If you are married you celebrate your wedding anniversary every year, and all of you certainly have birthdays you celebrate every year. Well on April 19th an anniversary rolled around for all of us, and most of you probably missed it. You see folks, April 19 was the anniversary of the demise of religious freedom in this country.

Until April 19, 1993, many of us took the First Amendment for granted. You know, it is somewhat ironic that on April 19, 1775, the battle of Lexington and Concord marked the beginning of our War for Independence to assure American liberty forever. That's what our Constitution guaranteed, when our Founding Fathers established the blessings of liberty for us, their Posterity. Among the liberties so guaranteed was the right to worship God as we please, worship -- free of government interference. And until exactly 218 years after Lexington and Concord, we felt somewhat secure in our First Amendment right, again a right we had been taking for granted.

But on April 19, 1993, the United States Government essentially murdered, or stood by and witnessed the murder, of some 80 people near Waco, Texas, including 25 children. Add to this number six Branch Davidians and 4 federal agents who were killed in the initial raid.

You remember Waco don't you? Can anyone not remember Bloody Waco? The Branch Davidians were an independent religious community living in a place called Mount Carmel, which was surrounded by FBI, ATF, and other civil and para-military personnel, all armed to the teeth, and when it was all over, Mount Carmel was burned to the ground.

This event left us with many unanswered questions which, until we have some answers, we can only ask ourselves, "Who is next to die for expressing their religious freedom?" Yes, my friends, who is next to die for their religious beliefs?" How long will it be before this tyranny reaches you and me?

It was the nationally syndicated columnist Don Feder, of the Washington Times, who stated:

"There was no legitimate reason for the ATF to attack the compound on February 28, with 75 SWAT-team armed agents."

Mr. Feder is not alone in his criticism, for at least a dozen well-known columnists and commentators have chimed in with similar condemnations against the actions of our federal government. For, if you recall, there were no illegal weapons. There was no drug laboratory. That's right, there were no violations of federal law whatsoever found at Mount Carmel. While we have heard much talk about all the guns they possessed, when the smoke had cleared, it was determined that the Branch Davidians had fewer guns per person than the average Texas resident.

And of course we have all heard the reports by our illustrious Attorney General, Janet "Johnny" Reno and President Clinton who both alleged that child abuse was going on in the religious organization. However, Texas state officials had already looked into that matter and had cleared leader David Koresh of that charge.

I find it interesting that Attorney General Reno and President Clinton accepted full responsibility for the massacre, or perhaps we should call it a holocaust, but accepting full responsibility is meaningless. Let us ask the question, "what accounting for the holocaust of April 19, 1993, have they made?" And the answer is none. Absolutely none. Nor will any accountability be forthcoming. This religious holocaust was simply murder under color of law. Meaning that whatever government does it justifies because whatever government does must be right. I call it might makes right or the power of the gun in the hands of government.

And yes, we know that federal agents possessed a search warrant, but that warrant has subsequently been shown to be deceitfully and fraudulently obtained. By the way, did you know that David Koresh offered to show the ATF all of the weapons in the compound, as he had previously shown the local sheriff? But the FEDS were not interested in looking at the weapons, they wanted to raid and destroy the religious compound. And so, the feds initiated a raid and 51-day long siege, with armored personnel carriers, Bradley fighting vehicles, M-1 tanks, Blackhawk helicopters, and, perhaps most importantly, restraint of the press both on the ground and in the air to such a distance to prevent good first-hand reporting.

Two Houston lawyers, Dick and Mike DeGuerin, were eventually permitted to enter the building, and while there they found large caliber bullet holes in the ceiling, coming in from the outside. Survivors have said that women and children were hit by gunfire from a helicopter, even before the first shot was fired on the ground. If true, such a military attack is strictly prohibited in the U.S. by United States law in the Posse Comitatus Act.

Well what else did the FEDS do? They cut the power lines, cut the phone lines, denied entry to incoming doctors and lawyers as well as food and medicine. They even cut the water off, refused to tend to the wounded, and bombarded the Branch Davidians at night with whining sounds of dentist drills and the shrill screams of rabbits being slaughtered, and all this "in the interest of justice."

They went so far as to bulldoze outer buildings, haul away cars, trucks, and other pieces of evidence containing bullet holes, never again to be seen or mentioned. If you and I were to destroy such evidence, we would still be in jail, but our government destroys and conceals evidence with impunity.

Did you know that the media reported that the feds, quote-unquote, "punched holes" in the Church with modified tanks? What they did was knock down walls and seal off portions of the building, including the escape tunnel from the undergouund bunker where the women and children had taken shelter. It has also been reported that government agents bombed the house with burning CS gas -- gas outlawed for warfare by the Geneva Convention because of its ability to maim and kill. But since government controls the evidence this information cannot be confirmed. But in any event, all this, in the words of Johnny Reno, to save the kids.

One of those children who was trapped and killed was described in the Justice Department report, and I quote: "Doe 67-2." No name mind you just:

"Doe 67-2, a 7 to 8-year-old boy, buried alive and suffocated in the bunker."

And he was not the only one as many others were burned alive and beyond recognition, and to this day, some have not yet been identified, despite the best forensic efforts of the government that slaughtered them.

I guess you know that after it was all over, the feds kept the area sealed-off, and ran bulldozers repeatedly across the terrain. As I mentioned they also removed critical evidence, including the front door that allegedly may have shown that the government agents fired first at Koresh behind the door.

And since the Waco holocaust, experts have filed independent reports stating that their advice was not followed by federal agents in Waco. They say that they recommended waiting Koresh out. They said that both Koresh and the living environment represented a substantial risk to everyone else, and that the Davidians should not have been provoked. The attorneys involved believed that Koresh would have surrendered after writing about his interpretation of the seven seals of the book of Revelation. As Don Feder of the Washington Times said:

"The perimeter could have been secured with minimal forces. Eventually Mr. Koresh would have tired of playing Masada."

As late as two months after the slaughter Johnny Reno was still telling the news media on "20/20," a TV show and tell program, that she had no regrets and would do it all again. Did you get that?, she would do it all over again.

On the anniversary of the slaughter, Johnny Reno was scheduled to make a social appearance in Washington, DC, but she was nowhere to be found. Is it possible that her conscience would not permit her? Or did she simply fear questions about Waco?

On the other hand, President Clinton virtually threatened all religious believers, saying, "Let this be a lesson." What he is apparently saying is that if you exercise your religious beliefs and we don't like them ("we" being the government), we will exterminate you. At least that's the lesson I see in this holocaust, and of course the President, like Johnny Reno, has said that he would do the same thing all over again. But we already knew about his conscience, didn't we?

Folks, many of the questions surrounding the Waco Holocaust will probably never be answered because of the government coverup, but until the many questions of Waco are resolved, and until the government is restrained from trampling upon the States and individuals, no one can be safe: Not the gun owner, not the religious believer, not the Christian. Not any mother, or father, or son or daughter is safe from a government with all the resources it wants at hand, to come and go and do as it pleases.

So much for constitutional religious freedom, not to mention the alleged right to be secure in our "persons, houses, papers, and effects," as these rights went up in smoke at Waco, Texas.

Folks, tyranny is like a snowball rolling down a mountainside. Until it is checked, it grows in size and speed, and crushes everything in its path. David Koresh once referred to our government as "the Beast," apparently referring to the book of Revelation. Well I will tell you something, in Waco, Texas, the government proved him right.

So what of our First Amendment religious freedoms? What of the rest of our Constitution, which, in the battles of public policy and legislative social engineering, appears to be just as meaningless today as the guarantee of religious liberty? How much longer until every voice of truth and freedom is silenced? These are valid questions after what happened in Waco and "We the People" must continue to demand answers to these questions.

Sources:

l. Don Feder, The Washington Times, April 18, 1994.

2. KRLD-AM Radio, Dallas TX, March-April 1993 (one of two Dallas stations Koresh communicated with extensively, which this informant listened to throughout the siege).

3. KGBS-AM Radio, Dallas TX, March-April 1993.

4. Linda Thompson, producer, "Waco: the Big Lie," "Waco: the Big Lie II," videotapes (Indianapolis: American Justice Foundation, 1993 and 1994).