












 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Editorial - Domestic Enemies
   by Dave Bealer
 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


   Robert McNamara, who served as Secretary of Defense under
 Kennedy and Johnson, admitted in his recent book that the U.S.
 involvement in Vietnam may have been ill advised. This confirms
 what a lot of people have been saying since the 1960s. It also goes
 to show that nobody is perfect, not even the people who run the most
 powerful nation on earth. In fact Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon,
 was so imperfect that in 1974 he became the first President in U.S.
 history to resign from office.

   Vietnam and Watergate eroded American's respect for their
 government, although there have always been some people suspicious
 of the power and motives of Federal officials. Recent efforts at
 gun control have raised the paranoia level of those most worried
 about their Second Amendment rights. The deadly 1993 federal raid
 on the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco, Texas brought many of
 those smoldering suspicions to the flash point.

   On April 19, 1995 a car bomb destroyed a nine story Federal
 office building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Over 150 people, many
 of them children, lost their lives in the attack. Most of the dead
 were federal workers, either civilian or military. Like all those
 who serve the Executive Branch of the United States in any capacity,
 from the President on down, these people had taken an oath of office
 upon entering federal service. The most important phrase in all
 federal oaths of office is a pledge to "Support and Defend the
 Constitution of the United States against all Enemies, Foreign and
 Domestic."

   Car bombings are not a new phenomenon, even in America. Just
 two years ago a car bomb, set by Middle Eastern fanatics, damaged
 the World Trade Center in New York City. Because of that attack many
 people, including members of the news media, instantly assumed that
 the Oklahoma City bombing had been perpetrated by Middle Eastern
 terrorists. This despite statements by Arabic and Muslim groups in
 the U.S. condemning the attack, and cautioning against making rash
 assumptions. But this incident, the most deadly terrorist act ever
 carried out on U.S. soil, was perpetrated by domestic enemies.

   The suspects in the atrocity in Oklahoma are ultra-conservative
 fanatics who were apparently trying to punish the government for
 its role in the Waco tragedy. Are these paranoid people terrorists
 or revolutionaries?  Most of them are pathetic losers who can't make
 it in modern society. Whatever the real cause of their dysfunction,
 they blame the government (really, anyone but themselves) for their
 problems. The government hasn't become any more perfect in the past
 twenty years, but blowing up federal workers, their children, and
 their customers is not the way to change things for the better.

   The United States, model for all modern democracies, provides
 a way to alter the government if you don't like the fit of the
 current one. It's called voting a new one into office. Many people
 felt the system didn't work anymore, but in November 1994 they were
 proved wrong when voters gave the Republican party control of both
 houses of Congress for the first time over 40 years. That revolution
 will continue next year when the Republicans win the Presidency and
 the (non-ultra) conservative agenda really starts to roll.

   Americans have proven themselves quite capable of defending
 their nation against foreign enemies. Defending a truly free nation
 against domestic enemies is far more difficult. There will always
 be people who oppose the government, no matter who is in charge.
 For all its faults, the U.S. system of government is the best one
 yet devised by humans. Those who use the system to change things
 (including the system itself) are revolutionaries, those who attempt
 to destroy the system are terrorists.

   Actually, the fanatics who set off the Oklahoma City bomb are
 guilty of treason, since "levying war against them (the United
 States)" is defined as treason in the Constitution. Detonating two
 tons of high explosives with the intention of destroying a government
 building and killing innocent government and civilian personnel
 certainly qualifies as "levying war," if anything does. If the
 penalty for treason isn't death by some very unpleasant method, it
 certainly should be.

   Civil disobedience, up to and including violence, is an
 old American tradition. In fact that is how the nation gained
 independence from its European masters in the 18th century. America's
 Founding Fathers tried to ensure that Americans would always have the
 means available to defend themselves and their country, a very wise
 provision. More gun control is not the answer to the Oklahoma traitors.
 Providing and enforcing severe penalties against those who use firearms
 (and other weapons) in the commission of violent crimes is the answer.



 -=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 DREAM FORGE Goes Interactive!
 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

   During its first few months of existence DREAM FORGE has been
 a typical (but excellent) electronic magazine, at least in format.
 ASCII Text, Readroom, and VGA Graphics editions of DREAM FORGE
 provide formats for a wide range of user hardware platforms and
 needs. Sporting the best content of any general interest e-mag,
 DREAM FORGE has not been a major innovator in the area of
 presentation of that content -- until now.

   Beginning in October 1995, Dream Forge, Inc. will offer an
 interactive edition of the magazine called, appropriately enough,
 DREAM FORGE Interactive (tm).

   DREAM FORGE Interactive (DFI), will provide the same great content,
 brought to you by the same team that produces the "static" editions of
 DREAM FORGE. DFI adds timely information about the online world, such
 as which celebrities will be online in the following week. Plus DFI
 offers the chance to converse with DREAM FORGE authors, staff, and
 other readers in conferences available only to DFI subscribers.

   DFI will be available to sysops for display to (and participation
 by) their users. DFI will also be available to individuals who can
 receive internet e-mail. DFI information will be released on a daily
 basis, with such features as "Tagline of the Day."  Articles and other
 features will be released as soon as they're ready. You won't have to
 wait an entire month to get your next DREAM FORGE fix.

   Online citizens have consistently proven that they're looking for
 more than pre-packaged information. People are online mainly for one
 purpose -- to communicate with other people. DFI combines professional
 editorial content with the opportunity to interact publicly with the
 writers and other readers. This interaction takes place day to day, or
 even hour-to-hour; you don't have to wait to read a "letters to the
 editor" section a few months later.

   Subscription prices for DFI are the same as for other editions.
 Current DREAM FORGE subscribers may contact the publisher if they wish
 to try DFI. We expect DREAM FORGE Interactive (tm) to change the
 definition of the word "magazine."

                               {DREAM}

 Copyright 1995 Dave Bealer, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
 Dave Bealer is a thirty-something mainframe systems programmer who
 works with CICS, MVS and all manner of nasty acronyms at one of the
 largest heavy metal shops on the East Coast. He shares a waterfront
 townhome in Pasadena, MD. with two cats who annoy him endlessly as
 he writes and publishes electronically. Dave can be reached via
 e-mail at: dbealer@dreamforge.com
 ====================================================================

