Early this morning, a man decided it was time to die, and to try to take as many people as he could with him. His reasons are unknown and unknowable, though I'm pretty sure that in time we will be able to hazard a good guess. That guess will probably turn out to be that he was an already disturbed individual who had his rage fueled by radical Islam, with all the hate and intolerance preached by that group.
Here's the problem:
There's nothing we can do about these attacks. If we want to live in a free and open society with the rule of law, we can't stop this type of hatred from getting preached. There will always be, somewhere out there, a disturbed person, or group of persons, who take messages of hate to heart, and act on them.
Of course, we can pass laws restricting freedom of speech. Tricky thing is, those laws tend to bleed into everyone's speech, if the people in power don't like what you have to say. And, unfortunately, those people in power have little accountability to the people who put them there.
The next option is to ban any implement that might injure another human being. Aside from being guaranteed in the Constitution, as is free speech, the absurdity of the concept is self evident. Ban what? Everything? And then, of course, those who are going to break the law and kill have little respect for it anyway. Likewise, we can't arm every citizen, though it makes a great libertarian fantasy. I like living in a country with the rule of law, where I don't have to pull my pants up every five minutes because of the .45 clipped to my belt.
Another option is to eject Islam from America. Fat chance, and not to even be considered. Are you going to remove millions of hard working, patriotic, loyal citizens? Go ahead. Then see what happens to the next group that becomes public enemy number one. Mexicans. Blacks, Hispanics. Indians. Asians. White Trash. Leftists. Rightists. Where, exactly, do you stop? Hopefully before you realize that you're sitting in a crappy third world dictatorship, looking over your shoulder at the next military coup.
Here's what has to happen.
First, Islam needs to moderate itself. Until the Islamic community learns tolerance and acceptance, and comes to an understanding of its own religion, this is going to happen again and again. And every time it does, the Muslim population in America will slip further down the slide, and garner more hatred. Just like the Japanese-Americans who shed their blood in defense of the country in World War 2, and gained our undying admiration, despite the wrongs we did them, Muslim- Americans MUST step up and leave the Old World behind.
Second, there needs to be taught a common picture of America, and what it means to be an American. This needs to be ingrained in kids from grade school. Tolerance, ferocious defense of individual and mutual liberty, freedom to do as you please as long as it (really) doesn't injure anyone else. Taught that the brown kid next to you is your equal, as is the yellow kid on the right and the white one in behind you. Demographic change makes this a desperate reality that must be taught, or we will lose what it
means to be an American. You can't hyphenate, you must bring the best of your culture and marry it up with everyone else's.
Last, and I fear that in this age of social media forcing people into echo chambers of their own thought it may be impossible, there has to be dialogue. Not screaming and demanding to be heard.. Just an attempt to understand the other's position, and to GIVE WAY on some of your beliefs to gain acceptance by the other of yours.
In other words, we all have to learn to form a common picture of America, one that is ever changing in the face of adversity, and provides for a way ahead out of this mess. It takes leadership, thinking, and hard work, and compromise, but it can be done.
The alternative is too horrible to contemplate.
