Timothy Mcveigh 's ' Invictus '

September 11, 2001 is a day that shook the United States to its core. Millions of Americans felt the pain, the loss, and the anger that came with the attack on their nation. It was a day of mourning, and when it comes to days of mourning it is difficult putting one’s pain into words. However, Leonard Pitts Jr. was able to move past the emotion. He put into his words, not only his own feelings, but the feelings of an entire nation. Pitts conveys the emotion felt after the terror attacks in his essay “Sept. 12, 2001: We’ll go forward from this moment” through his mournful, angry, and righteous tone.

Why do you believe he felt compelled to act out violently against his country and citizens? McVeigh out out violently against the government because he felt that they were too controlling and he wanted to weaken it. He wanted to start a revolution. His clothing was what explained his motives the most. McVeigh viewed the government as tyrants and the people like himself as patriots. The government being the tyrants had to die and the patriots had to sacrifice in order to win.

The momentous tragedy that occurred on September 11th, 2001 has been engraved into the memories of United States citizens. What began as an ordinary day quickly evolved into an tragedy no one could have predicted: thousands of lives had been taken and countless more devastated and ruined by the acts of terror. Although unpredicted, the horrific and frightening news affected all. The four planes individually plummeted into their targets—two crashed into the Twin Towers, another struck the Pentagon, and the final hurtled into an empty field—eliciting a wave of panic throughout the nation. The jarring images of commercial airplanes hijacked by members of the terrorist group Al-Qaida managed to instill a fear. As the terrified country anxiously fretted about the future, President George W. Bush delivered a speech to address the nation in order to soothe the tensions and worry. In George W. Bush’s “9/11 Address to the Nation,” the terrorist attack orchestrated against the U.S. is addressed with rhetorical devices such as parallel structure, imagery, and various appeals in order to inspire and heal the country.

On April 19th, 1995 a homemade bomb made of a concoction of agricultural fertilizer, fuel, and other dangerous chemicals was left in a truck parked outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. At 9:02 in the morning, it’s blast damaged over 300 buildings surrounding the vehicle and even flattened a third of the federal building. (Strom, 2015) The bomb took the lives of 168 people, including 19 children. It was found that two men, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Lynn Nichols were the ones who planted the device. Both men were found to be associated with a radical militia movement that sought revenge for a siege in Waco, Texas two years prior. The siege killed 82 Branch Davidians, of whom, multiple were related to the militia movement.

On the morning of April 19, 1995 Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder rental truck packed with explosives outside of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building more than ready to commit a mass execution that would change the state of Oklahoma forever. Until September 11, 2001 the Oklahoma City Bombing was the most vicious terrorist attack to happen in the United States. As rescue operations were finalized the death tolls were high including 19 children.. The explosion blew off the entire north wall and either destroyed or damaged buildings as far as three blocks away. McVeigh was “anti-government” and wanted revenge against the federal government for what had

Timothy Mcveigh’s personality can be explained sociologically as being both ritualism and rebellion. Timothy McVeigh was part of what can be seen as the pinnacle of conformism during the years before the bombing, the military. McVeigh, by all accounts, was a soldier who won praise by taking orders very well and following all the rules, his medals won during the Gulf War prove this. However, like many other people who join the military (gang-members, racial nationalists, survivalists) Timothy McVeigh had perhaps not-so “patriotic” motives for joining. Nowadays people join the military for reasons other than because they believe in a countries value system, people like McVeigh join for the military training and knowledge of things like explosives, survival, discipline, etc. They in a way use the system against itself. At face value Timothy McVeigh did follow the means towards achieving societies goals, but he wanted nothing to do with the ends. He saw himself as a freedom fighter whose destiny was to overthrow the US Government.

On June 14th 1997, the jury sentenced McVeigh to death by lethal injection. Many of the victims' families were elated with the decision, as many people could

April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City was destroyed by a bombing in the Murrah federal building. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were both sentenced after the bombing. McVeigh was sentenced to death and became the first federal prisoner to be executed since 1963. Later that year Nichols was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. After 2 weeks they claimed 168 people had died, 19 in which were children.

Timothy McVeigh thought if he killed a lot of men, women, and children then it would be good for America, or that it would make the nation

Mcveigh used a lot of smart thinking to carry out his bombing plan. On April 17, 1995 Timothy Mcveigh used the fake name Robert D. Kling to rent the Ryder truck in junction city, Kansas that he would use to plant the bomb in to blow up the Oklahoma City Murrah Building (Casey). Only 270 miles

Both, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were discovered to belong to a right-wing based survivalist group located in Michigan. ON the *the of August, Michael Fortier, who had knowledge of McVeigh’s plan concerning the bombing Of the Oklahoma Federal Building, agreed to give testimony against both Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in exchange for a lighter jail sentence. Both Timothy McVeigh along with Terry Nichols had received indictments on murder charges as well as using explosives in an unlawful manner. McVeigh’s ideology changed from hating governments that were foreign communists to a lack of trust in the United States government with Bill Clinton being the President during that time frame. Both McVeigh and Nichols along with their members became radicalized following events of a shoot-out that took place in August 1992 between survivalist Randy Weaver against federal agents, which had happened at a cabin located in Idaho, which belonged to him.

Lastly, although not an easily overcome controversial challenge that this community was forced to face was ultimately the trial of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Due to the psychological stress this incident rooted in a portion of the people involved, it is understandable to comprehend why the judicial process of these two individuals caused issues to some extent. Eventually with the conclusion of the legal process, the strenuous atmosphere surrounding the trial, and ultimately the completion of the Oklahoma City National Memorial to honor those lives lost that day, the last challenge this community face was overcome.

Great post this week, it was very interesting. I am definitely going to look for those documentary series that you recommended in Netflix, since they sound very interesting. I also chose to answer the questions about Timothy McVeigh in this week’s forum. However, I chose Borum’s Pathway as the best path that fits Timothy McVeigh’s process to extremism. I feel that the four stages of the Borum’s Pathway align very well with what Timothy McVeigh went through before he did Oklahoma City federal building bombing. Something that I found interesting in your post and that I did not know is that Timothy McVeigh was kicked out of the army. I thought that he left on his own because his goal was to become a green beret, but when he attended the special

Terrorism is a very big part of today’s average life and is only becoming an even bigger factor. Never has this been more apparent than after the recent terrorist attacks on Paris and San Bernardino. Now, almost daily we are presented some type of terrorist act that takes the life of many people. In response, many people talk about avenging those who died. However few actually do respond to the terrorists with more than words. I believe that this can be traced to a theory called “Diffusion of Responsibility” and the way to overcome this has already been shown to us, but we just haven’t noticed it. If we plan to overcome the many terrorist groups that take so many lives a year, we have to become aware of all the concepts in this text and use them to our advantage. These concepts include personal responsibility, not doubting your ability as an individual, and finding the correct combination of impulsiveness, logical reasoning and gut feelings.

Across America, certain states allow their governments to make use of the death penalty for a myriad of crimes. The methods through which it is attained is often as controversial as the act itself. In the tale of The Confession by John Grisham, the city of Slone, Texas comes to terms with the severe ramifications that come with taking someone's life, whether it be condoned by the law or not. In the case of Donté Drumm, a young football player is accused of killing Nicole Yerber, a popular cheerleader who was supposedly dating him at the time. He was forced into a confession by means of psychological torture. After nine years, Donté is killed for a crime he did not commit. The town unearths the reality that taking someone's life is a permanent action which cannot be undone when a mistake is made. The Confession takes a closer look at what the death penalty really means by not only looking at the statistics but the emotional toll it takes on the people connected to it too, explaining how the death penalty is fundamentally wrong and looking at ways to open people's eyes to the truth of it.