Timothy McVeigh - Patriotic Martyr of Peace

When Timothy McVeigh was executed for perpetrating the Oklahoma City Bombing, he died as a martyr, though most were blind to the cause. The former Marine had become sickened by the myriad of abuse wrought by the United States government upon its own citizenry. Ruby Ridge. Waco. Who knows how many similar travesties remain secret? McVeigh could no longer idly bear witness to such oppression.

The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was blown up not as an attack on the government but as a call to true Americans who were unable to see through the wool being pulled over their eyes by political wolves. This was not a call to arms, contrary to the desperate wishes of misguided militias, but a wake-up call, a call to action.

In his final days, Timothy McVeigh sounded that alarm. He spoke of Ruby Ridge and he spoke of Waco and of how, all around him, he saw the government beating down the very people it was created to serve. He could take no more of this abuse, but what can one man hope to do against the behemoth that our government has become? And so, on April 19th, 1995, he drove up to a federal institution with a massive bomb, and the rest, skewed though it may be, is history.

Unfortunately, there was a childcare facility at the point of explosion. It was thus that McVeigh’s message was lost. Destined for negative portrayal regardless of circumstance, the decorated combat veteran became a baby killer, a label that trumps all others.

No one wants to be associated with a baby killer, even if they truly believe in that person’s cause. To kill an innocent child is viewed as one of the most unforgivable of all sins. A scientist could discover a cure for cancer, but if she killed a child in the process, she would be far more reviled for...

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...that he could only achieve a forum for his message of peace through an act of great violence. It was his hope that the sheer magnitude of his act would express how desperately people needed to heed his call.

Perhaps, because of the unfortunate location of a daycare, he failed. But, perhaps, someone was able to look beyond the tragedy and see the honesty of his message. Perhaps they see that now, more than ever, Americans need to stand up to the abuses of our government. Perhaps, even as you read this, they are working to open eyes through education and other non-violent means.

If so, then Timothy McVeigh’s message was not lost and neither he, nor the Children of Oklahoma City, died in vain.

We Search for the Truth.

We Seek Justice.

The Courts Require It.

The Victims Cry for It.

And GOD Demands It!

- graffiti left by an anonymous rescue worker