He sits alone in his cell. Tomorrow he will die. Hundreds of people will watch. Many will cheer. A nation will rejoice.

His followers denied him. His friends deserted him. All that is left now is the final act. He will give his life for what sees as a right and just cause, a fight against an offensive and oppressive regime.

I've often wondered exactly what Jesus was thinking in those last moments before he was paraded through the streets of Jerusalem and nailed to the cross. He couldn't have been thinking "After I die, bands of people will follow my words and deeds, spreading a new religion based on me through the western world along the lines of commerce until I am hailed as one of the great religious leaders in the history of the world."

On the other hand, Timothy McVeigh's thoughts are likely wandering along those very lines. If I'm not mistaken, martyrdom is a plot point in The Turner Diaries. And while his act of terror didn't inspire a popular uprising against the government, there are people who will see McVeigh as a martyr to a cause, just as he saw the Weaver Family and the Branch Davidians in the same light.

Martyrdom and revolution are about the only things McVeigh and Jesus have in common. But it's that first concept which should bother even the most ardent proponents of the death penalty. Timothy McVeigh is prepared to die at the hands of the United States government. He sees this final chapter in his life as yet another example of how corrupt and oppressive Uncle Sam can be.

McVeigh wants to be executed. Now that he's managed to pass out one last kiss and embarrass the FBI (a wretchedly simple exercise these days), he's ready to make his final statement. He's chosen a couple lines from "Invictus" as his last words:

I am the master of my fate.
I am the captain of my soul.

Okay, so leaking your "last words" before you actually say them is very, very weird. It's still a good quote. I myself would go with something from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but see, I think that the biggest problem with America is that too few people actually think, not that the Devil resides in Washington, D.C. and is out to get everybody.

McVeigh wants to die. This is the precise reason why he should sit in prison for thirty, forty, fifty years. I wasn't born when Charles Manson was creepy-crawling, but he scared an awful lot of people. You think Jeffrey Dahmer frightened the nation? He wasn't even Charlie lite. Manson is one spooky goofball. But now that he's been sitting in jail for thirty-something years, he simply looks foolish. Helter Skelter did not come. America didn't erupt into a race war. Those on the extremes are always shocked that the vast majority of Americans simply don't care enough to act.

McVeigh never learned this particular lesson. The reason why there wasn't a mass uprising against the government is that most people don't hate the government. They resent paying taxes, sure, and they don't like getting traffic tickets, either. But most people are pretty big on the military (or some associated part, like NASA or something) and at least one other important arm of the federal government, and those reasons are enough to pay taxes (but not enough to stop griping, of course).

The sins of the United States are plain enough to those so far out on the right and the left. They're positively outrageous, I agree. Fifteen years ago the FBI came down hard on Phil Harvey, who runs the Adam & Eve adult novelty and video empire about fifteen miles from my house here in the New South. They filed charge after charge against him (losing every case) and encouraged U.S. attorneys in several states to do the same. Didn't work. He's still in business, and the FBI, well, the FBI is looking like the Federal Bungling Institute.

Timothy McVeigh watched what happened at Ruby Ridge and Waco and got mad. He killed 168 people with a rented yellow truck chock full of fertilizer. I think just about every person in this country believes he deserves to die--even those of us who absolutely oppose the death penalty agree with that sentiment. But we shouldn't kill him. We shouldn't create a martyr. Timothy McVeigh is a driven man who lacks certain critical thinking skills. It would be better to let him sit in jail and spout his nonsense until he became a curiosity rather than kill him and make him a symbol.

But he will die, sooner than later. So he sits alone in his cell, planning his last meal. Waiting for a chance to quote "Invictus" before the final solution is washed through his veins. Wishing he could be as cool as Rutger Hauer in Bladerunner, releasing a dove at the preordained moment of his demise.

A little after 8 a.m. on June 11, 2001, Timothy McVeigh's death wish will be granted by the very government he saw as unresponsive to his needs. I wonder if he'll smile.

Jon Worley doesn't much like the death penalty. He doesn't much like the use of fertilizer as an explosive, either.