Dial it back, Rambo

Since that militia started occupying the federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, some people have been comparing them to terrorists. They’re not much different from ISIS or Al Qaeda, I’ve read in different places.

I disagree. Terrorists are people who use terror against the public to achieve their goals. Is anybody actually terrified of these people in Oregon?

These are people who are asking the public to send them supplies like snacks and socks for the cold weather. You would think they would be prepared for the conditions, given that they are in Oregon in January, but I guess they don’t have the master planning skills of ISIS or Al Qaeda. These are people who will leave if the local community asks them to. Terrorists are not usually amenable to local citizens saying “please leave.” These are people who have seized not a federal building or court but a wildlife refuge.

Plus there was the guy who made a hilariously weepy farewell video, explaining to his kids that “Daddy swore an oath to defend the Constitution.” Yes, we all remember when Joe Blow from Oregon swore that oath on the steps of the Capitol before an audience of millions as a brilliant sun set in the background while the bald eagles cried.

I just can’t take these people seriously as terrorists. Maybe some of that is due to the fact that I have a knee-jerk reaction to applying a Simpsons quote to everything and when I hear the word “militia,” I see Homer and his buddies marching down the street as Jimbo gawks “Hey, you’re that drunken posse!” I have that reaction whenever people throw on some camo and grab a shotgun and wave that terrible “Don’t tread on me” flag (which looks like some early colonial settler’s kid drew it) and try to protect us all from Tyranny (read: government is making me pay taxes and/or not letting me do whatever I want). Dial it back, Rambo.

But maybe everybody needs to dial it back. There are legitimate issues here as far as mandatory minimum sentencing and discrepancies between how we treat/frame this militia and other protestors. The one thing we don’t want here is another Waco situation where the feds go in shooting. If we’re appalled by how the police can get rough on protestors in other situations, the solution is not to rough up these people in Oregon. It’s to let cooler heads prevail in all such situations (like whenever there’s not an active shooter) and not just go from 0 to massacre in 60 seconds.