What connects McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber to Thomas Jefferson? Jefferson believed that each individual has “certain inalienable rights”. That is, these rights exist with or without government; man cannot create, take, or give them away. It is the right of “liberty” on which Jefferson is most notable for expounding. But what was his remark concerning the Shays Rebellion after he had heard of the bloodshed? Jefferson wrote to William Smith, John Adams’s son-in-law, “What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” Several anti-government groups have pointed to these words of his to justify their violence. Timothy McVeigh was wearing a T-shirt when arrested bearing the words, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Do you think the reputation of Thomas Jefferson suffers because a bloody murderer like Timothy McVeigh had plastered the quote on his t-shirt? Merely because blatant injustice has been done on the earth in the name of God by some rogues and butchers ( and they also quote appropriate verses from their ‘holy books’,) Is God dead or has He become irrelevant?
benny
