Identifying the key word

Saturday, December 5, 2015
It's been a tough week here in the United States. In addition to all the typical election buffoonery, we've had two shooting sprees, one at a Planned Parenthood Clinic here in Colorado, and another at a Human Services organization in San Bernardino, California. The death toll stands at seventeen, three in Colorado Springs and fourteen in San Bernardino.

I think it's fair to say that all the shooters can be characterized, by definition, as "bat crap crazy." No one of sound intellectual and emotional mind goes around spraying bullets like a fire-hose, killing people indiscriminately. Nutbars, the lot of them.

But as usual, partisan politics rules the day, as people make excuses, speculate wildly, and generally crap their pants in an orgy of political sound bites and rhetoric.

Robert Lewis Dear, the Colorado Springs nutbar, was an evangelical Christian. He expressed admiration for the Army of God, an anti-abortion Christian terrorist organization, and while no evidence has been discovered to tie him directly to the organization, I think it's safe to say he is a Christian Terrorist. 

Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the San Bernardino nutbars, were Muslim. The FBI has discovered correspondence that at the very least, they had sympathetic attitudes toward ISIS, although no evidence has been discovered to tie them directly to the organization. I think it's safe to say they were Muslim Terrorists. 

This is what we know about the nutbars, aside from the fact that their families are all horrified beyond belief at what has transpired.


And what we know about the partisans is that both sides of the aisle have abandoned rational thought, claiming that these two events prove their points, prove that it's the Muslims/Christians/immigrants/white gun lovers who are the real threat, and IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT.

And both sides are missing the goddamn point.

The key word in all this is not "Muslim" or "Christian." It's terrorist. From the Mirriam-Webster definition of terrorism:
 : the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal
Whether the political goal is the spread of the Caliphate or having Planned Parenthood close its doors, the methodology is the same. To frighten people as a way of trying to achieve a political goal, apparently with a body count as an added nutbar bonus.

The key word is terrorist. And while we're all pointing the fingers at each other, trying to lay the blame at the door of the President, of the NRA, of the Christians, of the Muslims, of the liberals, of the conservatives, nothing is being done to address the issue in any kind of a meaningful way. We're like recalcitrant children, pointing the finger, name-calling, and generally running around naked with our hair on fire. What we're not doing is coming up with a plan to address the very real danger of the extremists among us, those who would rather watch the world burn than not get their way.

I'm sick of it. At this point, I'm beyond the partisan rhetoric, and have no desire to argue with those who can't understand that this is a complex issue, with myriad facets. The two extreme positions, arming every goddamn person in the country or confiscating all the weapons in the country are non-starters. Thinking people know this. Thinking people understand that in spite of the rhetoric, only a small minority would suggest such a plan in any event. Thinking people understand that compromise, pragmatism, and above all, effectiveness should be the guiding principles here.

And if you're not a thinking person, then I wish you'd just shut the fuck up. You're not helping. And as Mr. Rogers taught us, we need to look for the helpers in these troubled times. If you're not going to help, then get the Hell out of the way.

2 comments:

Anne C. said...

YES.

mom in northern said...

Nail it my dear. Do you get the feeling no one is listening...???