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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 12, 1985
PAGE 7
.chance to get to the place of safety, (3) will set a better
example for the little kids to follow, and (4) have the elders
think of me as a future prince and leader.
ON THE WORLD SCENE
M.P. (Anchorage, AK)
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
"THE AGE OF TERRORISM"; AMERICA THE HATED Vermont Royster, writing in the
July 3, 1985, WALL STREET JOURNAL, said there is only one way to describe
the contemporary era--the Age of Terrorism. While Americans are often the
selected targets, the entire civilized world is exposed to both individual
ized and state terrorism:
This TWA affair is not an isolated case [and] ••• it is not our
country alone that is target and victim. In Britain a resort
hotel was blown up killing and maiming members of that country's
government.
In a London department store six random shoppers
were killed in purely wanton destruction. In Burma a bomb killed
six visiting government officials from South Korea. And just
last week an Indian airliner was blown up in mid-ocean killing
more than 300 men, women and children.
The list is endless,
reaching back to the massacre of Israelis at an Olympic vil
lage••••
Historians like to give names to various eras, the Age of Faith
or the Age of Reason. Ours can only be called the Age of Terror-
·ism, for we are no longer dealing with the isolated acts qf ban
dits or deranged killers; those we have always had. What we are
living through is a revolt against all ordered society, a war on
civilization itself.
The obvious unwillingness on the part of the government to strike back hard
and swift at terrorist attacks is frustrating the majority of Americans.
The mood was perhaps best expressed by a letter to the editor of the U.S.
NEWS & WORLD REPORT, which asked: "What are the claws for that hold the ar
rows in our Great Seal of the United States? Are they real, or are they
just for show?"
Two publications have recently bordered their editorials in black in honor
of the victims of the rising tide of terrorist activities levied against
U.S. citizens. The first editorial appeared in the July l WALL STREET JOUR
NAL, entitled simply "Robert Dean Stethem, 1961-1985":
Robert Stethem's last hours are described by his seatmate, Ruth
Henderson, a 16-year old Australian released shortly afterward:
"They singled him out because he was American and a soldier••••
They dragged him out of his seat, tied his hands and then beat him
up. I watched as they kicked him in the head. They kicked him in
the face and knee caps and kept kicking him until they had broken
all his ribs. Then they tried to knock him out with the butt of a
pistol--they kept hitting him over the head but he was very
strong and they couldn't knock him out•••• Then they dumped him
back in his seat next to me and left him for ages. I tried to
nurse him but there wasn't a great deal I could do. Later they
dragged him away and I believe shot him."•••