April 19^th: two sad and violent days and one day of hope!

The Waco Compound was torched 12 years ago.

The Oklahoma City ombing was 10 years ago.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, the 265^th Pope.

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Three things mark this day:

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The tragedy at Waco in which so many innocent lives were lost.

Will we ever know how that fire was set and who did it? Was it suicide by Koresh and his followers or did a heat generating FBI tear gas canister set the fire?

Since the FBI had the Waco compound totaled razed, we will never be able to have reinvestigation of the ruins done.

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The Destruction of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in which so many innocent lives were lost.

We know about Timothy McVeigh and how he decided to kill the Feds he held responsible for the deaths at Waco. Did he not realize that many innocent lives would be lost? It might have made a slight bit of
sense if he had taken pistols in hand and directly attacked the Feds involved. Instead, he put a bomb outside the crowded Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building , set it off and murdered the innocent. A horrible irony in that his intended targets weren't "home" that day...

(If you consider that the Federal Agents who surrounded the Waco compound were law enforcement people simply doing their sworn duty, then you should include them in with the innocent as well. I do...)

I discussed this with my wife and she flat refused to entertain the notion that the dead at Waco should be remembered and mourned at the same time as the dead at the Murrah. I see a linkage between the two
events, she does not. I think this is a common idea. If I do not remember those at Waco, who will? If no one remarks on the blotched attempt to simply serve a search warrant at Waco, could it happen again? But, I digress.

McVeigh supposedly mourned the deaths of the children at Waco. What about the children at the Murrah Building? My wife and I have taken the pilgrimage to the Oklahoma City Museum and it is horribly impressive! (Plug here: if you've not gone there, do so. Take a couple of dry hankies with you cause you'll need them!) I know people who live in Norman Oklahoma and it was only an act of God that they weren't at the Murrah Building that day. What happened was bad enough; it would have been worst if anyone I knew had been killed or physically hurt. I say "physically hurt" as I know a woman who was working in the newspaper building near the Murrah and she is still disturbed by the bombing.

There is a horrible sort of logic to McVeigh's claim that as he was at war with "The Great Beast" (i.e. "Federal Government") and any Act of War he committed that resulted in deaths merely resulted in "Collateral
Damage". I don't buy this bullshit! (Especially since I am ex-military and literally in the third generation of my family to have served in the Armed Forces. McVeigh might well have considered me to be part of "The Great Beast"!)

There is a hell of a lot of difference between a legitimate act of war and murder.

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A New Pope!

But, a happy note. We have a new Pope! I just hope this newest Holy Father will be able to help heal some of the many bleeding wounds that cover this damaged old world!