Posted on 05/12/2012 6:25:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
One of the darkest times in our region's history ended with the deaths of a U.S. Marshal, a 14-year-old boy and a mother.
In August 1992, a white separatist family in northern Idaho ended up in a days-long siege with federal agents that would ultimately end in bloodshed. | Read more about the siege from Tru TV
Now almost 20 years later, Sara Weaver, who lived through it as a teenager is sharing her memories of Ruby Ridge.
The devoutly religious Weaver family had come to Ruby Ridge prepared for the End Times and they were armed. Federal agents believed Randy Weaver was dangerous, so when they showed up with arrest warrants, they came prepared for trouble.
It went bad from the start. As shots started flying, marshals shot 14-year-old Sam Weaver in the back, and a marshal was shot dead.
The government brought in reinforcements setting up their barricade at the bridge, and Weaver supporters showed up in force.
On day two, an FBI sniper shot into the Weaver cabin, shooting Sara's mom Vicki Weaver in the face. She was holding her 10-month-old daughter Elisheda in her arms, with 16-year-old Sara just steps away.
"It was very hard. I felt very hopeless. Scared. Lost," Sara Weaver said in an interview with KXLY-TV in Spokane, Wash. "The most important thing to me had been ripped away."
Instant family caretaker
Eleven tense days later, it was over. Randy went to jail, charged with the murder of a federal agent.
Sara Weaver, 10-year-old Rachel, and baby Elisheba left their home and went to live with family in Iowa.
"I instantly became the caretaker of my family," she said. "I was in the mind frame that, if I'm taking care of everyone else, no one can tell me what to do. I was very rebellious, very angry."
Sara Weaver went through the motions, graduated from high school and moved back to the mountains she loved. She settled in Montana, got married, had a son. But the scars of Ruby Ridge remained.
"I was miserable all the time, just sad and depressed," she said. "I had never dealt with all the feelings and emotions that came from the trauma I experienced. I just stuffed them and ran away from them."
But then Sara Weaver found comfort in something she'd abandoned years before: a Bible verse, one she'd memorized all those years ago.
" 'For God so love the world he gave his only begotten son, So that whomever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.' That moment, I felt God's love pour out from heaven," she said. "I started bawling, I knew Jesus was real. That he loved me."
'Not the legacy I wanted to leave my son'
Sara's life changed completely. She had a new reason to live, and a new challenge before her.
"Three or four years ago, I Googled my name and what was tied to that was not the legacy I wanted to leave my son," she said.
Hate groups and anti-government conspiracy theorists like to invoke the Weaver name. When Timothy McVeigh blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, he said he did it with the Weavers in mind.
"I didn't want my name tied to - to give anyone reason to act out in any kind of violence in my name," Sara Weaver said.
Sara says she's still a work in progress, still close to her family who live nearby. And dad Randy, now a grandfather and cleared of the most serious criminal charges, is a frequent babysitter.
Sara Weaver speaks publicly at churches and other organizations about her experience. Her book "From Ruby Ridge to Freedom" will be published this summer.
We can only hope he is severely tormented. Unceasingly.
That bloodthristy SOB has no soul. He would have made a good Death Camp commander or better still a special method squad leader for the SS.
She was holding an infant when she was murdered. Maybe the keen eyed sniper thought the child was a new type of weapon.
“The entire fiasco was a con job by the government. “
A fair summary of federal policy since the end of WWII
The military has had training to conduct house to house searches for a ‘weapons dealer’. Put a label on the target and even good people will find it difficult to know good from evil.
Love my country and it’s people
What happened at Ruby Ridge taught me to HATE the federal gub mint
I knew Lon Horiuchi and his father. This whole situation was extremely devastating to the father, his friends, family, associates and all the people who knew Lon Sr.
F#*k ‘em. It was devastating that they murdered a 14 yo boy and his mother. All to get publicity that “a new sheriff is in town.” Then the ATF did the same thing in Waco. Look at the Gunrunner operation and you can see that they’re mainly concerned with image and propaganda to achieve gun and population crowd control.
Power corrupts in proportion to its absoluteness.
I thought Weaver was cleared of all charges.
He was
So, is your reference to a "new sheriff" to a real "new sheriff", or did you mean Bill Clinton?
Bill hadn't even been elected yet.
Not to be picky but we usually load Bill's sins on Bill and George's sins on George and so forth.
My response was strictly in reference to the aftermath of all of this. The Weaver girl is entitled to compose her life in the Lord if she wants. Frankly, I'm still devastated ~ because I have to live in this town with many of the same paranoid bunch of now retired federal agents and they could fly off the handle at any moment.
We are now at a point where the government bureaucracy/unions will NOT ALLOW the cuts that are needed. The TSA and the VIPER tactics are the final nail in the coffin. All we need is an "emergency" to arise and they can clamp down on dissenters, subversives, threats etc.... the soldiers/alphabet agencies/local PD/swat are going to do whatever they need to do to preserve their pensions/benefits. Bank on it.
The American "representative" experiment has been bastardized to the point of the libs/socialist/communist don't even make an effort to lie about their intentions.
Seriously... Marines KISSING on the mouth in public..
Bond holders told to F#$K off by the government as it steals GM money into union payoffs...
Congresswomen stating openly that they want to take over banking and corporations.
NO private property rights due to EPA and courts ruling on eminent domain
no representative voting due to the massive fraud and courts that allow the fraud
Disgusting creatures like Barney Frank actually in charge of government regulations and on and on.
With a whimper my FReeper friend.... with a f'ing whimper is how it's going down. If the entire east coast of the United States and California fell into the ocean... (well I'd miss the FR maybe someone will replace it) but we'd be better off as a country. I feel the same way if every muzzie on the planet disappeared... the world would be infinitely better.
I have 4 kids that look at the government and now LAUGH at the government. God, family are first and foremost... next Texas and the rest (shrug) could care less. I'm done with the parasites.
The current bureaucratic conglomerate in DC has used up all the "goodwill" it ever had with me. I'll obey the laws, pay my taxes, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's but as far as extra effort, pfft.. I'm going Galt.
The "fault" lies with Congress. Specifically the democrat quislings and the republicans with skeletons that all those FBI files contain. I figure my kids will be reading H. Von Dach and maybe survive the coming Detroitification of the United States.
It was a guy named _Jim
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