Posted on 10/15/2002 4:57:08 AM PDT by billorites
WASHINGTON IS under siege again, this time because of a sniper.
Waiting for the next attack is something the capital citys residents learned the pain of a year ago on Sept. 11, as we watched the twin towers burn on television, smelled the smoke pouring out of the Pentagon, and waited for the other airplane reported missing by newscasters to slam into our offices on Capitol Hill or near the White House.
That other plane never hit us, because its heroic passengers overpowered their hijackers and drove it into the Pennsylvania earth instead. But now Washingtonians know all too well what its like to wait for the next shoe to drop.
This is not a new feeling. Thats how my Washington colleague, Miriam, describes her response to the sniper lurking in the suburbs of the nations capital since Oct. 2, picking off innocent men, women, and children as they pump gas, mow the lawn, load packages into the car, etc. The sickening familiarity of this feeling is the result of the oxymoronic caution we have been hearing for over a year now: Be on the lookout for terrorists, but dont profile Middle Easterners. Go about your business, but be alert. Alert for what? Look out for what? How does one look out for a sniper? We are sitting ducks for the sniper, just as we are sitting ducks for terrorists. Could the sniper be a terrorist? This possibility has crossed the mind of more than one Washingtonian.
My friend Marcy, who has a daughter locked down in a suburban Maryland kindergarten and must now learn the difference between the school systems Code Blue and Code Red warnings, finds the timing of the snipers activity a little too coincidental. Dont you think its strange that were preparing to go to war with Iraq at the same time this is happening? she asked me the day a 13-year-old boy was gunned down outside of another suburban Maryland school. No one is officially discussing such a link, but why couldnt the two nightmares be related?
As the local police departments from Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., join forces with the FBI and Secret Service to track down the sniper, one must ask: could this be an attempt to divert law enforcements attention from the planning of a bigger crime? After all, the sniper likely has some sort of military training, killing almost all of his victims with a single shot from his rifle.
At least two eyewitness reports describe two individuals not just one fleeing the scene. If the sniper is working in concert with another individual, it decreases the chances that he is a psychotic acting out his delusion of grandeur. And there is no discernible pattern among his victims they are of every race, age and gender. Granted, the discovery of the snipers note near the Maryland school weakens the terrorist theory somewhat. Its hard to imagine an Islamic fundamentalist blasphemously writing I am God on a tarot card, of all things. But regardless of whether the sniper is linked to al-Qaida or not, his intention is clearly to sow terror in the Washington, D.C. community and make its residents feel vulnerable at all times.
The Washington Post reported Friday that more people are using full serve at gas stations, because four of the snipers victims were filling up their own tanks. Many people have prepaid for the gas, but have driven off without filling up in nervous, absent-minded haste. I have to wait for the bus for work in the morning, and every few minutes I look over my shoulder to make sure I know whats going on, says Stephan, another Washington colleague. Theres a special place in hell reserved for someone who shoots little children in the back, Stephan assures me somberly. Nothing elicits moral judgments in big cities anymore other than incidents of unambiguous evil like the sniper. Or the Sept. 11 terrorists.
Suddenly, a diverse metropolis notorious for its competing opinions on right and wrong unifies against the embodiment of sin in the world. Sadly, nothing brings people closer together, feeling like part of a community. Minutes before the Pentagon City mall closes on a recent weekday, I dash through its parking lot, alert for the sniper, and duck in to buy a bottle of nail polish. (No sniper is going to interfere with my priorities.) As I hand the woman behind the counter my money, she thanks me and warns, Be careful out there. She doesnt have to say why. I want to reach across and hug this stranger goodnight, sister to sister, both of us under siege. Again.
Bernadette Malone is the former editorial page editor.
It is the emptiness of liberal values being exposed for what they are: little thoughts for little brains. Am I scared? Sure. . .but my fear pales in front of my faith that this will be an opportunity for our God, our nation and our culture to be proven in front of the world. Let's show the world who we really are! We are Americans! Act like it! Me? I'm going to Home Depot today.
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