Subject: no more martyrs

My dear Scumbucket --

*Now* do you understand?  Now do you begin to see why I discourage driving
your clients to the commission of monstrous sin?  Hell should be triumphant
today -- there should be celebrations filling these iron streets, but
there are none.  And why is that?  Because once again, as so many times in
the past, we have been outsmarted and outmaneuvered by the Enemy, and he
has again robbed us of the sweet taste of a deserved and glorious victory.
To be sure, this rampage, which was so enthusiastically discussed among
the Lowerarchy for so long, and so vigorously promoted by many on the
Board of Infernal Directors, is indeed producing some of the touted
effects -- we will certainly see many months of mutual recriminations and
finger-pointing among various groups as they try to pin the blame for this
behavior on each other's philosophies, and there has been a marked
heightening in the level of fear and anxiety in the populace as a whole 
-- but I fear that these gains will not be worth the price that we will
have to pay.

Who in Hell was it, Scumbucket, that put that insane notion in that boy's
head, to *ask* one of his potential victims if she was a believer, and then
to *wait* for her answer?  *No one* in Hell, that is for sure -- no one of
ours could have made such a colossal blunder as that.  No, I am convinced
that somehow, despite all assurances that the perimeter had been secured,
the Enemy managed to get some of his agents past our defenses and sneak that
vile thought into his mind.  Consider the scene: the gunman walks into the
library -- all the students scatter, diving under tables, *save for one,*
sitting quietly, reading her *BIBLE STUDY BOOK* which is open on the desk
before her?!?  (So much, by the way, for that notion of "chasing God out of
the schools"...)  Shouldn't it have been obvious that *she was not alone*?
Even if our little acolyte was too filled with bloodlust to notice,
certainly his *handlers* should have seen!!  (And weren't they the proud lot
on their return, all those souls in hand -- but their smiles quickly
disappeared, Scumbucket, when they realized their blunder.  For just as in
the camp of the Enemy there is more rejoicing over one lost soul retrieved
than over a hundred saints, so here we are far more concerned when one slips
through our fingers that we should have had, than with no matter how many
the thousands brought in to fill our coffers...)  No, *they* were too
distracted, it seems; thinking everything well in hand, they could not
resist feeding on the panic, terror and grief filling the room -- and
then, at that instant, His message slipped through: "Ask *her*," it said,
"ask *that* one if she believes..."  She stands, slowly -- she had
*time*, Scumbucket, that is the damnable thing, *time* to think, to
realize what was happening; did not her heart leap within her as she
realized what kind of opportunity was being laid out before her, as she
saw that door to glory opening -- Hell, she probably had time to even
*FORGIVE* him before she, fully aware of the consequence, answered
"Yes..." And no doubt there was an entire platoon of the Enemy's best at
her back, at her elbow helping her stand, there to snatch her away before
the least pain reached her consciousness, probably before the bullet even
reached her heart.

And so now what do we have?  A martyr.  A certified, American, *young*,
Christian martyr.  A role model.  Someone from whom this hopeless generation
may derive some hope.  Years of tireless labor, Scumbucket, generations of
careful sociological engineering may become unhinged thanks to one little
girl saying "Yes."  Perhaps we can make her a fad, that's the only
possibility I can see, fill up the media with her image until people become
sick of it.  And meanwhile, how much of the tragedy, the pain, the suffering
that this incident could have engendered will be lost to us?  And how many
people will instead try to recover their faith, or become strengthened in
what they already have?  And for what?  I don't mind telling you,
Scumbucket, that we on the Board will be having some strong arguments
about this -- after all, do we not thrive on dissension and conflict?  If
some of my fellow Board members wish to wallow in atrocity, all they have
to do is go join our contingent in the Balkans!

Yours,
Screwdisk