In the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, Daedalus had made wings of wax and feathers to help himself and his son escape captivity. As they took flight, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too high else the sun would melt the wings nor too low for the moisture of the sea may cause the wings to fall apart. Icarus did not listen to his father and flew to the extremes; he paid dearly for his mistake. Just as Icarus should have avoided the extremities, the Unites States’ government must find that “happy medium” between security and freedom. As within the parable, both extremes are essential to life as we know it, but favoring one over the other can cause chaos and destruction. As a young man, Timothy McVeigh began to express an interest in guns and ammunition.…show more content… He attended many gun shows in his area. It is not uncommon for The Turner Diaries by William Luther Pierce, the book McVeigh later used to outline his attack, to be advertised and sold at gun shows. Many beliefs and ideals in the racist and anarchist novel made perfect sense to McVeigh. What was meant to be dystopian fiction became scripture. This new way of thinking led McVeigh towards militia movements and anti-government rallies. Timothy McVeigh shared the militiamen and extremists’ perspective “that arming oneself against potential government tyranny is an essential civil right and that government gun control measures infringe upon that fight,” (Andryszewski 27). The complications at Waco, Texas and Ruby Ridge enraged McVeigh and helped to spark the idea of revenge in his mind. In the two situations, the U.S. government took action to protect the people as well as themselves. Both confrontations though, caused unnecessary deaths on the side of the defendants. McVeigh was very involved in protests after these incidents. There are records and witnesses of McVeigh’s attendance and support at and for many anti-government, extremist institutions. If all this information about McVeigh is common and condemning knowledge now, there is no reason the government should not have better tracked his actions before he had the opportunity to execute a 168-casualty
