Mark Anthony Conditt & 45's Silence

17-YO Austin, Texas bombing victim Draylen Mason 

As a gentle but steady fall of snow and sleet began to blanket the lawn outside of my office on Tuesday afternoon, it seemed prudent to use my lunch hour to swing by the bank, gas up my SUV and stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things.

The parking lot and interior of my local ACME in Hamilton, New Jersey were crowded with people doing the same thing - stocking up before the arrival of what's being called the "Four'easter".

The fourth winter storm to hit the east coast this month - and on the first day of spring no less.

March truly has come in like a lion for many here in the U.S., no more so than for 17-year-old high school senior Draylen Mason (pictured above), 39-year old Anthony Stephan House, and 75-year-old Esperanza Herrera - all residents of Austin, Texas.

They're three of the five victims of Mark Anthony Conditt, a 23-year-old white man who blew himself up inside his vehicle early Wednesday morning after a police chase -  Austin Police Chief Brian Manley described Conditt as a "serial bomber" during a press conference on Monday morning.

As has been widely reported, Conditt's first victim, Anthony Stephan House, was killed on Friday March 2nd when a package containing an explosive device detonated at his home.

Ten days later on Monday March 12th, Draylen Mason, a talented student and musician, was killed and Esperanza Herrera seriously injured when similar devices hidden inside packages blew up at separate locations in Austin. 

23-year-old Austin bomber Mark Anthony Conditt

The horrific and barbaric method of these cowardly attacks is chilling enough.

But the fact that Conditt chose to target innocent people in the homes of their families is a particularly troubling reminder of individuals with hyper-conservative political views venting their internalized rage against those they perceive as being "other".

Excerpts posted from Conditt's blog clearly show his issues with "others."

In an article for the Austin-American Statesman this morning, a 24-year-old man named Jeremiah Jensen who grew up with Conditt told reporters that the bombing suspect was home-schooled as a child in what was described as a fairly religious household.

Jensen, who attended the same church as Conditt and was also home-schooled, theorized that the relative social isolation of his upbringing may have played a factor in Conditt's decision to use bombs to kill innocent people - as he told the Austin-American Statesman:

"It's just very difficult for a lot of kids to find a way to fit in once they are out in the real world, I have a feeling that is what happened with Mark. I don't remember him ever being sure of what he wanted to do." 

As journalist Jessica Bride reported earlier this morning in an article for Heavy.com, excerpts from a blog Conditt wrote while he was a student at Austin Community College show that he described himself as "conservative" and disagreed with gay marriage, compared abortion to bestiality and was pro-death penalty.

Federal investigators at the scene of the explosion
that injured Esperanza Herrera  [Photo - Getty Images]

But simply holding those kinds of views doesn't necessarily explain Conditt's decision to target and kill two innocent African-American men with bombs.

75-year-old Esperanza Herrera was Hispanic, but supposedly the package containing the bomb that injured her was not specifically addressed to her and she was simply carrying it when it exploded and injured her.

So based on information released by investigators thus far, it's still not clear if Conditt was specifically targeting someone who was Hispanic.

Conditt also injured two white men in their early 20's on Sunday when one of them stepped on a tripwire that detonated an explosive device left near a street in southwest Austin - both men were seriously injured but not a lot of information has been released about them.

But given Conditt's views, and the fact that the two men were injured together, I suppose it is fair to ask the question if those two men were homosexual and were somehow targeted because of it.

Regardless, what is clear is that Trump waited an astounding 18 days to even offer a public comment about the bombings in Austin - was it because the first three victims were African-American and Hispanic?

After all, Trump is the same crass bigot who was so quick to take to Twitter to vilify African-American NFL players last fall for (peacefully and nonviolently) taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem to protest unjustified use of force against people of color by some police.

London Mayor Sidiq Khan riding the NY City
subway to the 9/11 Memorial in September, 2016

He also directed his vile criticism at Sadiq Khan, the Muslim Mayor of London whose parents were born in Pakistan, immediately after 7 people were killed and 48 wounded in a violent terrorist attack that took place in downtown London back in June, 2017.

Trump intentionally took a comment Khan made out of context to suggest the mayor had told U.K. citizens not to be alarmed over the attacks.

So true to form, time and again Trump has used divisive, asinine comments to inject himself into high-profile events.

The types of events receiving wide media coverage that he uses as a platform to trumpet his own bigotry and satisfy his unquenchable need for media attention.

But when these events revolve around terrorist attacks in which the victims are people of color or those he perceives as being an "other", (or the perpetrators are white...), he remains silent - as if his outrage is reserved for those he views as reflecting his own shrinking base of support.

Trump waited until Tuesday to offer some generic, tepid comments about the bombings, over two weeks after the death of Anthony House and over a week after the death of Draylen Mason and the injury to Esperanza Herrera.

And even then his comments came off as if some domestic policy advisor had handed him some hastily-scribbled comments to make about the incident because of the media flack the White House was receiving because of Trump's silence on the issue - not because he felt moved to talk about it.

Trump's silence on the Austin bombings lasted 18 days

If I had to grade the White House's reaction to the bombings in Austin over the past month, I'd probably give them a D -.

Americans saw and heard only chaos and division, rather than leadership and unity coming from an embattled president with a weak approval rating who seems disconnected from the needs of the American people as a whole.


Congress didn't fare much better on the Austin bombings this month either, which isn't surprising.

The Republican-majority House and Senate have demonstrated only legislative impotence in terms of passing laws that would place some kind reasonable restrictions on access to the handguns and semi-automatic weapons that have killed 3,076 people in 2018 - including 732 children between the ages of 0 to 17.

Sadly, random, violent attacks by right-wing individuals fueled by the hatred cultivated by Trump's own toxic rhetoric have become an unfortunate part of the landscape of this country.

For someone who seems to relish the media attention and ego rush he gets from sewing the seeds of division and hatred, Trump sure doesn't like to talk about the crops it spawns.

He likes to talk about the growth in the field, but pretends he has nothing to do with the harvest.

On the day that Mark Conditt blew himself up rather than face the repercussions of his heinous actions, perhaps it's appropriate that a large swath of the U.S. is being pummeled by the "Four'easter".

Instead of the first full day of spring being one of growth and renewal, today we've witnessed the death of a young man who left behind a dark legacy of fear and death - born of his own isolation, contempt of others, and cold indifference to life.

The end of winter can't come soon enough.