Terrorism

Over the last few days I've seen more TV news reports about the threat of terrorism. Dark shadowy figures calling for the death of all Americans. Threats of violence and annihilation.

Meanwhile, terrorism seizes this nation on a daily basis. Child abuse. Spousal abuse. Drug abuse. Drive-by shootings. Workplace shootings. Road rage. Rape. Murder. Mayhem.

If I believed the official account, which I don't, then I would say that one terrorist attack committed by nineteen Arab men, four years ago, killed about three thousand people.

How many people have been victims of crime over the last four years? I don't have the statistics, but I would guess that it is much more than three thousand. In my city alone, the homicides for this year are nearing 100.

So who are the terrorists? Brown-skinned men who speak with accents? Or the quiet next-door neighbor who suddenly erupts and turns a gun on his family, his co-workers, himself. Women who wear scarves and pray five times a day? Or teenage girls who will do anything to support an addiction? Fathers and mothers who fast during the month of Ramadan? Or parents who beat and starve their children?

This country has many problems. International terrorism is the least of them.