Reply #17: I'm glad this was brought up! [View All]

[Montauk6]

I remember well at the time how a lot of the right-wing callers (this was when I was "in the life") actually praised then-Mayor Wilson Goode for cleaning out these 'commie scumbags.' I was in my early 20s, didn't think much about it, thought hmmmm maybe a bit extreme but, hey, they weren't cooperating with authorities, so maybe they brought it on themselves.

Cut to a few years later, the siege at Waco (didn't this kinda sorta start, like Somalia, on GHW Bush's watch late in the game?). Wingers were losing their MINDS. Everyone on talk radio, shortwave, longwave, whatever was up in arms about this abuse of police power (ironic, is it not, that these same people argue vociferously that this is the SOLE legitimate purpose of government). This was also around the time of the Ruby Ridge standoff with Randy "Separationism not separatism" Weaver where feds took out his wife, son and dog; it was a bad scene to say the least.

Anyway, in listening to all the rhetoric, I felt uneasy and I think it was one of those Moments that started me questioning my own politics. I remember thinking, but wait, what's so different about Waco and Philly? How can you favor blowing up a neighborhood block in the inner city but scream bloody murder at the spectacle of an isolated compound being sizzled? I just couldn't accept such blatant hypocrisy, and that's when I started to wake up to what these folks were truly about (hey, better late than never, right?).