fandomhigh | Chemistry for Anarchists, June 19

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anarchist chemistry

Chemistry for Anarchists, June 19

Tyler stood in the front of the room, arms folded, waiting for the students to assemble.

"Hey. We were gonna make fertilizer bombs today, but even Danger Shop is balking at that much firepower. So instead of doing, we're gonna talk and watch TV."

He reached for a stack of handouts and started passing them out. "This is a really good article on the science of fertilizer bombs. Sounds funny -- making a bomb out of what's basically waste -- but it doesn't look funny at all," and to illustrate that he hit a button on a projector, and the image of a ruined building filled a screen. "This is what the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City looked after it got hit with a truckload of fertilizer rigged to explode."

"Now we're going to watch an episode of Biography about Tim McVeigh, who was responsible for that destruction. He believed the U.S. government was corrupt and invading personal liberties, and that -" he nodded to the screen "- was how he chose to express it."

"Watch the episode, then write a couple paragraphs reacting to McVeigh's story. Next week is your final; you'll get to actually blow things up again then."

[OOC Edit: If you're reading this class late, please be aware it was the result of a lapse of judgement on my part, and I recognize the handling of the material was inappropriate. The links, especially the image link, may be disturbing.]

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One under the other.

Jo Harvelle

Yamanaka Ino

Dean Winchester

Sokka

Alex Drake

Jamie Madrox

Rikku

Evey Hammond

Katrara

Talk, watch the show, etc.

Sokka stared at the picture. "Nobody... was IN that building, were they???"

"A couple hundred federal employees, plus a few dozen children in a daycare," Tyler said grimly. "McVeigh wasn't trying to keep casualties down -- the bomb blew up just after 9 a.m. He did say he didn't know about the kids." Which Tyler didnt seem to think was much of an excuse.

"The death toll was 168."

Sokka stared some more. "Soooo... He wasn't just an anarchist trying to make a statement about the government, he was a psychotic inhuman terrorist?"

"That would be the argument that got him sentenced to death, yeah," Tyler answered, then realized he should probably clarify something.

Wouldn't do to have the kids think he supported blowing up daycares. Even at his darkest, he'd gone to some trouble to make sure he'd be blowing up empty buildings.

"He's not a role model. At all, unless youre a sick freak. It's just a famous use of a homemade fertilizer bomb."

Sokka kept staring, this time at Tyler. "Well... Right. That's pretty obvious."

The poor, naive boy assumed that Tyler would only have ever bombed things that Sokka would consider to be legitimate targets.

"From your questions I wasn't sure," Tyler countered, relieved. "I wouldn't want you guys to start writing letters to Principal Washburn telling her I was praising McVeigh. Might get me uninvited from her wedding."

"You're not von Doom," Sokka countered.

Tyler blinked at that. "I'm ... guessing that's a compliment?"

He wasn't anybody's doom. Maybe his own.

Sokka shrugged. "You never met him? He was a student here. Evil. I just meant, you're not evil."

Tyler shook his head. "After my time, before my time, whichever. And no. Not evil."

Mostly.

"McVeigh's an example that you don't need to be possessed by a demon to do evil crazy shit," Dean stated. "I don't care how pissed off you are at a government, you don't blow up kids."

"I'm not arguing," Tyler said. "But one question for you, Dean -- he says he didn't know there were kids there. If it was just adults, people who chose to work for the government, would that make it okay?"

"The kind of government worker that was in that building?" Dean shook his head. "They're not the ones he had a beef with other than the fact that they didn't agree with him. And I call bullshit on not knowing about the kids. Either he did and he didn't give a crap or he didn't care enough to research exactly what he was blowing up."

"You got it," Tyler nodded. "Either way, I mean, I don't know his side enough to say. But some nice lady processing VA checks in Oklahoma City, she isn't the right target if you're mad at Janet Reno."

"Frankly, I think everything McVeigh said was a load of BS. His real reasons weren't much above a two year old's throwing a temper tantrum because he doesn't get what he wants when he wants it."

"That's where this stuff gets dangerous," Tyler said, going from the general to the specific. "I might think I'm a revolutionary. You might think I'm throwing a fit. If we can both blow the other person up with the contents of a 7-11, it gets harder to just talk</i."

"I don't understand," Rikku said, shaking her head. "What was it ... that he thought the government was doing? They said something about a Waco and I don't know what that is, and --"

She closed her eyes, fighting back a wave of nausea. All those people.

"Religious cult," Tyler said, trying to remember. "There was something with taxes and something with weapons, and the leader liked little girls, not in the going to fake tea parties way."

"Anyhow, government tried to smoke them out to see exactly what was up, things got messy, U.S. agents ended up basically setting it on fire. Lot of them didn't get out."

He shook his head. "Whole thing is pretty dirty and very sad. Do you need to go get some water or something?"

"No, I'm okay," she said quickly, shaking her head. "Sorry. Just. Wow."

She took a deep breath. "I don't think ... it's ... maybe I'm not as much of an anarchist as I thought."

Collateral damage. Horrifying.

"That's stupid," Ino said witheringly. "It didn't accomplish anything."

"A lot of people heard about Waco and militias who wouldn't have without it," Tyler pointed out. "Probably some of them signed up. And on the other side, it got the government to throw more money at fighting domestic terrorism."

"But no, we still don't live in McVeigh's ideal world." For which pretty much everyone in the classroom should no doubt be profoundly grateful.

"That's not what I meant," Ino said, "that's all stuff from the fallout. I mean him, he didn't even manage to do anything with the bomb. Not really. I mean, he killed a bunch of people and that's something but if he'd really wanted to make a real point about the Waco-thing then he'd have killed those who'd really mattered to that situation. Like, the ones that gave the orders and crap. Not kids and a bunch of workers who probably knew less about the Waco-thing than he did. That's just stupid."

"Oh, him," Tyler said, getting it. "Nope. I'm not sure the plan went beyond a lot of bodies and a big boom."

He pushed his hair back. "Wrong bodies, too."

"Seriously," she huffed. "Talk about a waste all around."

Write or handwave a paper thinking about Oklahoma City.

Wanna know what he thinks?

After she tags in.

Evey felt slightly nauseated as she watched, thinking about the people V had taken out in order to secure their world. At least they'd made very sure that there weren't any innocents in the buildings.

All those 6/18s up there? They totally say 6/19, yep.

I am dealing with a sick baby today so I dunno how much I'll be around. Whee.

Husband is staying home with sick baby, so expect usual SP during work from me.

I miss being able to edit.

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Chemistry for Anarchists, June 19

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