This Unfortunate Day in History

In the annals of late 20th century history, April 19th leaves a very ominous cloud over the United States. On that day in 1995, a Ryder truck, containing more than 6,200 pounds of an ammonium nitrate fertilizer, nitromethane and diesel fuel mixture, was detonated at 9:02AM CST by Timothy McVeigh in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK. The cowardly and heartless attack on the government office complex claimed 168 lives and left over 800 people injured. The bombing still remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in American history.

In seventy-five hours of prison interviews with Dan Herbeck and Lou Michel, reporters for "The Buffalo News", McVeigh became emotional while talking about killing a gopher in a field but never expressed any remorse for the Oklahoma City bombing. In fact, McVeigh remarked that "I understand what they felt in Oklahoma City. I have no sympathy for them." during the interviews, which started in May 1999. To make matters worse, McVeigh was actually disappointed that a portion of the building was still standing following the bombing: "Damn, I didn't knock the building down. I didn't take it down."

What many people forget is that McVeigh and his co-conspirators planned the bombing in Oklahoma City to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the end of the fifty-one day siege between the federal government and the Branch Dividians in Waco, TX. McVeigh stated that "What the U.S. government did at Waco and Ruby Ridge was dirty. And I gave dirty back to them at Oklahoma City.". Yes, because the individuals inside the Mount Carmel Center on the Branch Dividian ranch were completely innocent. Aside from the accusations of polygamy and sexual and physical abuse, some of the cult members shot at and killed multiple agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Therefore, you will have to excuse me if I don't weep for any of the Branch Dividians, male or female, young or old. As French revolutionist Maximilien Robespierre once said, "Omelettes are not made without breaking eggs".