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Mon. Jun 02, 2003

Eric Rudolph's Fan Club, Part 3

Eric Rudolph’s Fan Club, Part 3 – (Part 1, Part 2) – I just can’t seem to let go of this one, nor will some people let me. Let me address that first.

I’ve been pilloried in an e-mail (anonymous, of course) because of my failure to use “alleged bomber” when describing Rudolph, followed by a heated suggestion that if I’m going to be so biased, perhaps I shouldn’t write about it.

Excuse me? A month shy of seven years ago, I wrote, “First of all, I am NOT a journalist, nor do I play one on TV. If you’re looking for complete objectivity and 100% accuracy, click here.”

Furthermore, if you are reading weblogs in search of unbiased coverage of anything, that’s like trying to find a baby seal in the shark tank. A weblog is (usually) one person’s view of the world, and by that definition, is inherently biased.

But lets put on the Objectivity Hat, for just a moment. It’s possible that a reclusive survivalist living in Murphy, North Carolina, just happened to be 200 miles away in Birmingham, Alabama, at the very instant a bomb went off there, and that’s why a witness saw someone who looked an awful lot like Rudolph leaving the scene, then get into a truck with Rudolph’s license plates. It’s also possible that someone else was using Rudolph’s truck, and his storage locker where they found evidence forensically linked to the bombs, set off four bombs in less than a year, and then went completely silent for 6 years, years which just happen to coincide with the disappearance of Eric Rudolph.

It’s possible. But beyond a reasonable doubt? Well, I’m certainly willing to leave that to a jury. To me, it defies logic. Perhaps it just defies my personal logic, just as do those who publicly defend Rudolph’s “alleged” actions. I find that beyond the pale, beyond human decency. Infuriating. And I’m not alone.

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution: “Rudolph is not a folk hero but a terrorist.” “If he’s guilty of the Atlanta and Birmingham bombings, Rudolph is as much a terrorist as the 9/11 hijackers.”

“There’s only one difference: Rudolph’s homegrown. America is more comfortable with terrorists who speak in alien tongues and wear strange clothes. Rudolph challenges those assumptions, and he earns a grudging admiration from some quarters for his five-year game of hide-and-seek with police.”

“But eluding capture in the wilds of North Carolina doesn’t make Rudolph a folk hero. If he is guilty, he is simply a coward unwilling to accept the consequences of his actions.”

“Rudolph’s short hair, trimmed mustache and general good health suggest that he was assisted in his long flight from justice. If so, the people who protected the fugitive must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There should be serious consequences for hiding a man who was among the most hunted fugitives in FBI history.”

“There can be no excuse for defending or abetting accused terrorists, whether they come from the other side of town or the other side of the world.”

No excuse, indeed. Unless you are able to stand in front of each of the victims, offer those excuses to their face, and see the human consequences of your support for Rudolph. And there are dozens and dozens of victims, above and beyond the relatively well publicized names of Alice Hawthorne, Robert Sanderson, and Emily Lyons.

There’s another well publicized name, a man who was marked by this bombing in a most unique way. From USA Today: “Rudolph’s arrest doesn’t undo harm to Jewell, attorney says.” “The attorney for Richard Jewell, who was investigated in the 1996 Olympic bombing and named by a newspaper as a suspect, said the only thing that will ease his client’s mind is the conviction of the real bomber.”

“’The arrest of Eric Rudolph does nothing to change the injustice suffered by Richard Jewell,’ attorney Lin Wood said Saturday. ’It will be interesting now to be able to see the government’s evidence against Mr. Rudolph in connection to the Centennial Park bombing.’”

Rudolph’s victims were marked for life in many ways, as Joe Saraceno writes in, “Rudolph’s capture doesn’t ease pain for blast victims.” “Until Saturday morning, [Ronald] Smith said, ’I had pretty much written (Rudolph) off as a goner.’”

“’You think that after seven years, it’s all behind you. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that (Saturday) was a real emotional day,’ he said, recalling that horrifying scene in Olympic Centennial Park when a nail-loaded pipe bomb exploded, killing one and injuring 111.”

“’It kind of stirred the pot, you know? I remember seeing a flash, hearing a boom, being down on the ground and looking up to see my fingers hanging off my hand. I didn’t even know my leg was hit until the next morning in the hospital when I couldn’t move my foot.’”

“His injuries included shrapnel lodged in his skull. Smith’s right index finger was blown off, along with half of his thumb. Shrapnel also ripped through his right hand and lodged in his right thigh, partially severing his sciatic nerve. Doctors reattached the nerve, but it left Smith partially paralyzed with a dropped right foot. The nerve damage leaves him with a constant burning and tingling sensation in the foot.”

“Three weeks ago, Smith had reconstructive surgery. The hope is, one day, he will be able to walk without a leg brace, to unconsciously place one foot in front of the other without tripping.”

“Some North Carolinians expressed understanding, or outright sympathy, for Rudolph during his disappearance, something Smith calls ’a crock.’ He believes Rudolph may have been aided and abetted as a fugitive. Apparently more than a few citizens viewed Rudolph as a man who fought for their shared views of righteousness he was anti-government and anti-abortion. What he really represents is anti-humanity, the worst gutless cretin one can imagine a terrorist who slaughters the innocent.”

“’I’d like to see him spend the rest of his life in jail,’ Smith said.”

“Presumably, it’s all over for Rudolph, certainly if not in the purest legal sense, then in matters involving cosmic justice and karma. For others, sadly, they never will be released from their own prison.”

“Never” is a mighty strong word to use in such a generalization. Sometimes, as Mike Lopresti writes in USA Today, what’s needed is some sense of closure: “Rudolph arrest may bring closure to Atlanta Olympics.” “The Atlanta Olympics of 1996 have remained uncompleted and unavenged. The last page blank, long after the final medals and closing ceremonies. The flame went out in Georgia on a Sunday night that summer, missing some answers. Who bombed the Games? And why?”

“Someone attacked them before the eyes of the world. Strolled into a crowded and music-filled park and planted a device built to kill, to maim, to shock. A bomber without a name, a face or a reason.”

“At least Munich knew the political background to its massacre. Atlanta has never been given a reason. Was it political or religious, or just some nut out to kill people? [...] Sports events are designed to have a precise ending, be it the finish line, or the final inning or when time runs out.”

“The Atlanta Games had a closing, but never closure. We never met the person who tried to ruin them, never heard a cause, or a motive. Why? Why?”

“Maybe now.”

Maybe so. But I honestly don’t expect it to make any more sense to me than it did on July 27, 1996, or than it does today. How could it?