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Edited on Sat Aug-12-06 11:14 AM by paxmusa
This has been bothering me as I read about the various uses of the word "insurgent" (which means: a person who revolts against civil authority). The Iraqi people have been labeled insurgents, as were the people who were angered when food/water were not delivered to them as they waited, stranded in New Orleans, and recently people who voted for Lamont have been referred to as insurgents. Also, "terrorist" has come to be applied to those who spray paint a bulldozer that is about to knock down an old growth redwood grove--eco-terrorist.
So, I'm just wondering why members of my very Republican family consider western outlaws to be folk heroes, if these men/gangs become famous for stealing, murdering, raping, and causing chaos among the law enforcement of the time. Why do they hang pictures of Jesse James, Wild Bill, Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, Dynamite Dick, Black Bart, the Dalton Gang, and the Wild Bunch in their living rooms, have tons of books and documentaries on these outlaws? Weren't these men/gangs the "insurgents" and "terrorists" of their day?
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