The Smiley Face Bomber

by Radio Raheem

G21 Staff Writer

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OAKLAND, CA, USA - Wisconsin college student Luke John Helder is now in custody, in Iowa, facing trial for the newest act of domestic terrorism in the United States. By all accounts (of friends, college classmates and professors, and family) he is "polite, cheerful and laid-back." This according to the many press accounts you can find since the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) moved to apprehend young Helder as the primary suspect in a series of mailbox bombings throughout the central United States.

We've grown used to hearing about polite and easy-going people suddenly going off their nut and committing atrocities in America. Ted Bundy and Timothy McVeigh immediately come to mind for me. So as I put together this article for G21, I had to pass over that new "Cliche Du Jour," as our esteemed editor dubbed it last week, and look at what I could relevantly add to our latest examination of another good boy gone bad.

Don't expect the kind of detailed reporting you got on the Hanssen spy arrest. I just know what I read in the papers and on the Internet, but there's plenty out there already about the Smiley Face bomber. And what gets me, personally, Homies, is that for all the fear of a Black planet usually expressed by the American news media and in any shop you might enter, for all the white people who'll cross to the other side of the street when they see young brothers coming down the sidewalk, one point is being missed:

YOUR TYPICAL AMERICAN TERRORIST, THE PERSON MOST LIKELY TO COMMIT MASS MURDERS, IS A WHITE MALE BETWEEN 13 AND 25 YEARS OF AGE.

That was true of ALL the school shooters, most of the serial killers (at least at the beginning of their careers, if not when they got caught) and every domestic terrorist thus far apprehended. (We're no closer to knowing who was responsible for the anthrax killings today than we were five months ago.)

Let me qualify my statement: FBI profilers arent' missing the point. They know no brothers are into any crazy shit like this. Brothers too busy just tryin' to survive.

Radio Raheem

I have a theory about his, too, Homies. The best way to illustrate it is to look at some of the posts put up on Luke John Helder's Web site. Yeah, he had a Web site to promote his band, called Apathy. Before he was picked up on the interstate by the authorities -- tracking his cell phone -- Newsbytes checked the action at his Web site. I found some of the comments, made by the kind of Gen Xers, who think this kind of senseless destruction is "badass", telling in and of themselves. I got the chilling sense that America has de-sensitized young people to violence on such a gut level (Thank you, Playstation!) that we can expect more, not less, of this kind of aberrant behavior. Read the story for yourselves here.

One of the comments that got to me went like this: "...Dumb ass. Blow up people like politicians, not innocent retards."

Luke Helder

As was pointed out by another writer here, most of these "brilliant, but misunderstood" young white boys think of themselves as geniuses who are being picked on and the rest of us in the population as "retards." They have this ubermensch right, which feeds into the punk/skinhead/white supremacist mentality, to exterminate us for whatever cause they espouse. It's usually anti-government in a fascistic kindah way, from everything I've seen. And the first thing they'll do when they set up their New and Perfect Government is get rid of all us pesky Blacks, Jews, queers, A-rabs and other undesirables to return America to its true Christian heritage. Tim McVeigh could have told you that.

It seems that young Master Helder's agenda was to convince us, by blowing up mailboxes across the center of America and creating a "smiley face" pattern, that death did not exist. Yeah, you heard me right. In Helder's universe we needed to "know" that death is an illusion. The great documentarians over at the Smoking Gun Web site have pages of his "manifesto" for your consideration. If you're into reading mad rantings akin to the Unabomber's claptrap, just follow that link.

So now, as he awaits trial in Iowa, and other states effected wait their turn to get a piece of the action, the news media will focus on "the anquish of [the] parents", shots of his broad smiling face as he is taken in manacles to and from various jails, and somebody, somewhere in El Lay is already working on the script for the TV movie. He has his "Story Du Jour" hours of fame. Why shouldn't this sick puppy be happy?

AND SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA'S WHITE SUBURBS another messed up, but superior to the rest of us, white boy is getting his own inspiration for some kind of terrorist act. You can take that to the bank. The FBI knows this, too.

What has Tom Ridge's Office of Homeland Defence done to protect us against our own kids, I have to wonder. It's not invading armies, after all, that we have to worry about really.

Yeah, we can throw them generals at the Pentagon more BILLIONS of dollars for their "smart" bombs and Star Wars and more Stealth fighters and bombers. But will the mass quantities of munitions that the Pentagon is asking for and pork-barrelling politicos are dong lap dances over (it's an election year, like I said in my last column) going to make you and me any safer from a kid recruited by Al Queda or a kid down the block inspired by the game "Grand Theft Auto" or Masters Klebold, Helder, et alia to want to fuck some shit up?

I DON'T THINK SO.

When Luke John Helder was captured, the authorities found him with a shotgun and another weapon, ready to blow his own brains out. Where did he get these weapons? As the National Rifle Association can tell you, guns don't kill people. Fair enough. But giving every wingnut who wants a damned gun in the country carte blance to have one sure as hell does! Richard Speck could have told you that. So could Eric Harris.

What I have to say to my fellow Americans is this: Do you feel any safer than you did two years ago? The answer to that question just might help you make a couple of decisions come November. The steamroller for the largest defence budget in history is not gonnah be stopped, because you been too busy thinking about Catholic Priests, as our publisher pointed out last week, to think about your safety, your futures and that of your kids. But take one them wake-up calls that's been comin' in lately. Pick up the receiver. FOLLOW MY LEAD AND VOTE THE BASTARDS OUT!

Now that General Electric and General Motors and every damned oil company that you can think of has gotten their share of the national wealth, think about your pocketbook for a change! What did that tax cut do for you personally?

Yeah, I'd like to see peace in the Middle East. I'd like to see world peace, too.

But right now I'd like to see some peace of mind for me and mine up here in Oaktown, Cali. How's I plan to get, Homeboys and -girls? It's an election year. I'm not gonnah vote with my feet, like they'd like me to. This is my country. I'm gonnah vote at the polls to elect some people who have my best interests at heart. And I know for certain that their surnames are NOT Lott, Delay, Armey, Dole or akin to any of the other the Bush Leaguers up there in Washington that are leading us down this slippery slope. Those bastards are pouring more oil on the slope for the corporate moguls who put twenties in their g-strings.

And what I got to say to the politicians is this: Ya'll just go ahead and keep on dancin'. If I don't like what I hear from the Democrats, I can always go with the Greens.

Peace out.

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