McVeigh Execution Sparks Introspection

by Selwyn Manning

At midnight Monday, New Zealand time, the former USA soldier Timothy McVeigh died by lethal injection.

McVeigh (33) was convicted and executed on murder, conspiracy and explosives charges for unleashing nearly 5,000 pounds of explosives on the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

McVeigh justified his crime by blaming the US federal government for the deaths of over 70 people at the Branch Davidian religious sect in Waco, Texas, in 1993.

McVeigh’s execution ended what Amnesty International titled a 38-year defacto-moratorium on the federal death penalty.

McVeigh’s execution has raised fears of retaliatory violence by individuals, who live within the USA, who will hold McVeigh up as a martyr.

Today the USA is a divided nation, divided on morality issues, on whether the death penalty ought to be used as the ultimate punishment, divided on whether it is a form of punishment at all or merely ‘putting out the trash’ – removing the monsters from the midst.

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh ate two pints of ice cream as a final formal meal before his execution, according to a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

McVeigh, who was moved Sunday to a cell next to the execution facility, spent the day sleeping normally, watching TV and meeting with his attorneys and with prison staff, said Dan Dunne, prison spokesman.

Today the USA is self-examining. Its thinking peoples are weighing up the balances we call value judgements.

Some say he, McVeigh, ought to have died for his crimes. Others say death is too easy for him. Others look to the future and prepare to protect their nation, their flag, their constitutional rights, their homes and families.

They batten down into their “American Beauty”, ready to fight not some middle-eastern fanatic, not some ideological power from the east, but ready to hunt out, expose, to rid their USA of the ultimate terrorist – the enemy from within.

Today, we present a snapshot of America - a fascinating profile series, a joint Scoop/Spectator project titled: “A North American Tapestry”. Here ordinary USA people talk about their beginnings, their thoughts, feelings, views and their impressions of where their USA is today and tomorrow.

See the “A North American Tapestry” profile series, at the Spectator.co.nz website.

See also Amnesty’s “McVeigh Execution: Adopting The Morality Of The Murderer” in the Scoop International wires.

And also see Sludge Report #85 – And One More Makes 169 in the Scoop Headlines wires.

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