This is what domestic terrorism looks like
WICHITA, Kansas -- Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas doctor whose clinic received national attention for performing late-term abortions, was shot to death as he entered his Wichita church on Sunday.
Tiller has been among the few U.S. physicians performing late-term abortion, making him a favored target of anti-abortion protesters. He testified that he and his family have suffered years of harassment and threats. His clinic was the site of the 1991 "Summer of Mercy" protests marked by mass demonstrations and arrests. His clinic was bombed in 1985, and an abortion opponent shot him in both arms in 1993.
Tiller's clinic also provided group and individual counseling, as well as chaplain and funeral services for people who were grieving). AP
This has been the single most consistent sort of terrorism in the US. More white folks, of a strongly fundamentalist religious view, have committed, or plotted, terrorism in the US than have Muslims. Family planning/women's health clinics, and abortion providers have always been, popular targets
And this month, Tiller's attorneys told the Associated Press, the doctor had asked the FBI to investigate an incident where vandals cut wires to security cameras, cut holes in the roof and plugged downspouts, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage to the clinic. (LA Times).
That's intimidation. The defintion of terrorism is: US CODE Title 18 Part I, Chapter 1138B § 2331
(5) the term "domestic terrorism" means activities that -
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation
of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended -
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by
intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
This is seems pretty clearly to be intended to influence a civilian population (both those physicians who perform abortions, and those who might seed to get one. It also threatens those who might have sought other services from him.
None of which is the problem. The problem is twofold. On the one hand we have the people like this one, who commit the overtly violent acts of terrorism. The one's who wage campaigns of intimidation, harrassement, and violence against groups like planned Parenthood.
But they are supported by the people campaign against folks like Dr. Tiller. Bill O'Reilly thinks You know, I've been covering the news in America for 30 years and this Kansas situation is the worst thing I've ever seen. ((FoxNews)
Mind you he isn't talking about the murder of Dr. Tiller, no, he's talking about Dr. Tiller himself.
Is this the America we want? Is it? This is the kind of stuff that happened in Mao's China and Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union.
Americans cannot turn away from this; cannot ignore it...
America is in the middle of an intense culture war, where the lives of babies are at stake. This has nothing to do with reproductive rights or any other euphemism. This has to do with terminating the lives of viable babies, because the mother wants to back out of the pregnancy in the late stages.
If we allow this, America will no longer be a noble nation - a country that stands for human rights and protection of the innocent.
If we allow Dr. George Tiller and his acolytes to continue, we can no longer pass judgment on any behavior by anybody.
What Tiller is doing is that bad.
O'Reilly, and his ilk, will say they have no connection with the end results. That's what they said when the UUC was shot up in Knoxville, and it turned out he had been reading a lot of right-wing talking heads books. Nope, his hatred of, "Liberals" didn't have anything to do with people like Sean Hannity, or Bill O' Reilly, or Chris Matthews. Ann Coulter saying they needed to be killed, Rush Limbaugh saying they need to be eliminated (except for a few token to be kept as pets, and object lessons), these things have nothing to do with those who are feeling helpless and angry deciding to go on a killing spree.
This attack, this act of terrorism, is a foreseeable outgrowth of that kind of thing. It's different from movies, et al., not because of the medium, but because of the message. A violent film is violent in some very specific ways. It fleshes out the plot tropes we've come to expect (the good guy kills the bad guy; he does't put him in prison).
But the Coulter's, the Savages, the Liddy's, they are making calls to action. O'Reilly will say he never said to kill Dr. Tiller, but he compared him to Mao, and to Stalin, and said, "something has to be done."
Well it's three years later, and someone decided to do something.
Tiller has been among the few U.S. physicians performing late-term abortion, making him a favored target of anti-abortion protesters. He testified that he and his family have suffered years of harassment and threats. His clinic was the site of the 1991 "Summer of Mercy" protests marked by mass demonstrations and arrests. His clinic was bombed in 1985, and an abortion opponent shot him in both arms in 1993.
Tiller's clinic also provided group and individual counseling, as well as chaplain and funeral services for people who were grieving). AP
This has been the single most consistent sort of terrorism in the US. More white folks, of a strongly fundamentalist religious view, have committed, or plotted, terrorism in the US than have Muslims. Family planning/women's health clinics, and abortion providers have always been, popular targets
And this month, Tiller's attorneys told the Associated Press, the doctor had asked the FBI to investigate an incident where vandals cut wires to security cameras, cut holes in the roof and plugged downspouts, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage to the clinic. (LA Times).
That's intimidation. The defintion of terrorism is: US CODE Title 18 Part I, Chapter 1138B § 2331
(5) the term "domestic terrorism" means activities that -
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation
of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended -
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by
intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
This is seems pretty clearly to be intended to influence a civilian population (both those physicians who perform abortions, and those who might seed to get one. It also threatens those who might have sought other services from him.
None of which is the problem. The problem is twofold. On the one hand we have the people like this one, who commit the overtly violent acts of terrorism. The one's who wage campaigns of intimidation, harrassement, and violence against groups like planned Parenthood.
But they are supported by the people campaign against folks like Dr. Tiller. Bill O'Reilly thinks You know, I've been covering the news in America for 30 years and this Kansas situation is the worst thing I've ever seen. ((FoxNews)
Mind you he isn't talking about the murder of Dr. Tiller, no, he's talking about Dr. Tiller himself.
Is this the America we want? Is it? This is the kind of stuff that happened in Mao's China and Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union.
Americans cannot turn away from this; cannot ignore it...
America is in the middle of an intense culture war, where the lives of babies are at stake. This has nothing to do with reproductive rights or any other euphemism. This has to do with terminating the lives of viable babies, because the mother wants to back out of the pregnancy in the late stages.
If we allow this, America will no longer be a noble nation - a country that stands for human rights and protection of the innocent.
If we allow Dr. George Tiller and his acolytes to continue, we can no longer pass judgment on any behavior by anybody.
What Tiller is doing is that bad.
O'Reilly, and his ilk, will say they have no connection with the end results. That's what they said when the UUC was shot up in Knoxville, and it turned out he had been reading a lot of right-wing talking heads books. Nope, his hatred of, "Liberals" didn't have anything to do with people like Sean Hannity, or Bill O' Reilly, or Chris Matthews. Ann Coulter saying they needed to be killed, Rush Limbaugh saying they need to be eliminated (except for a few token to be kept as pets, and object lessons), these things have nothing to do with those who are feeling helpless and angry deciding to go on a killing spree.
This attack, this act of terrorism, is a foreseeable outgrowth of that kind of thing. It's different from movies, et al., not because of the medium, but because of the message. A violent film is violent in some very specific ways. It fleshes out the plot tropes we've come to expect (the good guy kills the bad guy; he does't put him in prison).
But the Coulter's, the Savages, the Liddy's, they are making calls to action. O'Reilly will say he never said to kill Dr. Tiller, but he compared him to Mao, and to Stalin, and said, "something has to be done."
Well it's three years later, and someone decided to do something.