On election night, 2016, we sat in a small bar in Garden City. Surrounded by Democratic workers, union representatives, and immigrants, we gathered as the bar turned the large lights out and no signs were allowed promoting we would be there on a Tuesday evening in November. Roughly 51 miles from my Western Kansas home, we gathered in support of each other and in the end, mourned the results. The fear in the room was significant, in large part due to a bombing plot that had been spoiled shortly beforehand — the act of madmen, seeking to scare immigrants and strike fear into those who didn’t believe as they did.
Today, in Wichita, Kansas, justice was done, and the three men involved were convicted on all counts.
www.huffingtonpost.com/…
Three right-wing militiamen from rural Kansas were found guilty on Wednesday in a plot to slaughter Muslim refugees living in an apartment complex in Garden City.
Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen were found guilty on charges of weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights. Wright was also found guilty on a charge of lying to the FBI. The defendants will face a potential life sentence.
For many in Garden City, this is certainly a relief, a testament of the rule of law and that we do not support these actions.
But the men behind the bombing plot, just like Donald Trump, are not “the problem”, they are a symptom, the result of discourse that promotes this viewpoint.
While the trial was ongoing, Secretary of State and candidate for Governor Kobach took to Garden City to.. denounce immigrants. And while he would certainly tell you he doesn’t believe in, advocate for, or support harming others or vigilante justice, his rhetoric and the continued rhetoric of those who ramp up hatred toward persons of color in our state and elsewhere ends up with these results — it encourages and leads to these kind of activities.
Our president refers to the problem as of infestation and breeding — terms that were echoed by those involved in the bombing plot
www.huffingtonpost.com/…
Jurors heard recording after recording of the men expressing a murderous hatred of Muslims, who they called “cockroaches.”
“The fucking cockroaches in this country have to go, period,” said Stein, who went by the code name “Orkin Man” in text messages with other militia members. “They are the fucking problem in this country right now. They are the threat in this country right now.”
But the refugees were not an infestation — they certainly did not deserve to have their lives threatened.
The criminals — Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen — will face a term of up to life in prison.
But the ideas that inspired them will be heard again, repeatedly, around the country and in elections. The decision to imprison these criminals was just; the decision to change the rhetoric won’t happen in a courthouse. It can only happen at the ballot box in November.