Tag Archives: terrorism

A plague to our own existence.

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Got out of physical therapy today to hear about a terrorist attack in lower Manhattan. To close to home since I work in the area I made phone calls and thankfully as far as I know everyone is safe. Then I saw the Immediate reaction from the usual suspects on both sides. What do we call this? A terrorist attack? Wait we have to see the ethnicity of the attacker if it doesn’t fit the narrative we have to call it something else. Seriously I’m tired of this. Do you really think the families that were killed today give a damn what we call it? Today we lost innocent lives you call it what you want, to push your political agenda, be it a white guy in Vegas or an apparent middle eastern individual in Manhattan it is best identified as the actions of a deranged coward. Taking innocent lives does not advance your cause, rid you of your demons or worship your god it simply makes you a killer. Global warming, comet strike, etc none of that will be the end of man. Man will be the end of man and sadly we seem to be in a rush to get to the finish line.

As agent Smith said in the Matrix

“Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague”

 

Never Forget – Our Four Little Girls

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Four days ago, we remembered and honored the men and women who lost their lives in a callous and evil terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. One of the mantras of the day was never forget. Why do we remember such sorrowful moments? Because it is part of our history, the events of that day, while tragic, will forever play a role in who we are today. But it is also, so we remember the past so that history does not repeat its mistakes. Fifty-three years ago today, another horrific terrorist attack shook the very foundation of this nation when on the morning of September 15, 1963, an explosion ripped through the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four little girls, Addie Mae Collins (age 14), Carol Denise McNair (age 11), Carole Robertson (age 14), and Cynthia Wesley (age 14), were killed in the attack. Like 9/11, we must never forget our four little girls taken from us, simply because of the color of the skin, before they had a chance to live their lives. While it is true in the subsequent 53 years since that tragic Sunday, we have as a nation made many strides, so much so that 45 years after Governor George Wallace, who just one week before the bombing had stoked the fire of racisms and hatred when he said in a New York Times interview, he believed Alabama needed a “few first-class funerals” to stop racial integration we elected our nation’s first African American President. But there can be no denying we have a long road still ahead. It was only a little over a year ago that Dylann Roof walked into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine people. His motivation? His support of racial segregation in the United States and his intention to start a civil war. Today the NYT released a poll that showed that Donald Trump was in a virtual tie with Hilary Clinton. This is a candidate who has run the most racially divisive presidential campaign in recent history. Whose campaign rallies routinely have supporters who spew racial expletives while wrapping themselves in the American flag. Yes, we’ve come along way since that Sunday in 1963, but we still have a long way to go, and that’s why we must never forget September 15, 1963, and our four little girls.

Yet the world looks on in relative silence

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A terror attack occurs and the world stops, world leaders gather, people change their Facebook profile. All of this and the world’s outrage is without question perfectly justified. As a people we have a moral responsibility to never stand by quietly when terrorist activities take the lives of even one innocent soul.

But terror is not always so well publicized. Terror doesn’t always cause the world to stop and say no more. Terror doesn’t always bring with it the outrage it should. Sometimes the world looks on in relative silence.

Today we learned of yet another 65 innocent souls lost as the slaughter of the people of Nigeria continues at the hands of a terrorist group led by the mad man Boro Haram. Yet the world looks on in relative silence.

In 2014 alone the highly respected Nigeria Security Tracker, compiled by the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations, found that over 6,000 people were killed in clashes between Boko Haram and Nigerian forces in 2014. 6,000 innocent souls. Men, women and yes children, the most innocent of souls lost to hatred in one year alone. Yet the world looks on in relative silence.

Selective outrage is unacceptable. If we are ever to drive evil out of this world we must stand strong against it in every circumstance. No matter the color, gender, religion or place of birth of the victim. We can no longer afford as a people to look on in relative silence.

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Hate is hate no matter how you label it

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More senseless deaths; more families left to mourn the loss of loved ones; more cries from churches, synagogues and other places of worship of why; more pulling apart than coming together as politicians, advocates and ordinary people look to find someone or some group to blame. This is what we wake to this morning on a day that is becoming all too commonplace in America because hate has reared its ugly head yet again. Now after identifying the cowards who once again destroyed the lives of countless families with just the pull of a trigger the networks ask – will the FBI now call this terrorism? And my question is does it really matter?

To be clear terrorism in general is any act designed to cause terror. It is not something that is new to America it has been around for over a century. The KKK for example is a terrorist organization. Now there are different reasons that individuals or groups carry out terrorist attacks but at the end of the day every single one of these so called “mass shootings” have been acts of terrorism. The press or the government waiting to determine the race, religion, or political affiliation of individuals who carry out these heinous acts before they decide what to label it is nothing more than politics at its worst.

But again I ask what does it really matter? Because no matter what we call it, today we will still mourn for those innocent souls lost yesterday. We still look on with grief at the pain their families must endure. Because no matter how we label it, hate continues to chip away at our collective morality as a species. Hate, unless we find a way to defeat it will undoubtedly be the downfall of us as a people and when we’re gone it won’t matter how we labeled it.

France Stands Tall Against Terrorism

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Donald Trump the leading Republican candidate for President has repeatedly said he wants to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. Now he leading the charge to block the Obama Administration’s plan to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in America telling CNBC

“We cannot let them into this country, period,”

And going so far as to say back in September

“I’m putting people on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration, that if I win, they’re going back.”

Trump’s campaign slogan is Make America Great Again and I can only wonder what it is about building a wall to isolate yourself and turning your back on victims of terror that makes you great?

Five days after 129 Parisians were killed in a terror attack last Friday, stoking a backlash against refugees and immigrants in France and other parts of the world, French President François Hollande said Wednesday that he remains committed to taking in 30,000 refugees during the next two years.

“Some have wanted to link the influx of refugees to Friday’s acts of terror,” President Hollande said in a speech to French mayors. But, he added, France should honor its duty to offer protection to refugees fleeing countries like Syria and Iraq “because they are being tormented by the same who have attacked us.”

Hollande added that he is committed to ensuring both “humanity for refugees and protection of the French people.” It was with those words Hollande showed the world how you really stand tall against terrorism. Not by running scared and locking yourself off from everyone. But rather by announcing to the world through your actions, not tough talk, that you will not be cowered into turning your back on the defenseless, rather you will carry on and stand up for what is right. That while they may come from the same place you will not look at the face of those who cry out for help and assume that it is the same face as those who attacked you. And while you will remain vigilant you will offer sanctuary to those that have been terrorized by the same hand that terrorized you.

I guess at the end of the day it really isn’t surprising that one of our country’s most iconic symbols the Statue of Liberty with these words mounted inside the lower level of her pedestal

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

was a gift from France.