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CounterPunch
November
13, 2002
Defending MOM
by ANTHONY GANCARSKI
Those who thought that the 2002 Holiday season
would be the right time to start a local arm of the self-styled
"Patriot" movement might want to reconsider, if a November
12th article in the Spokane SPOKESMAN-REVIEW is any indication
of current trends. "Militia Pamphlets Spur Review"
addresses texts distributed at a local gun show by the Militia
of Montana. Ronald Springel, who brought these documents to the
attention of Spokane County commissioners, "attended the
show with his 17-year-old son" and "found the literature
offensive." According to the concerned citizen, MOM's tracts
were "blatantly racist. . . Anti-government, anti-Semitic,
anti-everything."
What a nihilistic group! The newspaper
account demurred from providing examples of this opposition to
government and Semites and "everything". Instead, the
SPOKESMAN-REVIEW staff writer opted to buttress Springel's claim
merely by stating that the Militia's monthly newsletter was running
a three-part series called "Israel Lie". The highlights
of this series include a picture of President Bush standing next
to the Israeli flag, and the subheadline "Synagogue of Satan"
to introduce a section of the three-part work.
Admittedly, the phrase "Synagogue
of Satan" lacks a certain temperance, though it's nothing
that hasn't been used by hundreds of radio preachers over the
years. I myself heard the phrase somewhere on the AM dial while
driving through the Carolinas a couple of years back. A metallic-voiced
orator then and there referred to the Israeli government as the
"Synagogue of Satan", following that rhetorical flourish
with a reference to the Christian Coalition as "corporate
Christians"; as the signal flickered and died, I was amazed
that I'd heard such heresy on the radio.
Perhaps it is heresy itself that makes
the militia movement so threatening to the Ronald Springels of
the world. A review of MOM's website showed that it was disappointingly
bereft of so-called hate speech. The intro page of the "Militia
of Montana's Online Information Center" was full of such
uncontroversial fare as a picture of an American flag ribbon
and an assortment of methods by which one can give Militia personality
John Trochmann money and attention. MOM's website also features
an issue of "Taking Aim", the newsletter that vexed
Ron Springel so much.
What in the website version of "Taking
Aim" was racist, one might ask? Springel's charge of anti-Semitism
was unfounded, at least if the issue on the website is any guide;
the only reference to Jews that I found was in an essay that
argued that gun registration was no benefit to Jews in Germany,
and that Americans might want to consider that example when forfeiting
their own arms. The charge of being "anti-government"
is considerably more applicable to the text on the site, however,
and deserves a fair hearing here.
It is perhaps a self-evident truth that
a citizen militia would be opposed to some of the more flagrant
expressions of government's power over its people. MOM doesn't
disappoint in this regard; its literature represents the federal
government as a force of unprecedented rapacity. Whether describing
"fascist dictators masquerading as elected representatives",
or referring to "treasonous bastards that ask for our vote.
. . then do a job on us instead of for us", it is clear
that no Republican Party big tent would be big enough to accommodate
the Militia of Montana.
It is also clear that the SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
account of MOM's brief courtship of Springel proceeds on the
assumption that Springel was justified in attempting to get government
to do the dirty work of protecting him from offensive literature.
So confident was the paper in Springel's veracity that it expected
its readers to accept the stated charges without providing verification
within the article itself. In a town with one daily paper, after
all, who will take issue with that paper's account?
Anthony Gancarski, a Spokane resident and frequent contributor
to CounterPunch, recently had his work recognized by Utne Reader's
"Web Watch". He welcomes comments at Anthony.Gancarski@attbi.com.
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November 10,
2002
Ali Abunimah
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Political Geography
Zionist Theses and Anti-Theses
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