After my article yesterday I did my usual research. As you may or may not know, I'm going to Waco to support the victims of the latest perversion of justice perpetrated by that thin blue line we've all come to know and love. I alluded to the "other" little adventure back in '93 not all that far from Twin Peaks. A place called Mount Carmel.
Now, before I get started I'd like to set things straight. David Koresh was a weirded out soap box preacher looking forward to the end of the world. He had his own explanation for the Book of Revelation. So did Joseph Smith, Charles Russell, Jerry Falwell, and every Pentecostal preacher who ever talked in tongues. When you take a highly encrypted work, in Greek no less, written by a guy who didn't want to get crucified, that's what you get. Nowhere in the work does it say, "Jesus will return at seven o'clock, April 16, 2017, right after the nightly news." It says things like, "Know the signs," and right THERE is the rub! Early Christians were so busy looking up for the "return in this generation," that they failed to notice those lions spilling out into the arena for the entertainment of the unwashed masses of Rome. So, for over two thousand years Christians have been pouring over Revelation trying to pinpoint the date, which was EXACTLY what Jesus told them NOT to do. David Koresh was no different. If you want to gain followers just tell a bunch of people that Jesus is going to pick up the mortgage. A little wine always helps.
Let's be frank. Religious freedom in America is a myth. You are religiously free so long as you conform. You can have church on Sunday morning, and eat fried chicken that afternoon, but if you are Mormon, and bring TWO wives to dinner Uncle Sam will declare war on your whole friggin' state! And the Muslims rant and rave about how we don't respect their "prophet," well get in line buddy. That path to persecution has been well worn by thousands before you! I have observed that when some group claims that God is on their side their will invariably be an opposing group claiming sole ownership of the Deity, leading free thinkers, such as myself to conclude that God simply MUST be bi-polar. Is He? Well, of course He isn't. Religion is! Religion is man's feeble attempt to explain the unexplainable. Write that down, there'll be a quiz later.
All this having been said, was David Koresh any crazier than a Hare Krishna banging those gongs at LAX, begging for change? Well, no he wasn't. But, the Hare Krishna has one thing going for him that David overlooked. The guy at the airport is in California, and David chose to live in bat-crap crazy Waco, the epicenter of knowledge, mom's apple pie, and law enforcement who wouldn't know what the constitution was if it ran up and bit them in the leg!
So, what was so wrong with the Branch Davidians? They believed the end was upon us. (So do the Mormons.) They held to the Old Testament and restricted their diet. (So do the Jews.) It is alleged they dabbled in polygamy. (Allah anyone?) So what was so bad up at Mount Carmel that the United States government had to mount an attack not seen in Texas since the Alamo? Well, them preacher boys had some guns. And they were holed up in a compound built from shipping crates believing when the end DID come that the government would attack Christians. Uh, if you will note, that building ain't there no mo'!
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed! Even Joseph Smith didn't have to put up with being told that he couldn't protect himself. Without going into a lengthy discussion of if David was "legally" licensed to bear arms I refer you to this site:
http://www.constitution.org/2ll/2ndschol/135wac.htm
Please remember the First Amendment, número UNO, says, "shall not be infringed!" So why did David and his band of merry men feel that they needed guns? Could it be that good ol' "religious freedom" thing, and crazy right wing fanatics out there sending them hate mail on almost a daily basis? You think? Did the Davidians mount a militia and attack Waco? Nope. They fed the poor who dropped by and for the food the guests had to put up with David's preaching.
If you take a hog, flip him over, and examine those little bumps running along his belly, well, those bumps are far more useful than the ATF! I had thought there were perhaps ten or fifteen agents involved in that attack. There were TRUCKS full!! Old David MIGHT have had fully automatic weapons, the ATF DID have them and charged Mount Carmel reminiscent of the siege of the Alamo. One big difference, though. Generalissimo Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was a seasoned army officer, and the ATF was a band of fools who got their tails blown off by a bunch of preachers on a Sunday morning! Bad hair day for the DIS-United States! When they embarked on this Tom foolery the federal agents invited the media, indeed, giving some of them rides! When they were begging the Branch Davidians to at least let them collect their dead from the battle field their opinion of the press was, shall we say, "Modified?" When I was reviewing file footage taken right after the initial assault I heard "MFer" so many times I thought I was watching a Richard Pryor routine!
So, here we had the ATF licking their wounds, herky-jerky Janet Reno trying to wipe that omelette off her face, and about eighty religious nuts thumbing their noses from the windows of the Best Little Church House in Texas! Bring in the snipers! There was this one guy. He popped the wife/mother up at Ruby Ridge. Chris Kyle he was NOT! Well, this idiot was positioned as a part of not one but three teams set up to shoot at anyone daring to look out a window. Now, bear in mind, this is STILL a church, and there are STILL women and children within said church. Did these people believe David's prophesy about the end times? Just look out the window . . . carefully, there's snipers out there!
It took Santa Anna thirteen days to neutralize the Alamo. On day fifty-two the ATF finally devised a plan to end the Battle of Mount Carmel. They were gonna gas 'em! Hitler would be so proud. Oh, I watched the FBI guy going on and on about "low doses" of CS gas, but I have two problems with that. One, CS gas! You know, that stuff you throw under a tank to make the guys inside puke and exit? Yeah, THAT stuff. Low dose? That's like being a "little bit pregnant." The occupants inside the compound sent the women and children to a concrete bunker for safety. The ATF pumped "low doses" of CS gas into that bunker for FOUR hours! I can't stand a smoky BAR for four hours. And, oh yes, the attackers knew where everyone was because they HAD people INSIDE planting bugs so as to hear what was going on. At one point these spies were even at grabbing distance of David himself but we're told to "Stand down" because Janet had "another" plan!
Bring in the tanks! That's right, tanks. Pumping these "low doses," pushing down walls and, oh yes, firing fully automatic fire from helicopters. Inside we had people who had been deprived of sleep, hungry, cold, restricted to about eight ounces of rain water per day, totally believing that this was the apocalyptic battle David had warned them about. We all know how it ended, and we all had to put up with the government spin regurgitated for YEARS after. There was even a congressional hearing, with all the congressmen showing righteous indignation, and do you want to know what came out of those hearings? NADA! Now one arrest of any FBI, ATF, not even ONE missed paycheck, indeed PROMOTIONS!
So why do I hate Waco? I hate Waco because the Sheriff, police, DPS, and all the rest just stood by and WATCHED this happen! Just like they did on May 17th at Twin Peaks! Just like Mount Carmel they stood by until the situation blew completely up, and then over reacted in true Waco fashion. Two bikers got into a fight in a bar. Some preacher-boy's paperwork wasn't in order. See the pattern? The ATF could have arrested David Koresh at Walmart. Four cops could have handcuffed two bikers that day in the parking lot. It's that simple, but then, I'm just a Simple Ol' Boy from Austin so what do I know? One image is burned into my mind. I saw, yesterday, an ATF agent after the fall of Mount Carmel holding up a toddler's sleeper. It was the exact same one from Walmart that my grandson, NewBaby wears! I will NEVER forgive Waco!
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