The Confusing Nature of Terror and Extremism in America

Hello Papamoka Bloggers! I realize it may seem like a spurious subject to some on the political right, but to those of us on the left it's a very serious subject. I'm talking about violent right-wing, bigoted, racist, religious-inspired extremism.

Recent events have left many of us feeling "terrorized," and unless something is done to send a message to stop it, we may all feel vulnerable soon.

Unless the President and law enforcement begins talking tough soon, to make us feel safer, many of us on the left will begin to feel terrorized within our own country. Their actions already succeeded in shutting down one clinic providing critical reproductive services.

That victory of theirs leads me to some inevitable questions: who or what will be next, and why aren't more people taking it seriously?

Irony #1 - "Fair and Balanced" Leads to Terror

It's ironic yet clear to me that right-wing extremism is being encouraged by today's "fair and balanced" "conservative" media. Okay, so they're not really fair and balanced. It's more like they're "irresponsible and fanatical." Today's so-called conservative media, mostly AM talk radio and the so-called FOX "News" network, are clearly out-of-control.

They seem to specialize in lies, stirring up their base daily to apply pressure on weak politicians, and I would assert, stir anger and violence against those who threaten their political beliefs or way of life. They're the inventors of TALKING POINTS, and despite their denials, the timeline and the facts on the ground suggest they are a big reason why things are spinning out of control.

It's clear something bad is happening, and once dormant extremists are beginning to stir.

Recent Democratic electoral successes, especially the election of Barack Obama, combined with a poor economy (created by their side) and few jobs has led to a perfect storm of hate and retribution. Those living in the reality-based-world can see the crazies are on the move.

Irony #2 - Attempts to Help Americans May Lead to Terror

The irony here is how even our attempts to fix what they broke (our attempts to create more security, stability and jobs) is adding fuel to their hateful fire. The so-called "conservative" media is screaming how the left is spending all THEIR money - an incredible lie when you know the facts.

I'm going to be brutally honest, anybody who doesn't do their own research, and simply believes that GOP lie outright, is seriously a COMPLETE AND UTTER MORON for their lack of effort to discover the truth.

So it seems there's little we can do to make the crazies happy short of electing a Republican, allow them to start a new war of distraction, allow them to pillage the national treasury, allow them to privatize their profits while socializing their losses, and finally allow them to pollute the planet until it's uninhabitable for the rest of us.

Oh wait, I forgot, while that's unfolding, the rest of us should all stand by waving American flags until we either die of exhaustion or starvation due to national bankruptcy. Okay, it may sound extreme, but truth be told that was the direction the GOP was taking us.

Irony #3 - The Extremists' Love-Hate Relationship with Socialism

It's true, the irony here is how they seem to both love and hate "socialism." Despite the fact that Social Security and Medicare - and other social programs - are supported by most Republicans, the fact is the GOP has confused their small-minded followers. Most love the benefits, while at the same time they scream big-government waste, socialism, communism, and their latest factual confusion, fascism! It's downright schizophrenic!

Did you hear how this week's Holocaust Museum murderer/terrorist was angry because the government CUT HIS SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS! His friends closest to him said that's why he went to kill innocent people. It's true, that cowardly, despicable piece of white supremacist dog shit killed Stephen Tyrone Johns - an American hero in my opinion - over his inability to benefit from enough GOVERNMENT SOCIALISM! It blows the mind when you think about it!

The Terror May Get Worse

That confusing nightmare, coupled with the recent murder of Dr. Tiller over legal abortion rights, makes it clear to me the crazy religious fanatics (domestic terrorists) are in a lock-and-load mode, ready to kill the rest of us. We may be at a dangerous tipping-point. Should we worry? I say YES!!!!

Think about it people! Right-wing, homegrown, religious extremism has led to mass murder in the past. Let us never forget the Oklahoma City bombing and the right-wing murder of innocent people - including babies.

It would be foolish to dismiss what's happening as a bunch of lone gunman. That is unlikely. The FBI knows it. They know religious and other hate filled groups exist and are ready to bomb multiple American targets. I'm not suggesting that domestic Islamic terrorism is less of a threat, simply that America's "hate-sponsored" terrorism share the law enforcement spotlight.

Organized militia groups may be emerging soon, and America may learn the hard way that Islamic terrorism is only the tip of what could be called a sea of hate-filled icebergs. American citizens could be making plans right now to commit mass murder on what could be called an "Islamic terror scale."

Even FOX "News" Anchors are Worried

It may not seem important, but it's a sign when Fox "News" anchors are getting nervous. It's true, Shepard Smith is getting nervous. He spoke openly and honestly to his TV audience this week that recent "news events" have left him feeling "exposed" due to recent scary emails. He reports they are getting "more and more frightening."

SMITH: There are people now, who are way out there on a limb. And I think they're just out there on a limb with the email they send us. Because I read it, and they are out there. I mean, out there in a scary place...I could read a hundred of them like this...I mean from today. People who are so amped up and so angry for reasons that are absolutely wrong, ridiculous, preposterous."

Some reading this might suggest that he's talking about people writing him from the political left, since FOX is on the right, but that's not true. He makes it clear he's talking about people on the right. They are the ones making him very nervous.

What Can Be Done?

I want President Obama to address the nation and call it what it is: DOMESTIC TERRORISM! I think he, and all politicians concerned about terror, should treat it more seriously, and instruct law enforcement to focus on it as much as Islamic terrorism. That would send a serious message.

I also think the right-wing media needs to stop talking tough, to calm some their flock. They need to begin by admitting they were wrong when they forced Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to apologize for signing off on a report predicting an increase in right-wing threats.

Most important, they need to admit internally they're at least part of the problem, and take action to mitigate it.

They need to do whatever they can to prevent any possible murder by talking more about the anti-American nature of domestic terrorism. They have the power to send a serious message to the crazies out there - distancing themselves from the "talking nuts" like Coulter and company would be a great first step!

Let's hope they act before the next murder, or worse, murders. I am a big fan of President Obama, and I realize that he has more to do than any president in modern times, but I still think he needs to act now on this issue too. We need him to spur law enforcement to do more before it's too late.

Final Irony # 4 - It's Clear We're Less Safe Today

If you thought I was going to agree with Dick Cheney you are sadly mistaken. No, the final irony involves George Bush and the Republican "war on terror." Ironically, as many in law enforcement warned, it's now clear that our focus on terror may have helped ignite extremism around the world, as well as within our own country.

We know it's true overseas, but domestically we're still in a wait and see mode. That needs to change. We need to act now! Let's admit that extremism breeds extremism - hate and war breeds hate and war. President Obama was right in Cairo. It is time we (Muslims and Westerners) learn from our mistakes of the past, and find new solutions to the problems that lead to extremism.




Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog

9/11 FATIGUE, OR 9/11 FRUSTRATION?

Picture courtesy of Terrorism Victims.org

By Michael Linn Jones

I refer you to FREEDOM EDEN and its post, 9/11 TRIBUTE FATIGUE. I believe the article quoted by Freedom Eden is from a Sept. 2, piece written by N.R. Kleinfield of the New York Times.

Again it comes, for the sixth time now — 2,191 days after that awful morning — falling for the first time on a Tuesday, the same day of the week.

Again there will be the public tributes, the tightly scripted memorial events, the reflex news coverage, the souvenir peddlers.

Is all of it necessary, at the same decibel level — still?

Each year, murmuring about Sept. 11 fatigue arises, a weariness of reliving a day that everyone wishes had never happened. It began before the first anniversary of the terrorist attack. By now, though, many people feel that the collective commemorations, publicly staged, are excessive and vacant, even annoying.

“I may sound callous, but doesn’t grieving have a shelf life?” said Charlene Correia, 57, a nursing supervisor from Acushnet, Mass. “We’re very sorry and mournful that people died, but there are living people. Let’s wind it down.”

Some people prefer to see things condensed to perhaps a moment of silence that morning and an end to the rituals like the long recitation of the names of the dead at ground zero.

I don't agree with the above sentiments. There is history, and then there is our own personal history. The world doesn't share the grief of someone losing a loved one to disease or accident. There are, though, certain intersections where an historical event becomes part of our own personal history.

There are many to choose from aside from 9/11, and I recall quite vividly the death of John F. Kennedy. I was 10 years old. School was dismissed and I'll never forget one of my fellow students hopping and skipping down the sidewalk saying, "He got shot in the head; he got shot in the head" over and over while pointing a finger gun at his own skull. Even at that age I was astounded that anyone could feel such joy at the death of another.

I cannot watch anything about November 22, 1963 without a strong sense of despair and frustration. If only this had happened; if only someone had been looking at the buildings instead of the motorcade...and on and on. This feeling I will carry to my grave. It is also frustrating to accept that one man; one loser like Lee Harvey Oswald changed our nation so much.

Frustrating also is to accept that 19 fanatics managed to alter the course of our nation, along with murdering over 3,000 innocent human beings. The use of airliners to inflict such damage will probably never happen again. Osama Bin Laden and his band of losers will constantly seek a new approach, one that will be overlooked by U.S. authorities. Like any terrorist organization, their credo says that we have to be lucky all the time, while they only have to get lucky once.

In our fractured and selfish society, 9/11 was a rare common experience. For those who lost loved ones on that day, I say ring the bell and read the names. The least I can do is respect their grief. Of course, those who died in Afghanistan and Iraq also have grieving families, and they too should be honored and remembered. I only hope that they will not have to wait and fight for recognition of their struggle as did those who fought in Vietnam or those who to this day grieve for the loss of their boys four decades ago.

No, scars heal but slowly for the human heart. One can't seriously dismiss the healing process. It's slow....very slow. Be patient with the suffering as you, too, may someday know what it feels like. I hope you never do. But that 'ole Golden Rule may not be a bad one to apply to any remembrance of 9/11.

Compare 9/11 with Pearl Harbor for a moment. The lives lost are roughly equal. But, unlike Pearl Harbor, 9/11 provided no nation to direct anger towards. True, the Taliban in Afghanistan had it coming, so to speak. Iraq we invaded, yet as brutal as Saddam Hussein was, his dictatorship was as close to being secular as any in the Middle East.

The true supporters of the attack on 9/11 are still out there. They are scattered among differing nation states. They claim to share the same faith, resulting in the idiocy of Bin Laden recommending America become Muslim, or the rank insensitivity of a Saudi prince telling Rudy Giuliani that the attack was due to American support of Israel.

So, convert to Islam; throw the Jews onto the fire, and the world will return to peace. Failing those disgusting goals, terrorism is a convenient tool for nations to take advantage of; it changes the life of the target population. And for those inside certain nations rooting them on (silently, of course) there is the option of claiming outrage over acts that they privately endorse and support.

If I have to strip down to my BVD's to see the National Archives, or the National Air & Space Museum, or the Smithsonian...then why should not those who, to this day, applaud my having to live like this be allowed the luxury of innocence?

Rather than punish an entire nation, or an entire religion, why not have a policy evolve that would make these financiers and faceless bureaucrats live in fear for their own lives?

I think on 9/11 the names of the murdered should be read while watching the film of the thousands of Palestinians cheering the deaths of those innocents on that day.

Those who supported 9/11 then, and rejoice at this anniversary, should not be allowed to have their cake and eat it, too.
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Cross posted at MICHAEL LINN JONES.COM