The Flower of American Youth

I'm sure you've all heard about the plot that the feds busted...the plot that a couple of fine young skinheads devised, in which their goal was to kill a bunch of black high school students and then kill Barack Obama.

Daniel Cowart (pictured here) and Paul Schlesselman were arrested a week ago on numerous charges, including possession of an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer, and threatening a candidate for president. This is a picture of Coward Cowart. Notice how he is so proud of his large gun, and cradles it in his arms. I guess the bigger the gun, the smaller the...

But I digress. Be sure to check out his handsome swastika tattoo!

I'm waffling between horror and laughter on this, and if you think I'm crazy for finding any of it in any way humorous, I present to you their plan.

They had a few firearms with which they planned to rob more gun shops to get more weapons, and they were going to do a few home invasions to get some easy cash. They bought nylon rope and ski masks to aid them in what was planned to be a state-to-state spree. And here's where their plan really comes together, and we see the sheer genius of these two. As the culmination of their plan, the two white supremacists were going to drive really fast towards Obama while shooting at him from the windows. Oh...and when they did this, they were going to be clad in white tuxedos and white tops hats. I guess they had to add "Rob Louie's Tux Shoppe" to their to-do list.

Hey...I suppose you have to give them credit for having a little bit of a sartorial flair, or at least the aspiration to it. I'm sure they would have been playing David Lee Roth's "Just a Gigolo" on the cassette player in their monster truck as they put the pedal to the medal.

It might surprise you to know that the 20-year-old Cowart did not graduate from high school, and was living with his grandparents. Astonishing!

I suppose I'm focusing on the absurdity of it all, because the reality is almost too painful to confront. But I'll get there in a moment. Hannah Arendt spoke of the "banality of evil" when writing about the trial of Adolf Eichmann. I think we need to add to that the "complete and utter idiocy of evil." I wonder if the combined IQ's of these two bozos breaks 100? When part of your plan consists of "driving really fast," you'd think you'd realize that you've got a little more planning to do. Not only were these guys filled with hate, they were also dumber than a box of rocks.

And you know what? I'd be willing to bet that Barack Obama would be the first person to say, "We, as a nation, have failed these young men." What sort of atmosphere did they live in that fostered so much hatred towards another race that they planned on killing dozens of innocent high school students, some of them by decapitation? What kind of extremism led them to believe that killing a man with a wife and two young children was a solution? Knowledge and education can help nurture a tolerance and acceptance of other cultures, races, and religions; why were these kids not given that opportunity for the education and encouragement that might have resulted in a tolerant, productive member of society rather than another life wasted?

I'm big on personal responsibility, too, don't get me wrong. These kids made a decision to go to the dark side rather than break out of whatever noxious atmosphere they were living in. But ignorance and hatred had to have been part of their surroundings, and I am disgusted and appalled that there are people out there that would happily kill multiple people because of whatever twisted dogma with which they've been indoctrinated.

Ken wrote a great entry the other day about change. He wasn't talking Obama change, and neither am I. We need a fundamental change within each of us, a core values system that tells us that every person is valuable, that we are part of the world at large, the "family of man." Part of the solution is for each of us to stand up to such hatred and condemn it. Condemn it for the narrow-minded ignorance that it is.

Every person deserves a chance at a life of happiness, rather than one of murder, disease, and starvation. These two would-be assassins were unable to see beyond their own narrow scope of vision, to understand that the lives of those who they were planning to murder were precious, that they were people with parents, siblings, and friends who loved them. It's incomprehensible to me.

As Marge Gunderson said in "Fargo," as she was driving one of the kidnappers off to jail, "And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day. Well. I just don't understand it."