[Editor’s note: Originally posted to my blog @ What’s with our obession with terrorism?]
Our obsession with terrorism has driven many of us into such a frenzy of fear that it often borders on the ridiculous.*
I recently met a middle-aged gentleman from the upper middle class economic. He was very curious about my frequent travels and questioned me at length about a variety of places I had journeyed to. So I asked him: “Tell me about your travels?”
“Oh, I haven’t been anywhere outside the United States,” he said quite firmly.
“Why not? Don’t you like to travel?”
“Yes,” he said and added. “But I am afraid. All these terrorists stalking us Americans and I don’t want to die yet.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “Where are these terrorists?”
“Oh, all over the world,” he replied. And they are just waiting for Americans to leave the country so they can kill them.”
I was so shocked by this bald statement that I blurted out: “That is unadulterated BS! I think there are far more terrorists in our cities and our own American streets than in the rest of the world.”
“What do you mean?,” he asked quite shocked.
“Every nut who carries a concealed weapon in the United States is a terrorist a la Zimmerman; every man who looks at a woman with lascivious eyes is a terrorist; every man who beats his wife or his children is a terrorist. That makes almost all of us terrorists or potential terrorists,” I said.
This dialogue took place on the day Zimmerman was found not guilty and the day when a quiet, peace loving citizen was killed by a stray bullet while walking his dog at 6AM. This gentleman’s definition of a terrorist is the stereotypical “Muslim Jihadist.”
I say everyone who threatens another in any way is a terrorist. What is your definition?
* See: Time To Toss The Terrorist Fear Blather
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