Most of the Press has talked of Mr. McVeigh's death as being 'the last chapter' in the Oklahoma City bombing saga. They speak of Closure, and try to make his crusade against the government out as something that was in some way noble.
As the Desk is writing this. Mr. McVeigh is strapped to a gurney in Terre Haute with a needle in his arm waiting out his last twenty minutes of life. CNN claims he is at peace. Drudge's page gives the impression he is defiant. Another outfit has a live feed, Foxnews is flashing updates all the time, ABC is still waving the anti-death penalty flag every chance they get.
The Desk seems to be alone in saying that the execution of this jerk is just the beginning of something. But it is.
Now all the anti-death penalty nuts will come out of the woodwork with documents from the FBI's screw-up claiming that they prove that McVeigh was innocent. Misunderstood. The wrong man. Oh, yeah. There is no doubt. They'll begin another search for John Doe Number Two. Mr. Nichols may appeal again claiming all sorts of nonsense about McVeigh.
We might even see Jessie Jackson get involved.
No... Probably not.
Since McVeigh, Nichols, and most of the victims were white, Jessie doesn't care what happens.
But that's another article.
In this case the Federal Bureau of Investigation was its own worst enemy.
After a string of botched 'Hostage Rescue' debacles, the spy mess, the Clinton White House Files fiasco, and other headline grabbing goofs, one would think the FBI would have been on its best behavior. One would think. Apparently the Management of the Bureau is incapable of thinking.
How incompetent do you have to be to be a ranking officer at the FBI?
How political has the top levels of Hoover's Own become?
If this is the Nation's Police Force we may indeed wonder if there is any hope for the nation.
Well 08:14 was the time of death. The world is now without the human being named Timothy McVeigh. Manner of Death according to Indiana Law: Homicide.
In spite of what he evidently thought, we are all still here. The fax machine just buzzed, cars are going by the window, some birds are eating something somebody dropped in the parking lot. It would seem the world can function just fine without him.
He now goes down in history as America's worst civilian mass murderer. From war hero, winning a Bronze Star in the Persian Gulf War, to the embodiment of evil. From Green Beret cadet, to an outcast that became a nightmare in sneakers strapped to a table awaiting his appointment with God. From a good Catholic kid to an agnostic speaking of having company in Hell.
Instead of screaming in terror and pain as concrete steel and fire ripped his body apart, he went to sleep.
Justice? Hardly.
Justice for Mr. McVeigh would have been to be eaten alive by rats in a trash pit.
But this is America.
America where we make excuses for Criminals and try to explain away even something like the Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
Which is why that now that he is dead, it won't be over.
It will never be over.
It will never end.
There are other McVeigh's out there. There are other monsters on the loose. There are other twisted minds that may even use this man's death as an excuse to do something just as hideous to make their statement.
It didn't begin at Ford's Theater or on Clark Street in Chicago on St. Valentine's Day 1929.
It didn't end at Waco, it didn't end at Columbine high school.
Humans have been killing each other more or less efficiently since Cain figured out it could be done. And, unfortunately it will continue.
The Desk personally knew convicts that were executed. James Allen Red Dog, David Dawson, Flamer and Bailey. And a few others.
Were any of them innocent? No. Were any of them 'remorseful' or compassionate toward the families of their victims? Maybe. But so what?
Is there anybody in America that wanted to pay for Mr. McVeigh to have 'three hots and a cot' for the next forty years or so? To make sure his TV worked? To see to it that he had access to a dentist when he had a toothache, or to pay for his new sneakers so he could try out for the prison basketball team?
No. Six years was enough.
And the FBI almost screwed that up.
There is one thing to be said for today's execution.
Timothy McVeigh has been deterred from ever doing it again.
Whether anybody else has been remains to be seen.
e-mail: okcnmem@ionet.net
phone: (405) 235-3313
fax: (405) 235-3315
Oklahoma City National Memorial
P.O. Box 323
Oklahoma City, OK 73101