Way to Plan

Has anyone heard about Robert F. Weiler Jr., the somewhat unstable guy from Maryland who nearly bombed a Virginia abortion clinic? If not, check out this article. In short, he planned on destroying the Greenbelt, Virginia clinic with a pipe bomb after killing “doctors who provided abortions” with a .40-caliber pistol. Nice guy, right?

I suppose you could argue that he just wanted to prevent what he saw as an atrocity, but I don’t think the families of those doctors would have forgiven him on the basis of his subjective motives. Fortunately, Weiler was forced to turn himself in, and his pipe bomb ended up destroying his friend’s house with no resultant injury or loss of life.

Let’s break this down. In order to stop the deaths of unborn children, Weiler planned to kill the doctors who would abort them. This is a perfect example of why violence is practically never the answer to anything.

Consider the consequences if Weiler had succeeded in killing, say, two doctors, and had also managed to bomb enough of the clinic that operations had to shut down for a while. The mothers seeking abortion would have made their decisions in advance, and, as such, would most likely not have been swayed by the deaths of doctors who probably weren’t even assigned to them yet, as far as anyone knew. Of course, a fair number of appointments would have been cancelled due to the bombing, but there’s more than one abortion clinic in Virginia, and if you’re willing to do something as serious as abortion, you’re probably willing to drive a little farther than was previously necessary to do it. The point is this: since Weiler failed, business at the Greenbelt abortion clinic will carry on as usual. If he had succeeded, he wouldn’t have prevented any deaths in the long run, but his scheme certainly would have caused a few. Whatever his motives were, it’s for the best that he failed, since the present state of affairs is that which resulted in the fewest lives lost.

Whatever you believe, nothing will come out of fanaticism and violence. Clearly, Weiler would have had much more of an impact if he had simply exercised his right to demonstrate his views near the clinic, in which case he would still be free to fight for his beliefs. As it is, he’ll probably languish in jail, doing no good for anyone.

I, for one, sincerely hope that Weiler’s utter lack of sense serves as an example to anyone who has ever contemplated violence in response to unpleasantness.