PEACHTREE, N.C., June 1 — Betty Howard made many people happy today, and it was not for her daily special. Around noon, Mrs. Howard walked outside, glanced up at the sign in front of her diner and decided to change the lettering on the marquee from “Roast Turkey Baked Ham” to “Pray for Eric Rudolph.” “Bless his heart,” Mrs. Howard said. “Eric needs our help.” Mrs. Howard said she was going to start an Eric Rudolph legal defense fund. Many customers have already said they would chip in.
A day after the authorities finally collared Eric R. Rudolph, the 36-year-old phantom survivalist who had been wanted for five years in connection with the bombing at the 1996 Olympics and attacks on abortion clinics, it is becoming clearer how fiercely loyal this community is to him, and how that might complicate the case. With Mr. Rudolph in jail, the investigation is shifting to who in this rugged corner of western North Carolina might have helped him. And there may be no shortage of suspects. While F.B.I. agents hacked their way through miles of rhododendron bushes today, trying to retrace the invisible man’s footsteps, people here brazenly voiced their support of Mr. Rudolph, who is accused of bomb attacks that killed two bystanders and maimed dozens. While most of his supporters cite his anti-abortion views, a popular stance in many rural, conservative areas, they gloss over the most notorious charge against Mr. Rudolph, that he set off a pipe bomb in a random crowd at the Summer Olympics. “I didn’t see him bomb nobody,” said Hoke Henson, 77. “You can’t always trust the feds.”
No one in this area will say if they helped Mr. Rudolph hide. Aiding and abetting a fugitive is a federal offense. But many said they would have. “He was a man who stood for what he believed in,” said Bo Newton, a short-order cook in Andrews. “If he came to my door, I would’ve given him food and never said a word.”
—OK. Now, I know not everyone in NC is a knuckle-dragging Kluxer, and I feel sorry for those non-insane NC’ers who have to live in the same state with people like this. But, jiminy! What is wrong with these people—they don’t even have enough sense not to mouth their hateful nonsense to reporters?!
You forget, Eve, that these people don’t care if a reporter quotes their ignorant statements. On the contrary, a lot of them feel they are doing an impressive thing, mouthing off to a member of the eeeevil commie organization MEDIA.
Just to be fair to Mencken his quote doesn’t specifically say “American people”; he used the phrase “… of the great masses of the plain people.” In other words, the riff raff can always be counted on to keep the lowest common denominator in the green, no matter where they’re from. Not sure what that has to do with Rudolph though.
I’m also curious to see why these backwoods folks support someone who may have randomly bombed the Olympics. Of course they (disgustingly) applaud that Rudolph bombed a gay nightclub and an abortion clinic, but how – even in the eyes of a fundy zealot – is attacking random people part of any righteous path?
Think of it this way, should you need to understand how Islamic radicals in their underground hide themselves reflect on this. Rather similar in more ways than one.
Why, peepthis, the Olympics are fulla furriners, the opening makes a big deal of such unpatriotic things as international solidarity, and they even make the event announcements in French. French!!!
Well, as a North Carolinian who’s pretty familiar with that part of the state, I dismiss the idea that those people in the article were anything more than the dredges a sensationalist resporter managed to dig up. They’re definately in the minority even in Cherokee, and hopefully they’ll go right back under their rock.
I’m more concerned about the current administration’s views than some yokels in the boonies. Do we really want John Ashcroft prosecuting this case?
Eric’s gonna get a Congressional Medal of Honor. :rolleyes:
Quite true, however the OP is addressing a mentality that - I think it’s fair to say - assumes that Rudolph did these things he is accused of, and is happy and proud that he did them. So we are really discussing attitudes, not guilt or innocence.
Would his public execution be considered cruel & unusual by itself, or is that gauged by how slowly it happens? Personally, I feel its a shame we can’t just chain him alive to the bottom of the next US Olympic Torch.
Never mind his execution. I’d like to see some of these aiders and abetters - if they do exist - brought to justice. If the authorities don’t find these people, then maybe others in the future will be more willing to help felons if they agree in principle with what that baddie did.
“He was a man who stood for what he believed in,” said Bo Newton, a short-order cook in Andrews. “If he came to my door, I would’ve given him food and never said a word.”
I can think of another man who stands for what he beleives in (shocker: substantially the same shit Rudolph believes in), but I think Bo there might be more inclined to share the business end of his squirrel gun with him instead. But, then, he wears that funny rag on his head an’ all…
I can’t find a version of the article online right now, but one cited the new running shoes he had on, relatively clean clothes, and fresh batteries in a flashlight, and authorities wondered who was actively helping him. At least one store owner reported his store was burglarized by Roberts (well, Roberts did leave 5 $100 bills as compensation and “borrowed” the owner’s truck, which was found later) after he wouldn’t sell to him; it leaves one to wonder how often he had to resort to those methods versus being aided by sympathizers. Those are the people that really scare me.
The full article that Eve quoted from mentioned that the previous manhunt for him had angered a lot of the area residents through (apparently) its methods and/or scope, and the authorities said they would be more respectful of people this time.
I think it would be funny (and amazingly apropos) if Rudolph willingly told the feds who had been helping him this whole time. Names, addresses, phone numbers, the whole works.
I wonder if the opinion of Mr. Rudolph might change a bit among the populace there.
I wonder why Rudolph is not being labeled a “terrorist” or at least “an alleged terrorist.” He is accused of 4 separate bombings. Sounds like terrorism to me.
When the Olympic Park bombing occured back in 1996, I remember thinking they were probably the work of the Redneck Liberation Front. Maybe I was right.