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>Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 14:47:07 -0800
>From: "Michael M. Butler" <butler@comp-lib.org>
>To: extropians@extropy.org
>Subject: Re: Extremism, was Re: CULTURE OF GAck! Thpthpthpthpthttt!
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>
>Joe Dees wrote:
>
><Some valuable and thoughtful commentary elided>
>
>>The best way to know when an extremist is about to attack is to listen to them get indignantly
>>defensive, which typically happens whenever someone does not absolutely agree with them
>>concerning their pet issue; some sort of physical intimidation or verbal flame is sure to
>>follow.
>
>Yes, _very_ true. And, contrariwise, attacks are not the only sign of
>extremism, any more than workplace shootings are the only sign of an
>utterly unhappy worker. But not all extremists, it seems to me, attack
>directly. Some attack indirectly.
>
>That was the source of my question about Morris. Since you've mentioned
>he is a relative, I'd sincerely like to know more about him from you
>some time.
>
>What's he like? How often do you and he come into contact?
>
Actually, he's a distant cousin, a few times removed, and I've only met him once, about eight years ago, when I was a clinic escort, about years after the Birthday-Present-For-Jesus clinic bombings (the bombers were, amazingly enough, led by Matt Goldsby, the little brother of a chess-playing buddy of mine, A.J. Goldsby). Dr. David Gunn had been shot to death by Michael Griffin, a troubled fundie undergoing a painful divorce and feelings of worthlessness. He had volunteered to help John Burt, a local antiabortion leader, former Klansman, and owner of Our Father's House (a home for unwed mothers to surrender their medicaid checks, do chores, absorb fundie rhetoric and get bused to picket clinics) help out around the place, and John fed him propaganda videos and literature for days straight until somehow Mike got the idea that the way to redeem himself before the eyes of God and his family was to sacrifice the rest of his life to become the avenging arm of the Lord. Morris ha!
d long ago made the connection between klansmen and neo-naxis and the antiabortion movement; the KKK and Neos would infiltrate prolifer groups, radicalize them, orient them more towards violence, and then use them to foment discord, which they would subsequently attempt to exploit. In fact, John Burt had driven a bomber of clinics in Cincinatti by the Ladies' Center a year before to point it out, then evaded a conspiracy charge by claiming it was just on his way and he didn't know the guy did such things; he had also distributed "Wanted" posters of Dr. Gunn. Morris took the case of Dr. Gunn's surviving wife and children and brought RICO charges against John Burt, claiming that he had wound an emotionally unstable Michael Griffin up like a toy soldier and sent him marching in Dr. Gunn's direction. Having been sobered by his prison experience (he is serving a life sentence), Griffin was willing to testify as much. John Burt had, with donations from local churches and wealthy!
abortion opponents, bought a slice of property adjacent to the Ladies' Center on which he had erected a statue of the biblical Rachel (a saint of the antiabortion personal theological interpretation, as Joshua is), and from which he would launch weekly assaults upon the clinic clients by erecting scaffolds that allowed them to stand over the top of the wooden fence to shout at the clients with bullhorns, take tag numbers and pictures so they could get their friends in the tag office to identify the clients whom they would then picket at their homes, and choreograph periodic assaults against the building, clinic personnel and escorts. He agreed to relinquish the property to Dr. Gunn's heirs and to cease and desist from clinic protest in exchange for Morris not pursuing the action. Sadly, It didn't end there. A couple of years later, Paul Hill, a "minister" who worked as a car detailer, fatally shotgunned Dr. John Britton and a clinic escort, James Barrett, in the Ladies' Ce!
nter parking lot, and wounded Jim's wife, June. He is awaiting execution. The doctors are two crossed-out names in the so-called Nuremberg Files.
>
>Mike
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