May 31, 2009
Tiller's killer and John Brown - a little déjà vu there in Kansas tonight
Lots to read and ponder tonight if you are following the George Tiller assassination. I appreciated some of the points made here.
Also, earlier this evening a friend of mine dropped an interesting historical parallel into the fray that I believe to be right on the money. It made me think there is a little deja vu down there in Kansas tonight.
In 1856, John Brown grew increasingly irate with his fellow abolitionists. He called them cowards, content with talking about the ending of slavery but afraid to do anything about it. Eventually, he took matters into his own hands, hacking pro slavery farmers to death with broadswords near Pottawatomie, Kansas. Later, he led a murderous band of angry abolitionists in an attack on Harper’s Ferry Armory, where he gained the arms to further their rampage, hoping to free slaves along the way and convince them to join the revolution. Brown overestimated his ability to coordinate the freed slaves. The force fell apart and Brown eventually was hanged along with many of his men.
John Brown, though well known, was not considered a hero by mainstream abolitionists. What he had done was reprehensible. They were ashamed of him and publicly joined their voices with the Pro Slave groups in calling for his hanging. No rational person would consider Brown a positive figure in history….but he did prove something. The issue of slavery was one of life and death. It was not political. It was not governmental. It was much, much deeper than that, and there was no common ground high enough for both sides to stand and feel good about their compromises. It could not be negotiated. It had to be settled.
So it is with the killing of George Tiller. No thinking individual believes this was good for either side….but let the lesson not be lost. The issue will not go away.
President Lincoln called John Brown a "misguided fanatic." Historian David S. Reynolds hailed him as the man who "killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seeded civil rights." Historian Ken Chowder said John Brown was "at certain times, a great man", but also "the father of American terrorism." Probably all of the above is accurate.
Growing up in Kansas I remember singing John Brown's Song in elementary school studying Kansas history. John Brown's Song became the Union's marching song during the Civil War. Set to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, slavery in America was defeated by troops marching to these words…
Old John Brown’s body lies moldering in the grave,
While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save;
But tho he lost his life while struggling for the slave,
His soul is marching on.John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true and brave,
And Kansas knows his valor when he fought her rights to save;
Now, tho the grass grows green above his grave,
His soul is marching on.He captured Harper’s Ferry, with his nineteen men so few,
And frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled thru and thru;
They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew,
But his soul is marching on.John Brown was John the Baptist of the Christ we are to see,
Christ who of the bondmen shall the Liberator be,
And soon thruout the Sunny South the slaves shall all be free,
For his soul is marching on.The conflict that he heralded he looks from heaven to view,
On the army of the Union with its flag red, white and blue.
And heaven shall ring with anthems o’er the deed they mean to do,
For his soul is marching on.Ye soldiers of Freedom, then strike, while strike ye may,
The death blow of oppression in a better time and way,
For the dawn of old John Brown has brightened into day,
And his soul is marching on
Tiller's killer is no hero. He's far far removed from a John-the-Baptist-style forerunner of a coming Liberator. At the risk of appearing a hypocrite to those who aren't able to distinguish between the shedding of judicially innocent blood and the shedding of judicially guilty blood, like Brown, Tiller's killer should "hang." (Kansas still has the death penalty last I heard.) In any case, history hopefully won't sing songs about him. However it is true that the battle continues today over the humanity of some. And it is true this isn't going away and that this issue has to be settled.
Comments on Tiller's killer and John Brown - a little déjà vu there in Kansas tonight »
DoctorDefense @ 5:04 am
Wow, you are cheering-on an ongoing terrorist campaign. Classy! Do you think it will remain totally one-sided forever? That would contradict some polisci equivalent of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Sooner or later there will be counterterror against right-to-lifers, and the counterterrorists will most likely not bother to distinguish the violent right-to-lifers from the "non-violent" ones.
FROM SH: This comment is from 207.237.1.119 Mainly I block this guy here, he turds up lots of pro-life blogs under other names SoMG and Singing Zombie mainly.
Angry Guy @ 7:26 am
I love all of the veiled jubilation at this “guilty” man’s death. You can call it a tragic lesson, or misguided or however else you want to embrace this act of violence, but you KNOW that there are X-tians all across this country hailing this as some kind of overdue justice. Oh, they’ll blog about how he isn’t a hero and how Tiller didn’t deserve it, but that isn’t what their inside voice is singing. The only thing this has in common with John Brown and slavery is that both events took place in Kansas. Drawing the parallel reinforces my statement that you and yours are going to secretly glorify the murderer while publicly denouncing the act (all the while supporting the death penalty?). Tiller deserved to die, but not because of the late-term abortions he was so adept at. It is more of the Darwinism that anything else. He’s been shot before. Hell, someone even bombed his clinic. He should have been wearing Kevlar and packing heat. The fact that he goes out in public unprepared, with full knowledge of the neo-con lunacy rate in KS, what does he expect to happen? President Obortion (still funny to me) will use this in Washington for political gain.
caheidelberger @ 11:19 am
Careful, Angry Guy: failing to wear a bulletproof vest and going out in public doesn't justify Tiller's murder any more than abortion politics does. The shooter bears the responsibility for Tiller's death. Glorification of such terrorism (even vaguely veiled, as in this post) might come in second on the responsibility scale, though we can debate that. Tiller is not responsible for his murder in any way.
Steve @ 11:37 am
Angry Guy, you should have thought it through before posting your last sentence - I know everyone is misreading everyone right now but anyway you slice it you just broadcast a suggestion that puts a specific local person in danger.
Angry Guy @ 11:54 am
Steve, I thought it through. I clicked Submit.
caheidewhatsit, if Tiller was concerned enough to ask the federal govt to step up its investigations surrounding his practice and the threats they'd received, he should have known better than prancing around town without protection. It was common knowledge that the NeoLifeBrigade knew where he lived/worked/worshipped/shopped/commuted and had intentions of confronting him on any front possible to bring their cause to light. Tiller was a target. He knew it. He didn't kill himself, but he didn't take the steps to prevent it either.
Steve @ 12:13 pm
Angry Guy, I appreciate you clarifying that you intentionally meant to publicly suggest a specific local person be targeted for violence. Wow.
Are you really not aware of how volatile things are right now? Maybe you are unaware that comments here are being monitored by the FBI's department of counter-terrorism? You stepped way over the line with a clear incitement of violence.
Angry Guy @ 12:34 pm
I never specified anyone. I do not condone violence of any sort. Ever. It isn't my fault your site is flagged and monitored. If you feel incited by my comments, try reading them in Donald Duck's voice, they take a whole different meaning.
Cory Allen Heidelberger @ 9:31 pm
"Angry Guy," your argument against Tiller comes perilously close to the argument that women who go out wearing attractive clothes are asking to be raped.
The idea that any blame can be pinned on a man for refusing to let the criminal threats of others control his life is appalling.
But then so is this from the AP:
I assume Pastor Hickey would clearly denounce Leach's portrayal of the accused killer as a "hero."
Cory Allen Heidelberger @ 9:37 pm
By the way, Pastor Hickey, death threats against anyone are unacceptable, but I'm wondering: how many death threats against activists on your side have turned into actual shootings? Maybe I'm just being duped by the liberal media, but I can't recall any instances of the worst radicals on my side of the issue murdering activists on your side. I know, I know, you could say we murder babies, but I'm genuinely curious as to how often fanaticism on my side—which I will condemn even more unequivocally than you condemn fanaticism on your side—turns into actual acts of murder against our active, adult political opponents.
DoctorDefense @ 11:15 pm
You all don't know what you're talking about.
In fact Dr. Tiller WAS wearing a bullet-proof vest, but the murderer shot him in the head.
I would like to shoot ALL right-to-lifers in the head!
Cory Allen Heidelberger @ 6:00 am
Anonymous chicken… you're not helping.
Angry Guy @ 6:20 am
DoctorDefense, you're crazy and you should go away.
Steve, I sincerely apologize for my insensitive, yet vague, attemt at inflamatory humor. Not funny. nutbar @ 11:15 proves that. I don't want anyone to think I would condone violence. I don't. I was trying to be snarky, it didn't work. Please remove the comments I made earlier, especially if you think the real crazies will get the wrong idea. please.
Steve @ 6:50 am
Angry Guy - I knew you'd see the light on that one. I deleted the sentence.
SH