selling
arms to an enemy of this country in order to purchase arms for use by what
essentially is a band of thugs against an elected government in Central
America, that is treason. Yet people feared to bring the word up against a
“popular” president who did many things that harmed the country in the long
term. Another president purposely lied
and fabricated false evidence to “finish” the job his father started in Iraq, and
the ensuing war cost at least 4,000 American lives, and many more because of
the failure to end quickly a more justified “war” in Afghanistan. This is not
called “murder,” but it is something very close to that. Yet we prefer to call
the soldiers who died “heroes” and “patriots” to assuage collective guilt.
After all, the wars and death were far away and hardly noticed, save by those
whose loved ones were the victims.
Thus it isn’t “surprising” that there was a delay in
determining that the actions of Frazier Glenn Miller in Overland Park, Kansas constituted
a hate crime. Miller, who was going by the alias “Cross”—and for good reason—went
on a shooting spree at a Jewish community center that left three dead,
including a 14-year-old boy and his grandfather. When arrested, Miller screamed
“Heil Hitler”—obviously in an effort to help “clue” authorities in on his
motives.
Miller actually has a long history of affiliation with white
supremacist neo-Nazi groups. In 1980 he became the founder and Grand Dragon of
the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which later became known as the White
Patriot Party. In 1986, Miller went “underground” in order to promote a “total
war” against blacks, Jews and the federal government. After his arrest for
threatening the life of Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center in 1987,
the outfit was dissolved. After his release from prison—shortened because of
his “cooperation” with authorities in gaining the convictions of fellow
neo-Nazis—Miller planned to write a “racist tabloid,” the material of which he
hoped would "unite, organize, educate, recruit" fellow fascists to go
to war against Jews until "death or victory.”
Why the 73-year-old Miller decided to go on this rampage now
may be explained by the fact that many white supremacists and neo-Nazis with
long memories view him as a “white race traitor” for serving as a government
informant in the trial against the neo-Nazi group The Order. Members of that
group were involved in Denver radio host Alan Berg’s murder in 1984; Berg (who
was Jewish) frequently baited white supremacist and anti-Semitic callers on his
radio show. The same year, the group’s founder, Robert Jay Mathews, was killed
when federal agents found him on Whidbey Island, WA where he died in a fire
following a shootout. Miller’s actions may well have been an effort to “rehabilitate”
his reputation among fellow race haters.
Yet people in and out of the media are reticent to make a “big
deal” out of this. Instead of investigating the white supremacist and neo-Nazi
support groups of people like Miller, Timothy McVeigh and Jared Loughner, they’d
prefer to label them “lone nuts” and
leave it at that. As we may recall, the Latino George Zimmerman was accused of
a “hate crime” for over a year in the most lurid manner by most of the media
(MSNBC and CNN in particular), when it was clear from Zimmerman’s perspective
self-defense was at issue; the tragedy of the case was that too many events
conspired at the same time—and no one should overlook how Rachel Jeantel’s own
racism and homophobia played a part in what occurred. But the Millers of the
world are forgotten almost as soon as their murderous actions occur.
Because white society loathes to accuse their “own” of
having any moral or ethical lapses, people have to “step back” and “access”
whether a white man who had ties to racist groups shot-up a Jewish center
merely because he had mental problems or just had a bad day at the office. But
the need for assessment goes way beyond that. If the shooter had been a member of an “ethnic”
group, particularly one that practices Islam, it is assumed that such an act is
one of terrorism. Yet domestic terrorism is something that the media loathes to
address if the perpetrator is Caucasian. This act was clearly one that falls
under the category of terrorism. It was a violent act meant to intimidate a
targeted segment of the population; what exactly the short-term “aim” of such
acts is not clear, but white supremacists do have a long-term “vision,” and
that is to (among other things) marginalize and eliminate alleged Jewish power
in the country, and “rid” the country of “inferior” races.
A country that lies to itself loses all moral and ethical
credibility. People like Pat Buchanan may insist they are not racists, when we
know that they are. There is a very fine line between racism and beliefs that
are race based—and too often the only “difference” is how people go about
acting out their hate.
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