On this day in 1993, the ATF raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco. During the standoff that followed, I had the odd opportunity to witness the scene firsthand- albeit from a distance. From the police line where I stood, I could see the compound and the flag that flew above it. There were, of course, no people on the Branch Davidian grounds. However, the area around the police line was like a carnival. There were people with telescopes trained on the compound calling onlookers like me over to take a look. There were vendors selling food and others selling silk-screened David Koresh T-shirts, one of which I purchased for the sheer sake of weirdness. Someone else was selling David Koresh's business cards. I bought one of those, too, thinking that this was an important event in American history. There was a fortune teller on the scene as well, but I do not think that she could have predicted what was going to happen a few days in the future. Quite frankly, the whole scene was very surreal, and in retrospect, I view it as a callous, irreverent spectacle spawned by tragedy. A few days after I visited the scene, the compound went up in flames, and I stared at the television in absolute shock. I could not believe my eyes. Only then did I really understand the irreversibility of it all.
Where the David Koresh business card I purchased ended up is anybody's guess. I imagine I used it as a bookmark for a New Directions paperback that I never finished in the mid-1990s, and there is absolutely no telling where it is now. It could have easily ended up in a Montana bookstore or on somebody's bookshelf in Europe or Asia. Below is a framed picture of the back of David Koresh's business card that I found online. If my memory serves me well, this is the same business card that I had.
Copies of David Koresh's music were circulating around Austin after the tragedy. Here is a song I remember hearing on a friend's cassette player back then.
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