Terrorism.
And this is the part where you think I am admittable to Arkham Asylum. "How can he think we have forgotten about terrorism? It's on the news every day!"
Terrorism is more than wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and falling towers and plane crashes. Terrorism is more than a subset of extreme Islam. I would even question if most Muslims consider these terrorists to be followers of Islam at all. Do Christians consider KKK and Arian Nation members Christians? I can tell you the members of those groups do. How does that sit with you?
When Big Country (Texas) congressional hopeful Canyon Clowdus says he wants to ban Muslim immigration all together, I think we have a problem. For sure I think he does. Xenophobia anyone?
I think we haven't remembered enough history. Timothy McVeigh was a catholic. He killed 168 people, injured over 450 and 19 of the deaths were children in a day care. Three months after he died of lethal injection, three planes dove into targets that shifted our focus from global and domestic terrorism to one of Middle Eastern Islamic Jihad.
While domestic terrorism is considered uncommon, it is important to know and remember that it happens. Here are some of the incidents known to be done by American citizens:
Bombing of Los Angeles Times building October 1, 1910 (21 casualties)
Wall Street bombing September 16, 1920 (38 casualties, 400 injured)
Unabomber attacks 1978-1995 (3 casualties, 25 injured)
Oklahoma City bombing April 19,1995 (168 casualties, 450 injured)
Centennial Olympic Park bombing July 27, 1996 (2 casualties, 111 injured)
2001 anthrax attacks Sept. 18, 2001 and following (5 casualties, 17 injured)
Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting June 10, 2009 (1 casualty)
I pray we will never see domestic terrorism again. I do, but I also realize the number of people out there who are in an almost cult-like group who feel the world is at ruin and they must destroy it. The KKK has an estimated 5,000-8,000 members over 179 chapters. It's not only sad, it's scary. My hope is that focus will not be so near sighted when searching for threats to our homeland but peripheral in view to keep us all safe from further harm.
Before we deport those without the same religious views as ourselves who are law abiding citizens, let's try to get a handle on our own extremists who claim Christian religious views who are not.
