The Unmaking of America

 Some Things I Didn't Know About Ruby Ridge:

*The Weaver family actually lived on "Caribou Ridge," but a journalist decided that the term "Ruby Ridge" sounded more poetic. This is really what happened!

*Randy Weaver survived for many years after the violent deaths of his wife, son, and dog; Weaver became an atheist.

*In the early nineties, the Ruby Ridge incident seemed random. A historian had predicted "the End of History"; with the death of the Cold War, all would be peaceful and ho-hum. Then: Ruby Ridge, Waco, Oklahoma City, January 6. Ruby Ridge now seems like the *start* of an era.

*Randy Weaver had been summoned to court, and he was not paying attention to the summons. This was the inciting incident at Ruby Ridge. If it's permissible to ignore a summons, then the American "rulebook" begins to deteriorate. At least on the surface, no official was deeply interested in Weaver's anti-government views, his antisemitism, or his belief in an impending apocalypse. But of course Weaver's beliefs *became* a part of the story.

*The first Christian apocalyptic "theorist" was John, who wrote the Gospel of John. Except that--now--it's believed that John the Apostle did *not* write the Johannine works. Also, the guy who wrote the Johannine epistles was *not* the guy who wrote the Book of Revelation.

*Randy Weaver was extremely popular in high school. He was a sunny, fun-loving teenager.

The new book on Weaver is called "End of Days"; I'm hooked.