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Mon. Jun 02, 2003

Eric Rudolph's Fan Club, Part 2

Eric Rudolph’s Fan Club, Part 2 – After September 11, a lot of Americans called on Muslims to speak out against the terrorism. It was said that they must police themselves from the inside, and publicly condemn those who claimed to be their peers, yet killed innocents.

Well, I’m from North Carolina, and I’m from the same generation as Eric Rudolph (8 years separate our ages). And I’m here to tell you, he’s a cowardly terrorist, and those who supported him are at best, severely misguided, and more likely, scum.

I feel the need to make this most obvious statement because there are still people in my home state sickly singing Rudolph’s praises. Melanie sent me an e-mail pointing to this NY Times article, “Sympathy for Bombing Suspect May Cloud Search for Evidence.”

“Around noon, Mrs. Howard walked outside, glanced up at the sign in front of her diner and decided to change the lettering on the marquee from ’Roast Turkey Baked Ham’ to ’Pray for Eric Rudolph.’”

“’Bless his heart,’ Mrs. Howard said. ’Eric needs our help.’”

Praying for a killer is not necessarily a contradictory act, some consider such a prayer to be a Christian tenet: forgiveness. But in the fall of 2001, I wonder if Mrs. Howard said, “Bless his heart. Osama needs our help.”

Oh, I’m sure they’d say “that’s different, Eric was fighting heathen abortionists, and the feds.” Hmmm, wasn’t Osama fighting “heathens,” and “the feds”?

And such an argument overlooks one glaring fact (emphasis mine): “While most of his supporters cite his anti-abortion views, a popular stance in many rural, conservative areas, they gloss over the most notorious charge against Mr. Rudolph, that he set off a pipe bomb in a random crowd at the Summer Olympics.”

This was no convention of abortionists or FBI agents, it was as diverse a crowd as you will ever find in Atlanta. People of all types, colors, nationalities, and beliefs. Out of the 110 injured, you can be certain that many of them were against abortion. But the nails from Rudolph’s 40 pound pipe bomb, the largest the FBI says they’ve ever seen, ripped through the flesh of all, regardless of belief.

He didn’t care who he killed. Those are the acts of a terrorist. And these are the words of a terrorist supporter: “’I didn’t see him bomb nobody,’ said Hoke Henson, 77. ’You can’t always trust the feds.’”

Well, Hoke, you didn’t “see” Osama bomb anyone, either, but I bet you were calling for his head.

“’He was a man who stood for what he believed in,’ said Bo Newton, a short-order cook in Andrews. ’If he came to my door, I would’ve given him food and never said a word.’”

No doubt, he stood up for his beliefs. He believed in the murder of innocents to advance his cause. Hitler did, too. And Osama. Those are Eric’s true peers. And that is the legacy you support.

People who claim to be Good Christians, yet defend the acts of Eric Rudolph, need to refresh themselves on the Ten Commandments, especially Number 5.

As a result of this, today, the wonderful times I’ve had in the North Carolina mountains over the years now feel somewhat tainted. And the only way I know to reclaim them is to condemn those who support a murderer, yet claim to be good Christian Americans.

I don’t know what you are. But you’re not what I was raised to believe is a “Good Christian,” and you most certainly are not my peer. You bring shame to the state of North Carolina, and all Americans.