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Written by Byron Williams
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 |
 Imagine my surprise when I discovered I shared the given and surname with the alleged shooter on Interstate 580 this past Sunday; we even have the same initials: BCW.
I received multiple calls and e-mails from friends across the country. Some wondered how I managed to make bail so quickly.
Even my loyal boxer, Zeus, has been somewhat apprehensive around me since the shooting.
This was certainly not the way one would want to enhance name identification. But here it is.
Byron Williams, a 45-year-old parolee, who was described by his mother as angry at "left-wing politicians," opened fire on the California Highway Patrol while wearing body armor. He was hit by return fire.
Beyond our names, we share very little in common. He's white; I'm black. He's 45; I qualify for AARP benefits. Moreover, I am unabashedly liberal, tempered by pragmatism. As for the other Mr. Williams, let us describe him as slightly out of touch with the reality of the human condition.
That is perhaps the kindest way to describe an individual who in June 2002 was arrested for bank robbery after robbing the California Federal Branch in Chowchilla. It was reported Williams had initially planned to rob a Bank of America branch but altered the plan because of the long line and that customers and tellers were laughing at the suit and blond wig he was wearing.
It also was reported that Williams was frustrated no one would hire him because of his felony background. Somehow, that is not exactly surprising.
Williams has a long history of committing violent crimes that has extended through Republican and Democratic administrations. He was been in prison when Republicans controlled Congress as well as Democrats.
But his anger was allegedly toward "left-wing politicians."
Some reports have described Williams as a "tea party sympathizer." I'm really not certain what that actually means.
The notion that members of the tea party movement would drive approximately 130 miles, heavily armed, adorned in body armor to engage in an O.K. Corral-type shootout with CHP is hardly representative of the whole.
But there is a pervasive, extreme populist climate in our public discourse that cannot be ignored and that provides the irrational, such as Williams, their raison d'être.
How ironic that many who languish on America's economic margins have their anger cajoled, inveigled and prodded by a misguided populism, such as that of right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck, who reportedly made $32 million last year.
Williams represents the lower echelon of a coalition that is almost unique to America. It is one where those who are already economically stimulated work in tandem with those on the margins under the guise of populism, but, in reality, it is to protect the interest of a few on the top.
This is nothing new. If one removes the poor Southern white from the equation, whose economic situation was not much better than the African slave, the South could not have fielded a Confederate Army.
If indeed Williams was angry with so-called left-wing politicians, it would suggest he was irate with elected officials who wanted to extend unemployment benefits to those who were not working, while siding with those who opposed such extensions. He must also have wanted to renew President George W. Bush's tax cuts, which would cost taxpayers an estimated $3 trillion over the next decade.
This extreme populism arms its followers almost exclusively with shibboleths and emotion. This is how you have published reports of Williams shouting about "the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items."
Would that be expanding the number of individuals who can have access to health care? Or would it be to have a filibuster-proof majority so that unemployment benefits can be extended?
"Left-wing agenda items" was merely Williams' pathetic rationale to justify why his life turned out the way it did. A life, by all indication, that could not benefit from the tax cuts offered by the Republicans or the unemployment extension put forth by Democrats.
He was comforted only by his irrational anger. Williams was unable or unwilling to take responsibility for his actions. With a life sentence very likely, his last hurrah was a midnight shootout with CHP on I-580.
What a shame. And he had such a great name going for him.
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