Hey Rube

I have mentioned before that one of my all time favorite writers is Hunter S. Thompson. I was reading my old Issue 639 May 2005 Australian Edition of Rolling Stone Magazine that is a tribute to HST, soon after he shot himself in the head. In his early years he did a lot of work for the magazine so it is only fitting that he should have an entire issue tribute to him. But this issue also contains the 60th Anniversary Special of Bob Marley. Needless to say it is fucking priceless to me.

The section for HST contains numerous articles written by his close friends, including Johnny Depp, Keith Richards, and Ralph Steadman. If you were into his work then this is a must read. It also contains some classic pictures. Later on in his life HST was writing a column for page 2 of the ESPN magazine called Hey Rube. It was here that he posted his response to the September 11th attacks the very next day. While most articles that were published the next day resonated with cries of humanity and fear, I found HST’s response to be profoundly prolific. I could not find a copy of it online so I am going to type it out from the magazine. I am not one who enjoys such laborious tasks but I feel that this excerpt is significant enough to demand my attention.

“The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody ruble, with hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now – with somebody – and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives. It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fuelled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy… We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once… Victory is not guaranteed – for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush… He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won’t hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force… He is in for a profoundly difficult job – armed as he is with no credible Military Intelligence, no witnesses and only the Ghost of Bin Laden to blame for the tragedy.”

As I have said before, Hunter lived and died by his own rules. If nothing else, that is worth something. It does not sound like much, but to me that is everything.