There seems to be more terrorism going on these days than perhaps ever before. Last month U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed. Airplanes get hijacked, mail bombs are sent, subways are gassed while busses and store fronts get blown up.

It is definitely terrible that these things happen, but what really strikes me is that terrorists just don’t get it. If you’re going to do something, you should do it right.

Sure, terrorists tend to be down right bonkers to begin with. But if you’re going to go to all the trouble of sneaking explosives across Africa or filling moving vans with fertilizer, you should at least put some thought into what you’re doing.

Terrorism isn’t quite the hot topic here in the peaceful hamlet of Ames, but there are enough chemical engineers around to make you nervous. That is why I’m going to tell you a bit about the guy I consider to be the greatest terrorist of all time.

On Oct. 16, 1859, John Brown led his infamous raid on the United States Arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. John Brown was an avid abolitionist who was attempting to set up a post to liberate the slaves and facilitate their journey to the North.

You don’t often hear John Brown referred to as a terrorist. The main reason for this is that we consider slavery to be a horribly unjust institution, so anything one would do to end it would be justified. However, slavery was perfectly legal in Virginia, and he attacked a federal arsenal.

John Brown’s most important attribute as a terrorist was his focus. John Brown went to Harper’s Ferry with the detailed plan to use the post as a base for liberating slaves helping them cross the Potomac into Maryland. His provisional government was set up at a convention in Chatham, Ontario, and had plans for “intelligence offices” that would try to find family members that were split up in slave sales.

Barely any of the terrorists around today have such focus. They have motives, but they are fairly vague. The United States has random things blown up all the time for reasons which are rarely more complex than “the United States is evil.”

I don’t know about you, but when those embassies were bombed in Africa I didn’t feel too compelled to reject the U.S.A. or convert to Islam. Even if such groups do have manifestos, they are so broad and have little to do with the terrorist acts that no one reads them or cares. Who read the Unabomber’s manifesto?

You might make the argument that terrorists are insane, so they aren’t capable of such planning. Depending on what book you read, John Brown was either a hero or a madman. I would say he was both, but definitely crazy.

Preston Brooks, a senator from South Carolina, got so mad at Charles Sumner’s speech about keeping Kansas slave free that he got up and beat the holy piss out of Sumner on the floor of the Senate. Sumner couldn’t return to the Senate for three years. While he was recovering in Massachusetts, he was visited by John Brown who asked to see the coat he was wearing during the attack.

It was in the closet still covered with Sumner’s blood. Brown revered the jacket as if it were “the relics of a saint” according to Sumner’s private secretary. That’s not too normal.

Also, when the local militiamen were arriving during the raid, Brown spent a lot of valuable time trying to convince his prisoners of the evils of slavery, instead of escaping or getting everyone together for the fray.

What a lot of people don’t know is that the arsenal was taken without killing anyone. How many terrorists today could claim that one? It was only when the local militias started to respond, and when Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart and 90 Marines showed up that a lot of people were killed.

The real reason I respect John Brown so much was that he was not only the mastermind of the raid, but he also participated. Three of Brown’s sons were killed in his various abolitionist dealings.

He believed so strongly in the abolition of slavery, he put his own neck on the chopping block and was hung for it. He wasn’t just some cowardly kingpin with a bunch of guards and a hideout.

There is also a warning for terrorists that can be learned from Brown. Brown found out how people react to terrorism. Brown should have been tried in federal court for his offense, but Governor Wise from Virginia announced that Brown would be tried in state court, and the trial was started before he had a lawyer.

Virginians bought over 10,000 pistols in the week after the raid, books were burned, slaves were sold south for fear of a rebellion, and they threatened to hang blacks who looked rebellious.

This is a potent reminder to terrorists that all it takes to get rid of due process in the U.S. is an Independent Counsel or an alcoholic from Wisconsin, and those whose condition you are trying to advance bear the brunt of the fallout from terrorist attacks.

Most importantly though, Brown in conjunction with the Dred Scot decision, polarized North and South to the point that something had to be done. Less than four years after John Wilkes Booth took pleasure in watching him hang, the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves. Brown was successful.

If you would like to learn mor about John Brown check out these books from your local library: “Fiery Vision: The Life and Death of John Brown” by Clinton Cox and “Charles Sumner” by George Haynes.

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Erik Hoversten is a senior in math and physics from Eagan, Minn.