Enemies Foreign and Domestic

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 14 Jul 2003 12:00:00 GMT
Lewis News plans to interview Rick Stanley tomorrow night, Tuesday, 15 July, at 8pm Pacific Time (that's 11pm on the right coast). Requires Windows Media Player. [stanleyscoop]

I started re-reading Jeff Snyder's Nation of Cowards. Awesome.

Traprock Peace Center - July 25-26 - "Protecting our Civil Liberties: The Core of Democracy" - a conference in Greenfield, MA. "Frank Serpico, former NYPD detective, he provides educational programs for police; Atty. C. William Michaels; Atty. Bill Newman (Director of the Western Mass. Regional ACLU office); Atty. Mahsa Khanbabai of Springfield, on defending immigrants; Prof. Christopher H. Pyle; Sandra Boston ( founder of the Conscious Communications Institute on communicating when we disagree); Leo Hwang-Carlos; Louis Battalen; Irvine Sobelman; and Ezzell Floranina."

Matt Bracken - Enemies Foreign and Domestic " is about the conflict between two world views that co-exist within the United States today. One side believes that gun rights are a nuisance and an anachronism, and that firearms should be heavily regulated and even forbidden just as drivers' licenses and building permits are. The other side considers the second amendment to be an unbreachable wall guarding the freedom of all Americans from steadily encroaching government tyranny. The inability of these two sides to understand one another is, in the author's view, sowing the seeds of future conflict and even violence in our society." Excerpts are available. Mr. Bracken expects to ship it near the end of July. To order, send him a check for $20. From Chapter 1: [claire]

The home team was set to receive the kickoff of their season opener. The 80,000 football fans packing the stadium were on their feet looking down at the two teams lined up on the vivid green field. It was a mild September Sunday in the Maryland suburbs of the nation's capitol, and every seat was taken by loyal crimson and gold wearing fans who were fervently hoping to see their team improve last season's dismal record and make a run for the playoffs. The crowd noise reached a sustained roar as they watched the kicker trot toward the teed-up football, they saw the two teams rush at each other, and they followed the flight of the ball high into the air.

In the midst of this jubilant bedlam, in the center of the western end zone upper deck, a forty year old architect from Annapolis was struck by something on the left temple. He immediately collapsed forward, spurting blood over his friends and several other fans as he fell across the seats below. His shocking injury occurred while the football was still arcing through the air and down the field, so at first the louder screaming of the fans surrounding his crumpled bleeding body went unnoticed by the rest of the crowd around them.

Every two seconds a similar scene was repeated with horrifying variations across the western upper deck stands, as one fan after another was dealt a sudden bloody wound to the face, head, neck, shoulder, arm or chest. A few victims were killed outright, and some were only slightly grazed, but many received searingly painful wounds which caused them to shriek and jerk and fling blood in all directions. Every two seconds another tableau of unexpected violent trauma was created, sending out radiating bands of fear as the shouted word spread from mouth to ear among the trapped thousands: sniper! The waves of horror emanating from each new victim spread and merged and multiplied until the entire western end zone upper deck section became engulfed in seething animal panic.

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