So many causes, so little money. With groups beseeching us for financial help to find cures for diseases, to protect the environment, to help the less fortunate and so forth, it can be tough to decide to whom and what to dole out donations.
And now this: An appeal for money so that a murderous terrorist can have a nice funeral.
That overture came in recent days from the racist skinhead group, Blood & Honour American Division, on behalf of the family of Bruce Pierce. He was a member of The Order, a white supremacist terrorist group, who was responsible for shooting to death Jewish Denver talk radio show host Alan Berg in 1984.
Pierce died last week at 56, while serving a 252-year prison sentence in Pennsylvania. He was one of several surviving members of The Order still in prison. The Order was formed in 1983 by neo-Nazi Robert Jay Mathews. The group went on a crime spree in 1983 and 1984 that included the theft of $3.6 million from an armored car as a means of financing its goal of creating a guerilla army to resist and overthrow the U.S. government.
Pierce was the triggerman that shot Berg in June 1984 13 times outside his home with a MAC-10 machine gun. He was not convicted of murder, but of racketeering, conspiracy and violating Bergâs civil rights. Pierce died Aug. 16 of what a prison spokeswoman said was natural causes. Now Blood & Honour is asking members to help the family of the man it calls âour heroâ and a âmartyrâ with funeral expenses.
The letter appealing for money says âit isnât going to be a few people giving a large amount, but a whole lot of us giving a little that will allow the Pierce family to bring their daddy away from the dungeon where he died and give him the viking [sic] funeral they desire.â
Contributions are to be sent to Billy Roper in Russellville, Ark. Heâs the founder of a racist organization called White Revolution. He previously was an official in the neo-Nazi National Alliance, and a member of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens. The day of the 9/11 terror attacks, Roper emailed the National Alliance membership that âanyone who is willing to drive a plane into a building to kill jews [sic] is alright [sic] by me. I wish our members had half as much testicular fortitude.â
For those racists unsure of how much to give for Pierceâs Viking sendoff, Blood & Honour has helpful suggestions. Those who have had âa fortunate yearâ may want to give at the Gold level â $100. A $50 donation puts you at the somewhat less elite Silver level, and Bronze is a mere $35.
If thatâs too lavish for some racistsâ budgets, there is the âPatriotâ level for $25 â âthe number of years Bruce Pierce was locked up in a ZOG [Zionist Occupation Government] dungeon for our race, while others might prefer to give the âSilent Brotherhoodâ level for $13, for the number of holes Alan Berg grew in 1984,â the Blood & Honour missive suggests.
With a heart-rending appeal like that, itâs hard to see how tykes with cleft palates in need of surgery and exquisite tigers threatened with extinction have a chance for donorsâ hard-earned dollars. And if there is a huge outpouring of cash for the Pierce racist rites, the additional dough âwill be used to aid other Order members who still survive in prison.â