University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 46, Ed. 1 Friday, April 28, 1995 Page: 3 of 8
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University Press
Lamar University
<!
Friday, April 28,1995
Page 3
Editorials
Heartland terrorism
Bombing will tighten liberties;
Americans must come together
Timothy McVeigh and his
accomplice(s) killed a little bit
of all America last week —
not only by destroying many
lives, but by killing the liber-
ties we all enjoy and often
take for granted as
Americans.
McVeigh, and others like
him, claiming to be “patriots”
are supposedly fighting to
preserve their freedoms as cit-
izens. They claim a conspiracy
by the government to take
away personal freedoms runs
so deep that the U.S. govern-
ment itself planned and exe-
cuted the bombing attack on
the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma City.
The bombing attack has
caused America to re-evalu-
ate itself. While the case is far
from finished, investigators
are trying their hardest to link
McVeigh to the militia move-
ment. The FBI and other law
enforcement agencies are
looking into these groups that
advocate the overthrow of the
U.S. government as a source
of domestic terrorism.
Questions arise as to
whether limits should be
placed on free speech. The
law in the United States is
broad and for decades has
been backed again and again
by the Supreme Court and
lesser courts. But these fanat-
ics and fringe groups are
impeding on the very rights
they are claiming to be fight-
ing for.
Strong language condemn-
ing anything against the gov-
ernment, against religion or
any other topic citizens wish
to speak out on, is going to be
monitored a little tighter. The
ability to move about in the
country in respect to visiting
federal buildings (to renew
license plate tags for instance)
will be more restricted and
time consuming. These are all
things we citizens will have to
deal with, and we can thank
every Timothy McVeigh-type
in America for it.
The bombing has brought
about a turn of events that
will shake the very founda-
tions of America. The United
States is the strongest country
in the world; but we, as citi-
zens, have become our great-
est weakness. We are all
responsible for the shape of
our society. Instead of foster-
ing understanding, compas-
sion and community, our citi-
zens sponsor hate, terrorism
and anger.
The United States became
great over the last 219 years;
for no matter from where we
came, or who we were, we
were always able to come
through it together.
This year marks one of the
greatest efforts our nation has
ever endeavored — the 50th
anniversary of the end of
World War II.
Were we victorious over
Japan and Nazi Germany just
so we could destroy our-
selves?
From what happened last
week, it almost looks so.
I The last issue of the
I University Press will be
l Wednesday.
1 Editorial deadline is
Monday noon.
Procrastination blues
Who said it had to be a No. 2 pencil, anyway?
You know that you’re brain-
washed when you think your
future has come down to a No. 2
pencil.
If you’ve been a student in
these United States of America
for any length of time, you’ve
met the Scantron — a computer
sheet with lots of little bubbles
to be filled in completely with a
No. 2 pencil OR ELSE.
If you’ve ever shown up for a
Scantron test without your No.
2, you’ve known terror.
Before I left for my Spring
Break trip to Britain, I was sup-
posed to have filled out an
important registration form for
the ExCET exam. There was a
$30 late fee if it did not get
where it was supposed to be in a
week or I could wait and take
the test when it was next
offered in October.
I’m a classic procrastinator,
so I decided to fill out the form
on the plane between Jefferson
County Airport and Dallas/Fort
Worth and mail it in Dallas.
There was only one problem.
The pencil in my bag had a
snapped lead. No biggie. I’d just
get a pencil in Dallas.
Upon my arrival at DFW, the
connecting flight to
Philadelphia was calling passen-
gers. So much for stopping at
the gift shop. I boarded my next
plane. Because it was a three-
hour flight, I had too much time
to worry.
No pencil, no test, no teacher
certification, no job, no future.
I pulled out the pencil I had
and started gnawing at the
wood around the lead until I got
SOMETHING.
I filled in the first three bub-
bles of my name and decided I
was being ridiculous. (Plus, I
was putting holes in the paper.)
Once we landed and I knew I
had enough time between
flights, I went up to the desk to
check in for my connecting
flight to London. Very calmly,
as if my life didn’t depend on it,
I asked the ticket lady if she had
a No. 2 pencil. No.
No biggie. I asked the guy in
line behind me. He searched his
pockets...no. I walked around,
asking a couple of hundred dif-
ferent people, even a kid with a
box of map pencils, crayons and
markers...nope!
But people had ink pens, lap-
tops and highlighters. It was a
conspiracy!
Then, the most embarrassing
moment of my life. I walked up
to a businessman. He was seat-
ed with his briefcase on his lap
and I could tell right off that he
was concentrating on something
really important.
“Excuse me, sir. Do you have
a pencil?”
He smiled at me but I could
tell he was still concentrating on
his work. He reached into the
inside of his suit coat and I
started thinking, ‘Yes! Yes!’...
and he pulled out one of those
really fancy mechanical pencils
that you can push a button on
to get new lead.
Before he could hand it to
me, I had to ask...I HAD TO
ASK this busy man who no
doubt had “real” problems to
solve... if it was a No. 2 pencil.
He looked at me then. I
mean, he really looked at me
and said, “I’m not sure.”
I couldn’t risk it. I ran
through terminals A-Z checking
gift shops. I found trash novels,
deodorants, pain relievers, T-
shirts, post cards and coffee
cups...
Coffee cups! Like I’d desper-
ately need a coffee cup in an
airport, for crying out loud. I
went back to my broken pencil!!
and spat out some more spliiw
ters. I was within a second of
asking the security guard if the
buzzer went off for lead!
Finally, I went up to the
Bureau de Change window and
the woman there handed me a
pencil — a No. 200.
Was it a typo? I mean, are
there really 200 different leads
or did somebody pick a numbef
out of thin air? Is No. 2 better
than No. 200, or that much-»
more inferior?
With minutes left before my j
plane left without me, I bubbled '
in the form with a No. 200, \
mailed it and waited for the !
powers that be to wipe me off *
the face of the earth.
But nothing happened. Sure, j
somebody out there knows J
what numbers on what pencils !
are okay to use on those scan \
sheets, but it’s too late for me! •
I’m graduating! I’m taking my J
teacher certification test tomor- '
row with a No. 2 (several No. !
2s).
And when I get a job, I’m let- «
ting the next generation in on a “
little secret.
Nedone Brantley is a UP staff
writer
Bombers are cowards
0.
» Last week’s bombing in Oklahoma City
ijurt more than the citizens of that great city.
It hurt all Americans. There are two good
tnings that came from Timothy McVeigh’s
deed: It proved Americans care about one
another, enough that individuals with no
attachments to the victims were willing to
crawl under tons of rubble to rescue sur-
fivors. The other is that it took something so
, horrible to keep the O.J. Simpson off the
headlines.
I felt sorry for the victims, and I feel rage
tbward the bombers. Having served in the
U.S. Army in Germany, bomb threats were
the norm. In September 1990, I had just left
the post exchange at Ledward Barracks in
Sfchweinfurt when a clerk found a briefcase-
ftjll of Semex, wired with a timer. Semex is a
plastic explosive compound similar to C-4.
The timer was faulty and the device failed to
dfetonate. The military police said there was
emough explosive in the briefcase to level a
qjty block.
But I naively never expected terrorist
bombings to take place here in America, at
least not by one of my fellow veterans. I
guess that is because, like many Americans, I
believe no matter how screwed up we are,
we would not resort to bombing a building
tfith a day care center in it. I was wrong.
* Animals like McVeigh are cowards. They
c^n’t deal with their own problems, so they
bring them to society as a whole and then say
4
k
society is to blame. Weak logic, I say.
McVeigh is among the many frustrated
Americans. People fed up with the political
system, fed up with Congress, fed up with
taxes and so on. These people are so fed up
they have organized militias to oppose what-
ever they see as being wrong with this coun-
try. Hell, I’m frustrated, too, but I address
the issues with my mind — not with bombs.
Political and media pundits have charac-
terized McVeigh and the militiamen as “frus-
trated, middle-class, white males,” who are
paranoid and obsessed that America will be
absorbed into some multinational govern-
What puzzles me is'mat'th6se people will
spend large amounts of money procuring
weapons and spend hours running around in
the woods, but they won’t take five minutes
to visit a voting booth on election day. To
me, that is not being frustrated. It is laziness
and ignorance.
I know a little about militias. Texas has its
1
own called the Texas Constitutional Militia
and has a “training area” near Conroe. After
I was released from three-years of active
duty, I continued to serve in the reserve and
was approached to join the TCM by some
people in my unit. I even attended a meeting
to see what these folks were about.
These people (I refuse to call anyone with
less than one-year active duty a soldier) told
me America is being ruined by blacks, bleed-
ing liberals, feminists and basically anyone
else you can think of These people referred
to themselves as “patriots.”
“Ya know like in the Revolutionary War,”
one replied to me.
Basically to me, these people are a bunch
of gun nuts (I know because I’m a gun nut)
who use any excuse to include “God ‘n’
guns” in any and every conversation and lis-
ten to taped episodes of Rush Limbaugh or
radio broadcasts of G. Gordon Liddy and
Oliver North.
Of course, Liddy helped to bring us
Watergate and North sold weapons to a
country (Iran) that our armed forces will
fight within the next decade. Great role mod-
els, huh.
America wake up, these are our enemies.
Stephan Malick is UP editor
Letter to the Editor
Crisis in Metropolis,
we need Superman
Editor
What’s faster than a killing
bullet? Able to blow up build-
ings in a single round? Great
Scott! Where did Superman fly
off to when the country seems
to need him most? I can’t
remember the last time I
watched the news and didn’t
see a homicide report. It’s little
thoughts like those that keep
me warm all night.
Maybe if ol’ Supes was fly-
ing over Los Angeles the night
Nicole Brown-Simpson and
Ronald Goldman were mur-
dered, he could have used his
super-vision to see what really
happened. With an eyewitness
account like that, this mockery
of a trial would have been over
months ago. Justice, indeed.
Even better, what if a blue
and red streak were seen over
the busy streets of Oklahoma
City moments before certain
death. I can see it now —
swarms of innocent bystanders
marveling at the man that
swoops down out of the sky,
and, with a flick of his mighty
hand, sends all danger soaring
toward the sun. Law enforce-
ment — superman style.
Instead, I had to watch the
same footage you did, not an
act of heroism, but rescue
workers pulling out the bodies
and remains of friends and
family members. Call me crazy,
but I usually like to picture a
different American dream.
So c’mon, Clark (the glasses
never fooled me), level with us.
Does our breath smell like
Kryptonite or what? What
made you leave us?
Jimmy Olsen, if you’re read-
ing this, start up that signal
watch of yours! America needs
the man of steel!
I’d do it myself, but I’m not
bullet-proof, can,!t fly, and my
fancy tights are dirty.
Up, up, and away?
Jason Parish
Beaumont freshman
V
K
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Malick, Stephan. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 46, Ed. 1 Friday, April 28, 1995, newspaper, April 28, 1995; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500926/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.