First let me say that I understand the sadness, the thirst to know the truth of the situation and the fact that to have a discussion of this topic we have to be willing to wade into some of the darker waters of our human existence. I am not the sort of individual that goes looking for a "blood sacrifice" to bring closure to a great injustice. If anything I'd be inclined to make an attempt to head in a different direction to find a solution or close the wound and stop the bleeding.
In my own personal search for truth in this life, specifically in the face of great tragedy, I have discovered that there is little solace to be found in lists of numbers or names. In looking at the statistics, chasing cockroaches into the shadows as they scurry away to hide themselves from the light of responsibility, I find that the truths you will discover there are only those of an accountant. Truths that are transient, listed neatly in the ledger they reveal little except maybe, hopefully, a place to temporarily point the finger. We may out some of our demons, make them stand before a nation in the harsh light of their actions, but who stands behind them? Ready to step up and take their place...is there always another, then another, and then another? I'm off in this direction because Mr. Baerwald seemed to assert that we should be looking for some sort of government conspiracy to explain the bombing in Oklahoma City and that by putting Tim McVeigh to death we have lost valuable evidence in chasing it down. I am all for a never ending search for truth, it is in fact the reason Doc Wahoo exists, but as a point of reference let us take into consideration that there is a difference between a search and a crusade. I'm not sure I'm expressing myself well here but I think what I'm trying to say is if you were looking for the truth of the sun and went out and stared at it all day to find it...and this caused you to go blind...what would be the truth you were left with?
From my perspective, the greatest dishonor we could show the innocent victims of this tragedy is to forget them. This is exactly what will happen as the historians write their versions of this. The name that will be remembered, that will be shown the most significance is Tim McVeigh. That, to me, is a crime. It is just my personal preference that instead of treating him as the Holy Grail, instead of letting him feel significant because he is visited by a parade of interrogators and interviewers, instead of letting him have his one hour special on prime time where Mike Wallace does his "FIRST PUBLIC INTERVIEW SINCE THE OKLAHOMA BOMBING TRAGEDY", instead of letting him have his book deal and selling the movie rights, instead of letting him become and worst of all understand that he has become some sort of pop culture icon, it is my preference that we send him off into the great beyond (with Gore Vidal sitting right fucking next to him for all I care) with, and I'll borrow a phrase you seem to enjoy here, the sincere hope that there is a God and that He is vengeful beyond all comprehension.
Ignoring the simple sarcasm of the piece from the Onion quoted here, I think that if his execution brought any sort of solace to the survivors of the bombing, or the families of those who died, if it even just for one of them stirred them for just one second from the pain and the numbness they suffer from their loss, then it was worthwhile. Our lives are short we only have so much time to search for truth within them. I will repeat here that our best and brightest had him at arms reach for a period of years and they got nothing. Nothing. We don't get to rest easy after this, we have been shown how simple it is to get into your car, drive to work, leave your kids at school or daycare, and lose it all in one short breath. We lost nothing killing Tim McVeigh, so many others lost everything because of him. Everytime you sit down to take a shit would you like to keep it in a glass case around the house because there may be something...some element of truth to be gleaned from it at some point in time? You'd have a house filled with shit in glass cases!
I think everything about this stinks. The media feeding frenzy and Tim McVeigh deathwatch that seemed to permeate everything. You could not escape it. Will it be televised? What celebrities will attend or get to watch it on closed circuit TV...like it was a heavyweight championship fight. His execution was a blessing just because it put an end to all that. To clarify here, I have no rage for Tim McVeigh, I have nothing for him, I would not waste my emotions on such a creature. I do have sadness, and I do have hope, and I do have love. Maybe we can learn, maybe we can understand, maybe we can live together. Maybe we can see the simplest of truths right before our eyes and understand...not look beyond it for something else. In the article above I posted the prosecutor claims we have scored a victory over Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols. No such thing ever happened. Not in the courtroom or the execution chamber. All we did was write a little more of our history in blood. Maybe someday, somewhere we, as a society, can understand and benefit from that. That's probably a long way off though.
Your friend & brother,
Dr. Wahoo Capybara