Date: Sat, 27 Jul 1996 10:45:25 -0600
From: L. Neil Smith <[l--e--l] at [bud.indirect.com]>
Subject: STOP THE PRESSES

THE MOST THOROUGHLY "SANITIZED" CITY IN AMERICA

By L. Neil Smith <[l--e--l] at [ezlink.com]>

Special to _The Libertarian Enterprise_

    Well, the American mass media finally got what they wanted.  

    After weeks of begging, whining, screaming, and _pleading_ -- 
exactly the same way B'rer Rabbit begged, whined, screamed, and 
pleaded not to be thrown into the briar patch -- the American mass 
media finally got their Olympic tragedy.  Somebody set off a pipe bomb 
at a concert in Atlanta's Centennial Park.  

    And nobody will remember to mention that when it happened, Atlanta 
was the most thoroughly "sanitized" city in America, in the world, 
maybe even in world world history.  

    Now the media can lick their lips bravely and pretend not to be 
perfectly delighted to be reporting on a phenomenon that they can all 
understand and identify with much better -- brutal, murderous 
destruction for its own sake -- than what they were stuck with before: 
endless hard work, dedication, sense of purpose, courage, and raw 
talent of a kind they're totally incapable of comprehending.  

    And nobody will remember to mention that when it happened, Atlanta 
was the most thoroughly "sanitized" city in America, in the world, 
maybe even in world history.  

    Now all those lucky old dogs way back in '72 in Munich will have 
nothing on them, anymore.  They can set years of jealousy aside and 
focus their itty bitty intellects on the thorny difficulties of 
distorting the inconvenient fact of a pipe bombing into something they 
can blame on gun owners and the internet.  

    And nobody will remember to mention that when it happened, Atlanta 
was the most thoroughly "sanitized" city in America, in the world, 
maybe even in world history.  

    They will, of course, not lack for help from the government. 
That's what government is for, after all.  Waco Willie Clinton and his 
baby-murdering stormtroopers will be there, in Washington, in Atlanta, 
and above all, on national TV, taking "serious measures" to transform 
the Land of the Formerly Free into something resembling Berlin at the 
very height of the Thousand Year Reich.  (Republicans will argue 
forcefully that they can do it cheaper.)  But this time, in true 
Olympic spirit and consistent with the American tradition of equality, 
regardless of race, creed, or color, we'll _all_ get to be the Jews.  

    And nobody will remember to mention that when it happened, Atlanta 
was the most thoroughly "sanitized" city in America, in the world, 
maybe even in world history.  

    What a windfall!  

    What a coincidence!  

    Were Clinton's _actual_ numbers beginning to fall off a little? 
Was Bob Dole, Republican poster-boy for _rigor mortis_, beginning to 
catch up with him?  Did Bill need another crisis to manage, the way he 
managed the Reichstag -- I mean, the Oklahoma City bombing?  Or am I 
simply failing to see the Big Picture?  

    Here the Cold War went and rudely took the coward's way out 
without giving anybody decent notice, leaving our leftover World War 
II fascist government (not to mention adoring hordes of tame 
journalists) with nothing to justify its existence, when all of a 
sudden -- "for no particular reason" as Forrest Gump (or was it Al 
Gore) put it -- the whole world went conveniently crazy and had to be 
put back sternly in its place.  At the expense of the trillions upon 
trillions of dollars we all foolishly thought we were going to get 
back as our "peace dividend".  At the expense of a few decades of 
progress uninterrupted by the mindless regimentation and destruction 
of war.  At the expense of the tattered remnants of the liberties our 
Founding Fathers proudly bequeathed to us.  

    But hey, who's counting?  

    There can be no doubt that these are dangerous times.  They've 
carefully been _made_ dangerous by our "protectors".  Thanks to no 
fewer than seven generations of voracious blunderers in government, 
virtually everyone in the world now hates America badly enough to kill 
Americans anonymously, by the hundreds.  

    Thanks to the relentless obliteration of the Bill of Rights by the 
same voracious blunderers, enough _Americans_ now hate America to do 
exactly the same thing.  Thanks to the voracious blunderers who manage 
elections, these people have been completely shut out of a political 
system that might provide a safe outlet.  And thanks to the voracious 
blunderers in public education, they're no more able than Clinton to 
distinguish between the nation and its government. 

    Maybe no one in the round-heeled American mass media will _ever_ 
remember to mention that when this happened, Atlanta was the most 
thoroughly "sanitized" city in America, in the world, maybe even in 
world history.  There's certainly nothing in it for them, not even 
pocket change for hairspray.  But the fact that it _did_ happen, under 
those circumstances, proves that America can never be made safer by 
piling on _more_ voracious blunderers or by giving them more power.  

    In case you haven't noticed, the more we do that, the worse things 
always get.  

    No, America can only be made safer by making it more free.  

===================================

L. Neil Smith's award-winning first novel, _The Probability Broach_, 
which has long been out of print, will be republished by TOR Books 
this October.  Permission to redistribute this article is herewith 
granted by the author, provided that it is reproduced unedited, in its 
entirety, and appropriate credit given.