A Mother's Testimonial

This just in: Wingnut bomber and fugitive Eric Robert Rudolph's mother says he is "not a monster."

Doesn't everybody's mother say that?! Why is that news? Why do news organizations consistently fall back on The Mother's Testimonial as if it has any meaning whatsoever? And why do they keep using the adjective "religious" to describe him?

The man killed and injured people in the most horrible way. He attacked without regard for human life: people at a bar, people at a Planned Parenthood clinic, and people attending the Olympics in 1996. For those who say he was religious, I would have to disagree, since he killed a church-going wife and mother in Olympic Park, not to mention helped ruin the life of Richard Jewell, the man accused of the bombing. I'm so tired of hearing that he was "religious." I will, I promise you, scream if I hear one more journo refer to him as "religious." He was not religious; he did not have religious convictions. He simply had a lot of hate and needed an excuse to unleash it. He was to Christianity what the members of al-Qaeda and Hamas are to Islam: a person who cherry-picks religious texts in order to justify his evil, monstrous acts.

I'm delighted that Mrs. Rudolph doesn't think her son is a monster. I'm delighted that CNN will be interviewing her to hear all about what a good kid he was...you know, BEFORE that silly business of him maiming and killing people with bombs. How nice for her. But I wonder if she has spoken to the young boy in Atlanta who has lived without his mother for almost a decade. I wonder if she has spoken to the people who were injured and maimed in his other bombings. I wonder if she has spoken with Richard Jewell whose name will always be synonymous with the Olympic Park bombing, either as the suspect or the cleared-suspect-whose-reputation-is-already-ruined.

Good for you, ma'am. Your son is not a monster. I'm sure you can come up with some excuse like you didn't hug him enough or he was teased in school or whatever. But let's not confuse reality with whatever intellectual fiction you have created to get yourself up in the morning...

ps--I am witty, charming and the prettiest, smartest girl in my entire town. You know it's true because My Mom Says So.