What you are about to read is not a down play of the terrible shooting that took place early this morning in Aurora, Colorado. I send prayers of comfort to those who witnessed, and were effected physically by the act of a heartless man. It is, however, as set of question that have arisen in my watching the news coverage and thinking deeply about the world in which we live.
Moderates, there is a winner in the shooting that occurred in Aurora, Colorado and I hate to say so. Nearly as soon as any coverage came on the airwaves there was an immediate speculation as to if it was a terrorist act. I am not preaching a gospel of the crazies, but the terrorist have won and will continue to if every time a tragic event is accompanied with suppositions of a fundamentalist Islamic terrorist plot. Please do not assume that I am naive enough to think that we as a country do not face further attacks, but I am also not naive enough to fall in the trap laid out to convince me terrorist had something to do with such an act.
There comes a time that the Islamic terrorist threat of needs to be ignored and a time for it to considered. For awhile, after 9/11, it was totally reasonable that we as a country remain alert to possible attacks, but more than 10 years is a little overboard. If there is sufficient, credible evidence that we need to be prepared, then by all mean we shall prepare. The post 9/11, overhauled intelligence community has been proven time and again the main terror threat to the United States is that of digital and cyber attack. Why are we still continually worried terrorist are going to attack us in a physical, war-like action? Again, intelligence has shown that the terrorist faced by the United States are adaptive by nature and will not do the same thing twice. We need to put away the torches and pitchforks and concentrate on checking our bank accounts for strange charges and looking into ways to back up critical information stored on computers. As I watched coverage of today's events, I have asked this question over and over again: What makes us so certain the terrorist have the means to attack us as they did on 9/11?
One reason might just be the very places we are hearing about these events. The news media still..still has to harp on every tragic event that takes place, and plant the seeds of worry as to the nature of an event. Was it a terror attack? Was it not? Did the assailant have ties to any radical groups? Was there any reason to harm any of those harmed? That is just too many questions to ask before any hard facts have been established. Even more, those question are fodder for every "expert" in the country to hash out on the air. I understand the need to flesh out what happened, but not to speculate. My ideal news cast would answer the W's: Who, What, Where, and fact based Why? Do not ask questions that leave room for speculation. After every event of a horrific nature, we the public fall victim to the 24 hour news cycle groaning out the same questions over and over and over emphasizing every bit of information gathered. Answer the W's, give us fact based information and move to the next story. Maybe...just maybe..we might some good news squeezed in.
Secondly, what happened to the idea that person just go off the deep end and hurt innocent people? Could it be that the suspect of a crime was on some sort of the many drugs (illegal and legal) available on today's market? Maybe he had psychological disabilities that inhibited his ability to discern right from wrong? Maybe the person wished to die, and thought that "death by cop" had a grandiose ring to it? We might never know, but is it a fair assumption that most suspects are not a terrorist of a radical Islamic persuasion? The sooner we realize that there are clinically insane people amongst us, the better me might be able to treat those people. If appropriate treatment for those who have psychological disabilities was more of a priority in this county, it might end up with fewer "suspected terrorist." We certainly would have fewer tragic events like what took place in Colorado.
I am be no means a "If we don't ________ (insert action) then the terrorist win!" type, but such an event begs the question: Haven't the terrorist won? If we get so worked up about ever shooting, bank robbery or bridge collapse, then we are facing near constant turmoil in our lives. It is a proven fact that the 9/11 attacks were designed and carried out to create the very fear that we now live under. This fear has permeated our society to the point that every terrible event needs to have the "THIS WAS NOT A ACT OF TERROR" stamp of approval before the people put away the torches and pitchforks. The fear of attack that we supposedly we live under is not healthy for us the American citizen, and it is certainly not good for our standing in the world. We, the average public, need to reexamine (I would argue constantly) where we get our news, checking every fact and consider every source. In addition to an ever present vigil on the media, we need to carry out a serious overhaul of how we identify and treat those with psychological disorders in our country. Will these actions negate the perpetual speculation of the 24 hour news media? I doubt it, put perhaps we might sleep easier at night, and those around the world who wish ill on us will think twice when trying to strike fear in the hearts of average Americans.
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