We've heard it all before: Men are angry. Men's anger wrecks havoc in society in a number of ways from domestic violence to war to terrorist acts.
Are these ways for civilized people to behave?
NO!
Let's look back a few years. LA exploded in riots when some white police officers were found innocent of using excessive force when they beat a drunk black speeder into the pavement. Many people, black and white, were angered by the verdict, believing the savagery of the beating should have sent the officers to jail. Some black people weren't content to "just" be angry. They saw the system working against them once again. They launched nights and days of rioting that murdered nearly 60 people, injured hundreds more, and set many blocks of the city ablaze.
Americans of all colors decried the violence in LA. A sector of the society fell back into the racist rhetoric of the '60s, saying that blacks just could not control themselves.
The bombing in Oklahoma City, has strong parallels to the LA riots, except the people who perpetrated the bombing have deluded themselves into calling themselves "patriots." They also killed many more people with many fewer people comitting the violent act. It's yet another case of disaffected men raining violence down upon other men, women and children.
These people who claim that the government is "so distant" are ignoring the obvious---the government is cleaning up the mess.
Like many boomers who lived through Vietnam and Watergate and Iran-Contra and President Regan, I'm very skeptical of goverment. I've voted in every election I've ever been eligible for. Given the choice of casting my lot with a democratically-elected government and a bunch of vigilantes in fatigues, I'll back the government any day. I don't stockpile weapons in my home, but I do exercise all of my constitutionally-guaranteed rights, especially my freedom to speak.