America is reeling from the bomb that blew up in Atlanta's Centennial Park, but much of this had to do with the fact that the Olympics were being held there, making it a focus point for violence. If the Olympic masses had not been in Atlanta, the likelihood is that no bomb would have been placed to begin with. The Olympics are a target because they are not just a gigantic corporate billboard -- a running advertisement for industrial multi-nationals -- but because it is an opportunity for nations to indulge their rivalries. The modern Olympics invoke the most base forms of national chauvinism, which has resulted in the deaths of innocent people in two separate terrorist incidents. This is central to the issue of whether or not the Olympics are worth the cost, because the Games really are no more than a form of entertainment for the masses.

The bomb that blew up in Georgia was the kind of weapon teenagers in high school are capable of making. There is no more low-tech device than a so-called "pipe bomb." The comparisons made to the Oklahoma City bombing were obvious over-reactions, since the bomb that took out the Federal Building was estimated to be a 4000 to 5000 pound bomb. This is not to trivialize the two people who lost their lives in Atlanta, or the 111 who were seriously injured. However, the tone of all the reporters, that the Games would continue and not skip a beat, showed disrespect for the dead and was uncouth and inappropriate.

What does it mean when the Leader of the Free World (what an oxymoron that title is), has to take time from ruling the planet to declare that THE GAMES SHALL GO ON! What high drama! The most policed spectacle on Earth was the subject of a terrorist attack, which it was obvious to the world community derived from a homegrown act of dissent. How could a country with the Bill of Rights have any kind of opposition movement? It does not make sense to the mind of a college-educated bureaucrat.

The modern Olympics are not the same as the ancient Olympic games, held in classical Greece. The ancient games were held during a time of truce between the various Greek polises, or city- states, and preceding the games diplomats came together and established a political peace for the purpose of the Games. The Games were dedicated to the Greek Gods, which made the event a religious festival. The athletes performed in the nude, and the pagan connotations of the whole thing was what led Christians to suppress and finally destroy the ancient Olympic Games. Modern people are not cognizant of the fact that the Christians felt free to suppress non-Christian theologies anywhere they found them. This was how the term "pagan" came to become a euphemism for non-Christian. The Christians would ransack the site of an ancient temple, and then build a church right on top of it. They did this through-out the Near East, and it became a proto-type for their behavior in the "New" World.

While it may not be necessary to revive the ancient Greek Olympic Games, it is important to differentiate the modern Olympiad from the ancient institution, because the modern Games are actually only a showcase for modern states. There is nothing noble in the modern event, in which AT&T has as central a presence as the United States Government. In fact the bomb blew up at the corner of an AT&T facility in Centennial Park. The explosion also took place at the height of an international controversy about the one-sided-ness of the American media's coverage of the international Olympic event. One person declared that the coverage made the Games into "America's Olympics," in effect ignoring the international character of the competition. While some Americans were defensive, many more recognized in the complaints of the international press a bona fide grievance. The American press IS one-sided.

In the aftermath of the pipe bomb explosion Federal troops were brought in to provide security, and extensive searches were instigated, and the media covered all the happy spectators, who felt "safer" after being subjected to searches by police. The whole effect subtly conveyed the message that Americans won't mind giving up their civil rights, if it means combating "terrorism." The fact that the Olympics are a form of entertainment on par with a visit to Disneyworld was never considered for a moment. Should America give up its civil rights, or the Olympics? Of course, it should give up its civil rights, chorused the media.

What is the source of terrorism? This is never asked in the media. Why do radicals commit acts of terror? There is a stubborn failure on the part of the media "journalists" to admit that the underlying purpose of terrorism is the delivery of a message that is being suppressed, usually by the journalists themselves. This is probably because any genuine in-depth study of terrorism must inevitably lead to its origins in the American Revolution, when "vigilance committees" led mobs. The United States Government has its roots in vigilantism, and the use of fear to dominate society. This unleashed an unending cycle of violence, that the Government has had to increase every generation to keep control. The ironic thing is that this new round of terrorism seems to be coming from the very people the Federal Government claims to be representing! And it is aimed at the Federal Government itself! Imagine that!

There is no way for the United States Government to guard against every pipe bomb any teenager could make in his garage. There is no way for the Government, powerful and rich as it is, to defend itself against its own people. The fact is that the American people are tired of the Federal Government, with its garrison mentality. It offers them no hope of relief, only the perpetuation of grief. With over 1 MILLION Americans in prisons and jails, the United States has more of its own citizens in jail than any other NATION ON THE EARTH! Putting more Americans in jail is not an answer to anything.

It is time for the American people to call the bluff of the Federal Government, and the media pundits. They really don't have a plan. They go from disaster to disaster, obscuring real issues with a barrage of words: New laws, harsher punishments, puffery and grandstanding. All sound and fury SIGNIFYING NOTHING, as a real war rages in the streets, in which REAL PEOPLE are dying. If we do not demand the truth, there shall never be a peace in America.

UPDATE 12/20/96:

The FBI finally let Jewell off the hook, but then it had to come clean with information it had withheld from the American people. It has now come out that early investigations focused on a local Georgia Militia group, even though most of its people were in jail. Then attention was focused on Jewell, because law enforcement is always suspicious of do-gooders, who try to do the right thing by "getting involved." When Jewell was absolved, the FBI came out and released the tape which had a voice on it clearly indicating that there was a bomb in Centennial Park, and "you have 30 minutes." This raises the question of why the police did not use that 30 minutes to vacate the park. A question that was not raised by a single reporter or journalist at the FBI briefing. It was at that time that the news was released that the bomb was not a pipe bomb, but a sophisticated 50 pound bomb that probably was created by a terrorist group of some kind. It just goes to show that as long as law enforcement is willing to frame people, justice will be lacking in America. And it is a taint against every professional, decent policeman in the country.