 So, Gore Vidal, Propachal of the Propachal Peace, page 43, Haid became interested in Timothy McVeigh and vice-versa. Once we meditate upon the unremitting violence of the United States against the rest of the world while relying upon pretexts as that, for sheer flimsiness might have even given Hitler pause when justifying some of his most bourgeois lies. One begins to understand why Osama struck at us from a board abroad in the name of one billion Muslims whom we have encouraged through our own preemptive acts of war as we as relentless demonization of them through media to regard us in, how shall I put it, less than an ambient light. In the five years previous to Dark Tuesday, I had got to know the McVeigh case pretty well. In the five decades previous to that, as an enlisted soldier in World War II, as well as a narrator of our imperial history, I think I've always had an up-close view of the death struggle between the American Republic, whose defender I am and the American global empire, our old republic's enemy. Osama provoked, struck at us from afar. McVeigh provoked, struck struck at us from within on April 19 1995. Each was enraged by our government's reckless assault upon other societies as we pursued what a great American historian has called perpetual war for perpetual peace. I must admit that at first I was not very interested in the bombing of the Murra Federal Building in Oklahoma City because the media had so quickly and thoroughly attributed this crime to that stock American villain. The lone crazed killer and acts of madmen are only interesting to the morbidly inclined. Also, wise Henry James had always warned writers against the use of a mad person as central to a narrative on the ground that as he was not morally responsible, there was no true tale to tell. It was Oklahoma City that first caught my interest. It was such an unlikely place for such an astonishing to happen. In 1907, my grandfather Thomas Pryor Gore brought the state into the Union. He was also elected its first senator and served until 1937. I spent my first 10 years in his house in Rock Creek Park, Washington, D.C. Reading to him, he was behind, blind from childhood. I was brought up surrounded by the founders of a state that was sometimes known as the belt buckle of the Bible Belt. Ironically, my grandfather was an atheist, a well-kept secret back home. Also, at the time of the First World War, Oklahoma was a base simultaneously for the Ku Klux Klan and for the Socialist Party, plainly an eclectic gathering place. When the mirror building was destroyed, I re-misread the name as Murray, after Alfalfa Bill Murray, the state's first governor who wrote a history of the world without it ever leaving the state or cracking a book. In a desultory way, I began to follow the trail of McVeigh, the font of received wisdom. The New York Times, true to his own great tradition, found him guilty from the start. Perhaps they were, for once, I foolishly thought, acting good faith. But as the story unfolded, it got more and more incredible. Finally, we were invited to believe that a single slight youth with possible help from a John Doe, never found by the FBI an elusive, equally slight co-conspirator concocted a fairly complex bomb, single-handedly loaded several thousand pounds of it onto a rider truck, drove it to the mirror federal building without blowing himself up. Northern Ireland is littered with the remains of IRA bombers who frequented rough roads with similar bombs, and then detonated it next to a mini window building on a bright morning unseen. This all defied reason. Once found guilty, however, McVeigh said that he had done it all alone to avenge the government slaughter of a religious cult at Waco, Texas, in a short statement to the court before sentence was passed, he quoted Supreme Court Justice, Brandis' magnificent descent in Olmsted. This caught my attention. Brandis was warning government that it was the teacher of the nation, and when government broke laws, it set an example that could lead only to imitation and anarchy. Meanwhile, concerned by the airy way that various departments of our government were tidily cleaning away the bill of rights, corner by corner, as it were, I wrote the following report for the for the variety fair issue of November 1998, which McVeigh by then on death row in Colorado read and then wrote me a letter. Thus began our correspondence which culminated in his invitation for me to witness as his guest his execution by lethal injection. I said I would. Here is the piece he read in prison. Oh, so this is the McVeigh the next party gets into. No, let's not read this because so this is goes up to page 49 is what Timothy McVeigh wrote, but I and it's a long piece. So I don't want to I don't want to break it. I really don't. But what I want to do is read. So if you want to read it, shsh, shredding the bill of rights, okay. But what I want to do is read Tim if we can make Vaze. Oh, I lost the place. Where was that? Tim's bill of rights. Okay, so we're going to skip to page 133. Okay. And what we're going to do, and it's just two and a half pages. Okay, two and a half pages. And we're going to read Tim's Bill of Rights from where he printed in Gore Vidal's Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. And one thing I should note here, the corporate media in the United States and the Western world never ever, if I recall correctly, printed anything that Timothy McBae had to say, they crucified him, persecuted him, demonized him, called him a lunatic even before he was convicted, right? Before any evidence was given. Okay. So one of the reasons Gore Vidal wrote this book is because he believed it was important that Timothy McBae's words were shared to prove that he wasn't a lunatic, and there was a reason why he did or he did what he did. Tim's Bill of Rights. One, neither speech, press, religion nor assembly shall be infringed, nor shall such be forced upon any person by the government of the United States. Two, there shall be no standing military force during peacetime. This to include large bodies of federal law enforcers or coalitions of these officers that would constitute a military force with the exception of sea-based maritime forces. Three, the executive office shall hold no power to unilaterally alter constitutional rights. Four, no person shall be subjected to any form of direct taxation or wage withholding by the federal government. Five, no person's life or liberty shall be taken without due process. Any government employee circumventing due process rights shall be punished with imprisonment. Citizens shall not be subjected to invasion of their homes or property by employees of federal government. Property or other assets of United States citizens shall not be subject to forfeiture to the federal government. Six, personal activities that do not infringe upon the rights or property of another shall not be charged, prosecuted or punished by the United States government. Any crime alleged will be prosecuted by the jurisdiction most local to the alleged crime respectively. No person shall be twice tried for an offense alleged and adjudicated in another jurisdiction. No person shall be subjected to cruel or unusual punishment nor shall the federal government hold power to execute any individual as punishment for a crime convicted or contract to another entity for this purpose. No person shall be held to account for the actions of another unless proven by more than one witness to be the principal figure. Seven, all currency shall be redeemable in a globally recognized material of intrinsic value such as silver. Eight, legislative members shall earn no more than twice the current poverty level and shall not be subject to any additional pay bonuses, rewards, gifts, entitlements or other such privileges as holding such office is meant to serve the people and should not be looked upon as a capitalist career opportunity. Nine, where nonviolent checks and balances fail to remedy government abuse or tyranny, the common people reserve the right to rebellion. Inherent with this right, the common people maintain the absolute right to own and possess those weapons which are used by any level of government for domestic policing. Ten, any rights not enumerated here belong inherently to the people or the state respectively and shall not be assumed by omission to be delegated to the jurisdiction of the federal government. Timothy McVeigh, May 28th 2001. Every American, as far as I'm concerned, needs to read this book. If you're a citizen of the United States of America, do yourself a favor, read this book. Gore Vidal, perpetual war for perpetual peace, how we got to be so hated and it's not just about how we got to be so hated by outside powers. There is a lot of meaning to this book, a lot of history, a lot of important words. It's a quick read.