tick-tock

One of my close friends was stationed in Germany in 1988 and was scheduled to return home to the United States in December for Christmas leave. Just a few years ago he recounted this story to me. He said that the morning of his departure he had set his alarm clock as usual but for some as yet unexplained reason it did not go off. He said that it had never done this before (nor did it ever do it again) and so when he did get up, he had to rush to the airport to try and make his flight.

My buddy told me about the hair raising drive he and his friend made as he was desperate to get home as early as possible for the holiday season. Every day at home, every hour was precious. If he missed his flight that would be just that much less time he'd have with family and friends. Precious time indeed. As it would turn out, he would come to truly appreciate this precious time even more.

After tearing down the road gripping the seats, sweating bullets, and most likely praying for clean underwear, this guy who was used to jumping out of airplanes was pretty glad to have made it to the airport in one piece. Grabbing his bags, shouting a hasty 'goodbye' he scrambled through the airport terminal making a mad dash to reach the boarding area. Racing against that clock, tick-tock

Despite he and his friend's white knuckle race against the clock, that had earlier betrayed him, my friend arrived in the terminal just in time to see his plane pulling out of the gate. Bad timing huh? Sometimes you just can't beat the clock. And sometimes the clock beats you. My friend missed his flight alright but he missed a lot more than that.

His flight was Pan Am Flight 103.

That same flight would be blown up at 31,000 feet over Lockerbie Scotland shortly thereafter, killing all 259 passengers on board as well as 11 people on the ground. My friend, had his alarm clock went off, would have made number 271. The attack was committed by Libyan terrorists using an altitude sensitive detonator.

Now the news today, August 20, 2009 is about one of those terrorists who was the only one convicted in the mass murder of men, women, and children being released from his life sentence in prison. Why? Because this murderous bastard has prostate cancer and he is running out of time. Tick-tock.

An estimated three months to live and the powers that be felt that this “poor man” should be shown mercy and be allowed to go home to spend time with his so called family.

See the sick irony?

Someone or rather some thing, who had no measure of mercy in his heart to blow up children at a nightmarish near 6 mile altitude is being shown mercy because he is running out of time. The clock ticking against him.

Imagine your children, your brother, your sister, mother or father being on that plane. Not knowing that below them in the baggage compartment the very last moments of life were ticking away. Not everyone died instantly by the way. Imagine slamming into a paper thin atmosphere of -60F and realizing that the seat you were sitting in miles in the sky, was no longer there.

Imagine being those people on the ground. In their homes. Watching TV, preparing meals, talking with loved ones. Suddenly and without warning be crushed and burned alive by the falling wreckage of passenger plane, and the remains of its occupants raining down around them. Never realizing that the clock was ticking the whole time.

My God, what have we become that we extend acts of so called mercy to child murdering terrorists? Just to make us feel all warm and cozy inside. So that we can get up in the morning and feel important, like some great humanitarian. Do we think we are buying our way into heaven, by releasing devils upon the earth? There is no humanity in that, and certainly no God.

Well those people are certainly not humanitarians. They're are not compassionate, as they'd like to be labeled for the cameras. They are murderers by proxy. The blood of all of those people is now on their hands too. It seems this terrorist is not the only compassion-less bastard in all of this.

He too thought what he was doing was for a good cause.

I can only hope his last hours are filled with pain and misery. That he becomes so aware of the ticking of the clock he cannot have any peace. He is racing at breakneck speed towards a well deserved hellish death. And when he gets to the terminal, that plane will still be waiting.

Enjoy your one way flight into hell.

Tick-tock... You bastard.