When no news is good
This past weekend, most Americans went about their regular
spring activities - family picnics, visiting the zoo, planting
gardens, cleaning out garages. But we did so with a figurative
glance over our shoulder, an apprehension marking the occasion
of April 19.
Two years ago on that date, the nation was stunned by the slaughter
of 168 innocent people in the bombing of the federal building
in Oklahoma City. Two years before that near Waco, in an apparently
related incident, 76 members of the Branch Davidian cult died
needlessly in a fire that culminated a standoff with the government.
On Saturday, security was heightened at national parks and
public buildings as a precaution against possible further destruction
on this grim anniversary. The disappearance of an Air Force A-10
attack aircraft in Colorado, as Timothy McVeigh is about to go
on trial in Denver for the Oklahoma City bombing, added to the
speculation and the vague unease.
But the day passed without incident, and the nation's news
media were glad not to have to fill their Sunday reports with
additional tales and images of bloodshed. No news, this time,
was good news.
Were the terrorist forces that produced the Oklahoma City bombing
so appalled by the concrete reality of their misguided, abstract
anger that some degree of common sense has been restored? It would
be a comforting thought. April 19 has already been commemorated
with more than enough loss of life.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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