Rakheem Bolton
One of the objectives of Basic Military Training is to dehumanize the enemy in an effort to make it easier for inexperienced, young soldiers to kill them without hesitation or regret.
Domestic terrorists like Timothy McVeigh and the Columbine killers have an advantage over military recruits in that their target, the American public dehumanizes itself by routinely supporting criminals and punishing victims.
Once again we have a case that involves a football player in Texas. The basic story is simple and familiar:
A high school football and basketball player rapes a cheerleader at a party and is arrested the next day. He is set free almost immediately and is allowed to return to school and to play sports. The cheerleader he raped refused to cheer for him and is punished by school administrators by being removed from the cheerleading squad. The victim's parents sue the school, lose, and are also punished by being required to pay $45,000 to reimburse the school district for legal costs.
Admittedly, the lawsuit was a dumb idea. I don't believe it was frivolous, just dumb. The courts are clogged, inefficient, and ineffective. The fact that the rapist did not go to prison is evidence enough of that.
Terrorists can judge whether their targets are civilized people or just another bunch of mean, stupid, and callous human animals by paying close attention to two simple facts:
1) School administrators could easily have displayed an iota of class by ignoring the rape victim's harmless act of defiance.
2) The audience, which is under no legal or moral obligation to support the accused rapist's right to attend school and play sports could have demonstrated their concern for crime victims by staying home when Mister Penis was scheduled to play. They didn't do that because American sports fans are just fine with violent criminal athletes as long as someone else's son or daughter is being brutalized.
Terrorists can take comfort from the fact that the average American is even more callous than the average terrorist.
