MISSOURI WATCH: SHOUTS IN A CROWDED THEATER

As the nation goes through the grieving process following the bombing at Oklahoma City, it has been informative to observe the reactions of those who have, in one way or another, been affected by this senseless massacre of innocent men, women and children. The wrenching sight of the devastated federal building is all the more painful with realization that the debris still hides the dismembered bodies of fellow Americans who were going about their daily routine tasks on the morning of April 19.

If it is painful to gaze at a television screen that pictures the wreckage at Oklahoma City, it is even more so to listen to persons who would explain away the violent behavior of those who detonated a bomb that snuffed out the lives of nearly 200 human beings and caused extensive damage to buildings four blocks from the blast. The logic of the defenders is inexplicable in its cool detached logic of retribution for the tragedy of "Waco" and the deaths of two family members of a paramilitary zealot.

Those who defend the Oklahoma City incident as being a normal, logical reaction to other deaths occurring when federal agents sought to arrest alleged violators seem guilty of a twisted pathology that bears little or no resemblance to sane rationality. America is a country of laws which apply with equal force to all, allowing for no exceptions by those who would flaunt them to further their own individual cause.

Federal officers who are charged with enforcing the laws written by a democratically elected Congress are guided by rules and regulations that countenance no deviation. These officers are under the constant oversight of federal courts, providing an extra layer of checks and balances that should be reassuring to reasonable citizens.

Apologists for violence ask Americans to understand their actions, based mostly on fears of a totalitarian state resembling something similar to Germany's Third Reich or Japan's imperialist government a half century ago. No rational, reasonable citizen can find such deluded paranoia compelling or logical. Those who would justify their mindless violence against innocent fellow Americans with their strange and haunted delusions forfeit any right to be considered seriously, for they are literally building psychotic castles in the sky and then living in them.

Disturbing, too, are those elements within our society that cater to the radicals who mindlessly attack the government and its elected officials for political, personal or monetary gain. Those who have kicked aside all traces of civility in the past are now attempting to exempt themselves from any liability in creating today's lawless zombies, but their denials include twisted logic. Claiming vast influence in the past, they now diminish these claims by saying they bear no responsibility. One hears the sound of clanging cymbals.

Our nation was founded not on the premise that every kook was entitled to carry an assault weapon, but was established as an outpost of liberty and justice under law. Our ancestors fled the unitary tyranny of a king or a dictator, but they did not come to our shores to create a government that can be amended through hallucination or hate or illegal retribution. They most certainly didn't found our federalist state from a desire to hear zealots cry fire in a crowded theater for their own gain or deluded idea of fairness and equity.

We are not, as the revisionists would have us believe, living in a totalitarian state without adequate legal safeguards for the innocent. We are living under a government that is still in the process of maturation, seeking to install freedom under law and freedom of opportunity. Our impatience to gain perfect governance is understandable, but it is not an excuse for undermining the bridge toward liberty and justice.

As citizens, each of us has special obligations. We have a responsibility to be well informed, to participate in the democratic process, to vote, to perform the duties of responsible citizenship, to obey the laws of the majority. When we fail, the government of which we are a part fails as well. If government fails, then it is in response to individual misfeasance.

Two centuries ago the founding fathers challenged us to make this democracy work if we could. We must not ignore their challenge today. April 19 showed us the price of failure.

Jack Stapleton of Kennett if the editor of the Missouri News and Editorial Service.