violence

Last Sunday here it was cloudy and drizzly, and early in the morning, the village was deserted. In my walk I only met a young mother jogging and pushing a carriage. It was one of those with wheels as big as bicycle's wheels. She was moving at a good clip, and didn't say good morning, but the toddler gave me a toothless grin.

Then, a few minutes later, my friend Joe parked his truck across the street and waited for me. I think he wanted me to see that he had grown a beard because instead of saying good morning he asked if I noticed something new.

To be contrary, I said, "Yeah you washed your truck."

He shook his head, and called me an asshole.

"My wife likes it," he said.

"She should. It needed it. It needs painting too." His truck was red once, but now it has the color of a picture of Saudi Arabia taken from space. Joe is 85, and his truck is half his age, I think.

Joe was born In Brooklyn to Italian Immigrants, and he fought in the Pacific. He has told me more times than I care to hear it, how two guys in his platoon looked for Japanese wounded to finish them off after every battle.

Every time he tells me that, I say to him that they were Boddhisattvas sending Buddhists to Nirvana. I had to explain the joke a few times, but know he knows the terms, and we can discuss if his buddies were doing an evil, or good deed.

Joe was a Catholic, but what he saw in the war made him an atheist. He doesn't believe in life after death either. He is one of many soldiers liberated from superstition by war.

In the mid to late 1990's the Clinton Adminstration discovered a wave of arson allegedly being directed at the black church in the Deep South.  This issue quickly become an important issue for the Clintons, who made it a point to ensure such crimes were investigated and prosecuted http://www.cnn.com/US/9701/18/clinton.radio/index.html

President Clinton reported Saturday on the progress made by a task force he established last June to investigate a series of arsons against churches, saying the probes have been "remarkably successful."

http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/church_arson/arson98.php

Indeed, in 1996 a new federal statute was enacted making church arson a federal offense

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?tab=summary&bill=h104-3525

It appears, that far from the Deep South, we may have a new politically motivated church arson  http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=9516339

ANCHORAGE, Alaska-- Gov. Sarah Palin's home church has been badly damaged in a suspicious fire.

Larry Kroon, the pastor of the Wasilla Bible Church, estimates damages at more than $1 million to the church.

Kroon says the fire broke out Friday night while a small group of women were working on crafts, and were alerted to the blaze by a fire alarm.

By the time he got to the church, Kroon said he could see smoke pouring out of the building.

Kroon declined to say if the blaze was politically based or directed at Palin.

Palin spokesman Bill McAllister said the governor stopped by the church Saturday morning and apologized if the incident was related to her.

In a written statement McAllister said Palin, "told an assistant pastor that she apologizes if the incident is in any way connected to the undeserved negative attention the church has received since she became a vice presidential candidate on Aug. 29. Whatever the motives of the arsonist, the governor has faith in the scriptural passage that what was intended for evil will in some way be used for good."

Let's see if the Obama Justice Department makes this act of political terrorism directed at Christians a federal case.  After all, we are all entitled to equal protection under the law.

Aren't we?