Column:
How far should American values go?
Published Oct. 2, 2009
What happens when an armor-plated bulldozer meets a small mountain town? Rampage! At least that's the lesson history teaches. June 2004 saw a 50-ton Komatsu D335A bulldozer — affectionately dubbed the Killdozer — embark on a destruction spree through the town of Granby in Grand County, Colo. It's the story of an American dream, lived out through Marvin Heemeyer, creator and pilot of this destruction machine.
Marvin Heemeyer was the owner of a muffler repair shop in Granby County where he made a modest living for himself. He was a man with simple desires — to make an honest living and deal with honest people, but having those things cheated could bring out the worst in him.
Such was the case when the cement plant adjacent to his muffler shop decided to expand. After initial resistance to an unsympathetic corporation and city hall, Heemeyer's neighbors sold their land to the plant. The only entrance to the Heemeyer's shop was cut off, effectively destroying his business. To add insult to injury, the City Council decided to fine Heemeyer if he could not connect his building to the county's sewer line, a task the surrounding cement plant made impossible. Heemeyer mailed a $2,500 check to cover the fines with "cowards" written on the memo line and seemingly disappeared for two years.
He might have been silent, but he was not idle. Heemeyer spent those two years outfitting a bulldozer with steel and concrete armor and gun ports. During this time he built up not only his doomsday device, but also his resentment toward an oppressive system. As he welded half an inch of steel over two inches of concrete over another half an inch of steel on top of the original Komatsu, he built up layer after layer of resentment toward the powers that constrained his livelihood in a way that would make our founding fathers and history of underdog heroes mighty proud.
The project culminated on the day Heemeyer used a makeshift crane to lower the armor onto his Killdozer with himself and a few provisions inside for a one-way trip to all the local sites he felt contributed to the demise of his humble business and livelihood. Included in his list of targets were the cement plant, the city hall, a local newspaper, the post office, the mayor's home and a public library. Heemeyer caused only one casualty (himself) during this spree.
Ultimately, the Killdozer found itself stuck in a collapsed warehouse with a failing radiator. A muffled gunshot from within the cockpit signaled the end of one man and one of many deaths in the battle for American values. Heemeyer got to live out the American dream: the lone underdog fighting it out against cruel fate and corporate/imperialist powers. But after reading this story, should one laud the dream that tamed the West and declares war unilaterally for its fierce individualism, determination and destructive potential or view it with shame for the same reasons? Are these our American values?
