Mac McKinnon is editor and publisher of the Pecos Enterprise. His column appears on Wednesday and Friday. The explosion of a deadly pipe bomb in Atlanta early Saturday was an assault on the American people and on the international Olympic spirit. By setting off a device that killed one individual outright, wounded 110 others and brought on the fatal heart attack of still another person, the perpetrator or perpetrators did indeed commit an evil and cowardly act, to use President Clinton's words. When confronted by such evil, a moral society has no viable option but to stand up to it.
Terrorists thrive on nothing so much as the spread of chaos, fear and intimidation.
The good news is that the jackal or jackals who sneaked a bomb-laden knapsack into Centennial Olympic Park must have been crestfallen at the sight of crowds flocking to the scheduled sporting events just hours after the incident. The public's decision to keep the Olympic spirit alive reflected a courage and resolve worthy of gold medalists. The next step now for President Clinton and Congress should be to revisit the anti terrorism bill signed in April. Although the legislation does much to counter terrorism from international sources, it still lacks some of the weapons needed to fight battles on the domestic front. During his speech to the 75th annual Disabled American Veterans convention Sunday, Mr. Clinton made a worthy call for all countries to put tracing chemicals in ingredients commonly used to build bombs.