Plenty of Conspiracies to Go Around

“One of the largest relocation centers,’D. Montgomery confides, “is to be located at the end of a runway at Oklahoma City. . . . That’s the rumor.”

Makes sense. If the New World Order is going to have its way, if tomorrow’s tyrants really intend to round up anti-government extremists like J. D., Oklahoma City would be a fine place for a concentration camp. Eager to execute alleged bomber Timothy McVeigh, Oklahomans probably wouldn’t mind killing off a few more wackos. Why not a couple hundred to even the score? Why not thousands--or even millions? That could be, as the saying goes, the final solution.

As for himself, J. D. Montgomery, 63, anticipates “re-education.” Until then, this disarmingly friendly fellow will continue to live in Canoga Park, go to church, sell advertising, thumb his nose at the IRS and attend weekly meetings of the Granada Forum, a San Fernando Valley-based discussion group that distributes “patriotic” videos and pamphlets.

J. D. may come off as a know-it-all, but he doesn’t claim to have all the answers. Of this much, however, he is certain: Whoever built and planted that bomb, they did so, perhaps unwittingly, at the behest of Satanic forces bent on global domination. And those same forces will now exploit the tragedy.

“It plays right into their hands. It is really all orchestrated.”

*

J. D. Montgomery--he prefers the initials--knows that people like him inspire amazement, amusement, fear, pity. “The media is very good,” he says, “in trying to imply if you have viewpoints like this you’re some kind of nut.”

Be that as it may, a few months ago J. D. mailed me an invitation to a meeting of the Granada Forum, open to one and all. The flyer bore the image of the Statue of Liberty with a little Hitler mustache. I passed. The horror in Oklahoma City prompted a second look.

The rhetoric, complete with a reference to the Branch Davidians, may sound familiar by now. Conspiratorial beliefs have sprouted like hallucinogenic mushrooms across the land.

“Rapidly growing patriot movements here are working to restore the country to the way it was under common law,” the flyer declared. “If they can get the word out in spite of a controlled media, we may have a chance to stop the New World Order. The millions of gun owners are also deterring the plans of the elitists, but we are being subjected to a barrage of anti-gun propaganda and can expect ever increasing restrictions on guns. . . .

“ Do not be fooled! If there is rioting and insurrection, it is likely to have been instigated by government hoodlums as an excuse to round up patriots believed to oppose the New World Order and to disarm gun owners. These and other citizens will be incarcerated in internment camps, many of which are already in existence. . . .”

Now, J. D. says he doesn’t even own a gun. He’s a tax resister. Thirty years have passed, he says, since he last filed federal and state income tax returns. Once, the state impounded his car, but he got it back after paying storage fees. Otherwise, he says, the government hasn’t made him a priority. They might, J. D. adds with a chuckle, if he made more money.

After nearly 40 years in Los Angeles, his voice still carries the twang of Indiana. His political awakening occurred after he became involved in the Goldwater campaign, joined the conspiracy-minded John Birch Society and became a devout Christian. J. D. would ultimately leave the Birchers; their write-your-congressman tactics were simply too tame.

J. D.’s enlightenment, such as it is, came at a price.

“A lot of years ago, my mother said, ‘I don’t know you. I don’t understand you.’ ” He sighs. “And yet she calls herself a Christian. Why can’t Christians understand each other?”

*

The truth, J. D. says, is his armor. Most Americans, he suggests, are blithely unaware that the government of the people and by the people is waging a covert war on the people. Now, some may find it bizarre that a man who so successfully shuns the tax man would feel victimized by “tyranny.” Of course, what happened in Oklahoma City also seems bizarre.

“I’m very saddened, naturally, about what happened down there,” J. D. says. “But I’m afraid something far worse may come of it. . . . You wait and see. They’re going to jam through some legislation that is going to get in our faces and punish all of us.”

Happens every time. After the murder of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., J. D. says, the feds pushed through horrid civil rights legislation. After President Reagan got shot, they jammed through the Brady Bill with its outrageous five-day waiting period on gun purchases. And remember what happened after the airliner hijackings? They X-rayed baggage and made passengers walk through metal detectors, treating everybody “like common criminals.”

Frightening, isn’t it? No wonder people are singing “God Bless America.”