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I am almost convinced that insanity begets insanity. At the hands of a lone gunman 32 innocent people are dead and scores more injured or traumatized by the senseless shootings at Virginia Tech University last week. Long before the dead were buried…even before the dead were identified, the psychopathological racist right was spurred into high-gear and bizarre spin-doctoring. While it has long been evident that there is nothing truly sacred among those who suffer from myopic racism and hate, it became crystal clear that there are those within the ranks who lack even a semblance of compassion or empathy.
As the news of the shootings came across the mainstream airways the racist message boards went into overtime. The speculations as to the race or ethnicity of the shooter were swift in coming and amidst all of the hopes that the perpetrator and the victims were non-white came the anti-immigration crowd spewing "I told you so's" all over the place. Michael Blevins of VonBluvens fame was most relieved that it hadn't taken place on the 20th, (Hitler's Birthday) and a host of others were quick to start with their racist diatribe against Asians as soon as an identity was released.
As more details emerged, the absolute heinous nature of the American racist was revealed as they began attempting to find ways to exploit this tragedy. In what can only be depicted as a depraved and repugnant move, some VNN posters began to question whether or not this would be grounds for another rally. One member even stated.
"We do have some VNN'ers in VA. We need to keep on top of this and exploit any propaganda opportunities that arise."
Stunned beyond belief, mainstream America mourned the deaths and the wounding of her children. That was sanity dealing with an insane act. That was demonstrative of the true American spirit. That was what people in their right minds do. As their thoughts had been turned toward the senseless crime, the backdrop was a remembrance of the explosion that rocked the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City just 12 years earlier and the scars that will never fade. Yet, not all of those in this country are of sound mind. Not all have compassion or integrity. By and large, the racist movement is without character or virtue and is inhabited by flagitious miscreants and reprobates whose grasp of reality is tenuous at best. Perhaps the most psychotic of these people is Bill White.
White has been stung recently by harsh reality - the truth of his current situation has risen and slapped him squarely in the face. As a racist and a Nazi, Bill White has, once again failed. He has been ousted and outed by the very people that he has been so ardently trying to represent. Unable to hold a promised rally in the Over the Rhine area of Cincinnati, Ohio because his membership is not great enough, kicked off of the VNN forums because of his outrageous narcissistic behavior, shunned by the National Socilaist Movement, and deemed unacceptable to even the Ku Klux Klan, Bill White has found himself alone with a very hungry ego. Consequently, the news of death and injury coming out of a University just 45 miles away seemed to him another vehicle through which he could garner some attention.
Any news about the shooter or the victims was something most Americans were anxiously awaiting. We learned of Cho's stalking behavior and his being sent to a psychiatric facility in 2005. We heard from his professors and their previously expressed concern over his violently themed writings. We heard from his neighbors and fellow classmates of his lack of affect, failure to respond to simple greetings, spacing out and various atypical behaviors. We were slowly being able to piece together a profile of this disturbed young man and trying to make sense of his tragic acts. Bill White, however, wasn't very content with what was coming over the wires, or with the fact that the story was getting much more play than he was. As is typical of White, he had to put his own spin on these happenings and, at least, attempt to draw the media toward himself. For Bill this proved to be no easy task since there was no race-based hook, no Jewish "conspiracy," and no apparent tie to his ideology.
While others at VNN were posing the ludicrous possibility of this being a "black ops operation," White decided enough was enough, hence he wrote an article claiming that no one really cares about this and calling it "inconsequential" and "minor" event. Never mind that people around the world were shocked and saddened. Never mind that all of America was, once again, mourning. Never mind that hearts were broken and nerves were shattered. To Bill White, this was a distraction - from him and his needs. All eyes were on Blacksburg rather than Roanoke, and that just wouldn't do.
It became quite obvious to those who read his diatribe that Bill White had not the first clue about what happened at Virginia Tech on the morning of April 16th. In one paragraph he stated:
"From what I gather, this Korean mud man took a .22 caliber pistol and a 9 mm pistol to Virignia Tech and began shooting. Those are not high powered, high-capacity magazine weapons. He shot two people, then left, came back, and opened fire. He was locked in a classroom with another sixty people who could not get out, and thus he shot them, reloaded, shot them, reloaded, shot them, reloaded, probably five to six times before he ran low on ammo and killed himself."
By this time in the investigation it was well known that Cho had gone from classroom to classroom and that he had chained the doors to the building. When this statement of White's didn't generate any sort of conversation or make any kind of impact, White decided to attack the victims themselves - after all such an act would certainly bring the media circus into his ballpark. Wrong. White chastised the young men and women of Virginia Tech for not doing something to overcome the lone gunman and no one took the bait. Perhaps that is because no one was listening.
There is something to consider here about Mr. White. This man envisions himself not only as the Great White Hope but as the next Mayor of Roanoke, Virginia. He has always had political ambitions whether he was in his anarchist mode or his Hollywood Nazi role. Plans have been announced for his upcoming campaign in 2008, and he and his handful of supporters intend to blanket the community with slogans and literature promoting Bill White. We, at Citizens Against Hate, have been gearing up for just such an event, but I believe we can all stand down on this election. One, well developed, mail-out to the voters of that city should suffice. Using his own words against him, letting those words stand on their own merit, Bill White will taste yet another defeat - one that might just be the end of the public Mr. White.
In the wake of the Virginia Tech Massacre, we have postulated the need for more scrutiny of those who espouse violence and more vigilance in monitoring those who demonstrate aberrant behaviors to the extreme. We have discussed the need for more frequent and better psychological evaluations of those who meet the profile of someone like Cho, or McVeigh, or even Hal Turner. It is clear that the racist right is home to many deviants…that the racist movement attracts many who are of the criminal and, often, violent mindset. Allowing these people to continue in "leadership" roles where they wield a great deal of influence over other members without great circumspection is not only flirting with disaster but irresponsible on the part of society and its' government.
There are many freedoms that we enjoy by virtue of being Americans. These freedoms are coveted by others and cherished by our citizenry. There are those who would die to protect freedom of speech - and there are those who have died because of that freedom. As long as there are those within this country who lack the sense of responsibility that is endemic to this right, we all run the risk of having that right abrogated. Hate speech should never be considered protected speech under the First Amendment. That Amendment was intended to protect us from a tyrannical government. It was written to ensure that our right to speak out against such a government would never be curtailed. For the demented and depraved hate monger to assert that such a right extends to his or her incitement and prejudicial denouncement of whole groups of people is nothing less than a bastardization of the intended purpose of such an Amendment.
The reaction of the racist right to the murders in Virginia is representative of a very warped and amoral mindset. The exploitation and the glorification of the angst of others within a society is nothing less than pathological. Thirty-two innocent lives were taken and the effect on their friends and families is immeasurable. The same people who attempt to capitalize upon these deaths are the ones who portend a race war where those who are non-white or those who disagree with their agenda will meet the Day of the Rope and be strung up on every lamp-post while they cloak themselves in, of course, the First Amendment.
Our hearts and our prayers go out to all the victims and their families. There are no words that can ever convey what we really want to say in times like these. Our ability to make sense of the insanity that led to such an act is nonexistent for we are a civilized people with no understanding of that which is not. The fact remains that these people were taken from us. Their lives were stolen, cut short, and along with that theft their hopes, dreams and potential have been plucked from this world never to be realized.
We are all reminded, rudely, that tomorrow is not promised to any of us and that random acts of violence have become commonplace in this world of freedoms unparalleled. There are few among us who have yet to be touched by such tragedies. Yet, these villainous and heinous acts remain incomprehensible to us. That is probably a good thing because we should never be able to make sense of the insane mind. Insanity begets insanity - I'm convinced.