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Lunatics, Fanatics and Cool Hand Osamas
NMB, Florida October 8, 2001 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
LUNATICS, FANATICS AND COOL HAND OSAMAS
A lunatic is a suicidal murderer piloting a plane into a building filled
with people. A fanatic is one of mobs of people screaming approval of this
deed. Behind the lunatic and fanatic is the cool hand Osama bin Laden who
secretly plots and directs sequels. Who are OUR lunatics, fanatics and cool
handed plotters? We have them, you know.
I am reminded of my days as a newly minted history and civics teacher in a
ghetto junior high school. Every once and a while the simmering streets
would spill over into the school's corridors and a "champion" fight would
break out. The two contenders were placed in the difficult position of
having to say: "You don't expect me to let him say that about my mother?"
They were put into that hot spot by previous events. They were familiar and
innocuous enough underpinnings although they exploded into violence. Push
led to shove, expletive led to personal insults and finally, the by-standers
took over. They were partisan, divided into opposing camps and urged on the
two frightened kids to kill each other.
The scenario sketched out above is the world at war in miniature. The
long-term disagreements and dissatisfactions by third world have-not
"nations" have been escalated into internal conflicts first involving
neighbors and finally attracting the attention of the great "Satan",
America. Some are saying that economic and imperialist motives of the U.S.A.
preceded any of the unrest in these far off lands. In other words we caused
an understandable attack on ourselves.
Our homegrown terrorists and followers of evil doctrines will be making hay
here while the bombs fly "over there". We have, after all, our shadowy
Timothy McVeys who work on plans and time-tables of their own devising.
They, too, seem to want to tear down our government. More visible are our
lunatic Nazis, our KKKs, our gun-toting militias and our own extremist
fundamentalists. They and their fanatic followers won't wait long to tear
down our democratic institutions. It seems that the radical left has been
replaced by a radical religious right What do you know about them? What do
you think? Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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