Tuesday, August 24, 2010

A grim anniversary

Ann Althouse marks a grim anniversary. It was 40 years ago that radicals bombed Sterling Hall on the University of Wisconsin campus, killing a researcher who was working inside.

I barely remember this incident, as I was only 6 years old at the time, but I do remember the fear that it caused throughout the state of Wisconsin and my father's anger at the people who had done this deed. It's very easy to forget now, but 1970 was a very violent time in this country. Althouse quotes an editorial that ran in the Wisconsin State Journal following the event which holds up well, 40 years on.

They've been playing with murder for years.

Now they've achieved it.

It wasn't the "military-industrial" complex that was attacked here Monday morning. It wasn't cement and steel beams and equipment.

It was innocent human beings. It was a father who was killed. It was a fellow researcher who was injured, and it was a student, a working man, and a hospital patient.

It is always very easy to turn your political opponents into abstractions and straw men. It is equally easy to use hatred as a motivating agent. We do these things at our peril.

1 comment:

Bike Bubba said...

He's so proud of what he's done....killing an innocent man and destroying a large amount of....research not intended for military use. One would figure that at least ONE of those things would get his attention!