Eternal Vigilance

It was five years ago that the Department of Homeland Security issued a report that indicated that right-wing extremism was on the rise in the US. Although criticized by some on the (moderate) right, this prediction has born out. I found myself thinking about that dynamic with the threat of possible violence looming over the militia-minded defense of rancher Bundy's welfare queen cows (thankfully, averted), and even more so with the fatal shooting of three in an attack on a Kansas Jewish Community Center.

The alleged shooter, Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., was a long-time white nationalist, and (keeping in mind he hasn't been convicted) apparent first-time mad-dog killer, but an interview with a friend of his, Craig Cobb, suggested a possible trigger--a lung disease that was slowly taking him off. That's kind of what I always suspected set off James van Brunn, who at age 89 opened fire in the Holocaust Museum killing one, a security guard--seeing the end of life coming, he simply saw murdering some innocent people in the name of his twisted world view a thing to cross off his bucket list. But there's this other, ominous thing that Cobb said:

"People are fed up."

 Makes one wonder--of what, exactly?

I tend to look at these fringe characters as most likely having some deep issues that they probably carried around well before they even latched on to groups that gave them a sense of meaning they could weave around their dissatisfaction. I think the white supremacist movement, among them, are the sorriest of the lot--when I hear "White power", my brain translates it as "white impotence". But if there is a feeling among any of these fringe groups that they are being oppressed by some nebulous, insidious, and probably ethnic forces of tyranny, it should be pointed out that individuals taking means into their own hands can be as unjust as any tyrant, as indiscriminate and cruel. 

I don't think I can understand the kind of hate that makes shooting at innocent people any kind of "message" that anyone ought to listen to. I do, just about, understand the fears that make it plausible that one might need to defend oneself from one's government (as persons mistakenly killed by LE throughout our misguided drug wars might have needed defending--but in my opinion, by clearer laws that protected their rights and met overreach with swift and certain justice). But who protects regular citizens from self-appointed "irregular" armies that clash by night?

(And by "night", I mean with some very dark methods in mind, indeed. )

It is a duty to be critical of one's government, especially in a democracy. It is imperative to be skeptical of its discontents. And as for society's chronic malcontents, like hate groups--of which doubtless, we can agree the KKK certainly is?

We ought to be vigilant. That's what freedom demands.