Three city employees were preparing the route for a parade in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, in Spokane, Washington, when they discovered a bomb inside a backpack, equipped with a remote detonator. The parade was rerouted so police could disarm the weapon, which was thankfully neutralized without injuries. Bomb squads have tense mornings, in order to bring you peaceful afternoons.
The FBI has posted a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the would-be bombers. Suspicion has fallen on white supremacist groups, who blew a chunk out of City Hall with a pipe bomb back in 1996. Another unexploded device was found outside the U.S. courthouse in Spokane last March. No one has been arrested for that incident yet, or claimed responsibility.
The Associated Press quotes the mayor of Spokane, Mary Verner, denouncing the attempted bombing: “I was struck that on the day we celebrate Dr. King, a champion of non-violence, we were faced with a significant violent threat. This is unacceptable in our community, or any community.” She shouldn’t be surprised. Dr. King understood that non-violence provokes the brutal rage of lesser men. That’s why he went to great lengths to explain that non-violence is hard.
The FBI has officially classified the incident as domestic terrorism. We can be thankful the bomber didn’t detonate his weapon out of spite, to kill the three city workers who found it. Maybe he tried, but it malfunctioned. Perhaps he lost his nerve, or gained a conscience.
There are no valid arguments to be made with bombs. Anyone planning to use one should get this through their heads: the United States of America will never submit to racist doctrines, totalitarian religious laws, anti-human environmental extremism, or any other ideology that seeks to impose itself through the murder of innocents. Civilization has nothing to gain by entertaining the criticism of its murderous enemies.
