KEYWORDS
OR TERMS: Orlando, Florida; LGBT; Transgender; Lone Shooter; Hate Crime;
Terrorism; Mental and Lunatic mind; Radical Islam; Political Distractions; Gays
and Transgender groups; Republican Party; Omar Mateen; FBI; ISIS; Home grown terrorism;
President Barack Obama; Hillary Clinton; and, Donald Trump
It is depressing to hear the
deaths of innocent Americans in an Orlando, Florida night club through an act
of violence from a lone shooter, who probably does not share our dream as a United
America. An American, born in the City of New York, a first generation American
with Afghanistan roots, who swore allegiance to ISIS and other terrorist groups
across the globe, took an assault weapon and mow down innocent souls like grass
in the early hours of June 12, 2016. An American, whom a distraught family member
of the Orlando massacre says, did not kill two birds with one stone, hate of
gay and transgender groups, but killed forty-nine innocent souls with one stone.
It is rather hard to comprehend
an unfortunate event as this, let alone explaining circumstances surrounding
the nightmare to younger children, who are wondering, what in the world is
going on? Yes, there is hate all over this; yes, there is terror as well;
however, more importantly, there are issues with the mental stability of any
person or persons, who choose to use assault weapons to destroy lives and families
in a twinkle of an eye, under the pretext of avenging personal grievances. The
challenge for a grieving nation is to find answers to the questions: how long
would we allow this type of mass killings to continue? How long will we
continue to play catch up with our laws regarding the ease of obtaining assault
weapons; and, how long will we allow hate for minorities among us to continue
to fester, until frustration or whatever creeps into a lunatic mind that make
him choose to use assault weapons to deal grief, pain and horror to our
collective psyche?
Donald Trump, de-facto nominee of
the Republican Party for 2016 general election, unconvincingly attempts to
attribute this mayhem to President Barack Obama’s refusal to identify this
misfortune as a problem with Radical Islam. As any astute and reflective political
leader will tell you, any attempt to demonize the Muslims and Islamic religion
as the culprit for any lone behavior of a mentally disturbed person who engages
in horrendous crime as this, is like claiming that all miseries in life can be
associated with the practice of a particular religion. Our forefathers
understood and appreciated this; and, ingrained in our constitution, the separation
of state from religion. Any politician or presidential aspirant that passes the
recent mayhem in the Orlando, Florida Club as a fault of one religion therefore,
is playing mischief and can hardly claim a higher moral ground in discussing
solutions to mass killings, mental instability, domestic and international
terrorism. How could anyone claim an identity with a religion as the cause of a
mayhem, when many of us can hardly definitely tell you, why people harbor grudges or discriminate against others; or people who are different from them in any way, shape or form?
With over six people still under
critical condition in Orlando, Florida hospitals, after the demise of 49 innocent
Americans at a night club, excluding the assailant himself, we are already
having a debate over what we are dealing with in this instance, terrorism or
hate against a minority group in America? As usual, everyone has an opinion and
some opinions and reasons for this mayhem are close to ludicrous as you might
expect; however, the American Constitution guarantees everyone’s right of
speech.
Donald Trump, the de-facto
Republican Party nominee for 2016 White House, adduce this mayhem to our
inability to see its association with Radical Islam. Mr. Trump’s incoherent and
somewhat disjointed position on this, has been seen as a political stunt in the
campaign for the White House. Reflective political observers wonder, if the
attention seeking presidential aspirant, is not just dying to draw attention to
his campaign with this assertion. How can anyone in his right mind explain to grieving
family members of the 49 who died in that night club, that the reason for the
demise of their loved ones, is because our president has not used the term,
Radical Islam. Americans and relatives of the deceased grief in unbearable pain;
and the consolation that they get, is a de-facto nominee of a major American Political Party,
claiming the cause of their grief is Radical Islam. Does this not smack of absence
of leadership qualities expected in one seeking the office of commander-in- chief;
and or chief national counselor in times of national calamities or misfortune?
As many of us probably know, the
deadly intent of a mass shooter is not easily deciphered. A homegrown
terrorist, who actively uses gay dating apps, who cruises multiple gay clubs
and bars every now and then, and who chooses to launch a murderous vendetta of
his compatriots in the night club, is not only crazy, he is an epitome of
lunacy in actual sense. If you are a regular patron of a gay bar, no matter
what your sexual orientation is and personal grievance towards people you meet
at the club, you do not have the right to engage in a killing spree of the
patrons; a place you held over twenty innocent souls’ hostage in a cross fire
fight with the police, sharp shooters and security personnel, just before you
met your demise. A rational mind would have discussed his or her personal grievances
with the group or abstain from going around them, if in actual fact, he or she
finds the group disgusting or unacceptable, per his or her preference or choice of
opinion. Further, if you find anyone, claiming your act is solely because you
identify or practice a religion, maybe that individual could look at himself in
the mirror and ask, is my opinion not contributing more to the problem of hate;
one that “probably” led this crazy to engage in felonious murderous spree? In
addition, the act of killing others for our personal values or choice of
opinion hardly asserts or give credence to our opinion about the people we are
so aggrieved with, as to launch into killing them; neither, does an exposure to
online propaganda video or anarchist rhetoric about America, a justifiable ground
for reproach and destruction of lives and property in a twinkle of an eye in a
night club.
Mr. Omar Mateen was a lunatic domestic
terrorist, an anarchist and a sad case for a father, who hardly understood his
role and responsibility to his family and three-year old child, who innocently
still was asking his grandfather, where is his father? His wife or partner may
know more than she is saying; but none of us know; however, if she knows
anything regarding her late husband’s action(s), she is to be made accountable for her inaction or action in this case that led to the deaths of many innocent Americans. If she had a prior knowledge of the action(s) of her husband, she ought
to answer to the three-year felonious offense trial of having a privy knowledge
of a crime and failing to report it to authorities, including the police and or
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). For everyone reading this, this very singular
event has not only challenged many of us to the depth of our beings, it has
called us to stop masking the ferocious behavior of a madman as grounds for stigmatizing our fellow Americans, as terrorists, because they practice the same
religion as Mr. Omar Mateen.
Unfortunately, the 2016 presumptive
Republican Party nominee’s opinion regarding the Orlando night club massacre is
taking a new life of its own. An impassioned President Barack Obama yesterday labelled
Donald Trump’s proposal to disallow Muslims from entering the United States, as
not only unworkable; but also not a reflection of what America and Americans
are all about, or our most cherished values, as conceived by the forefathers. In
the words of the President of the United States: “Are we going to start
treating all Muslim Americans differently? Are we going to start subjecting
them to special surveillance? Are we going to start discriminating against them
because of their faith? We’ve heard these suggestions during the course of this
campaign. Do Republican officials actually agree with this?” Emphasizing that
American Intelligence communities, law enforcement officials and active emergency response teams in dismantling terrorist groups across the globe behalf of
America, know who the enemy is; and, we therefore cannot just paint all Muslims
with one brush, if we are to claim a higher moral ground in the fight against terrorism,
domestic or international.
In retrospect, the use of the
phrase, Radical Islam, by anyone or our President, couldn’t have changed much
or prevented sick and radical people from degenerating to murderous zealot souls.
As further articulated in President Obama’s speech in response to Donald Trump’s
position on the cause of the Orlando Florida killings, or the fight against
domestic or international terrorism: “What exactly would be using this label [Radical
Islam] accomplish? What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less
committed to trying to kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there
a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is none of the above.
Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away. This is a
political distraction.” Calling out Mr. President for not using the label
Radical Islam may look very appealing to those who support the divide and
conquer approach that the Republican presumptive nominee articulates for America; however,
the reality is, there is not much to gain from name or words arrangement in a
grieving time of a national mourning for the innocent souls lost to terrorism
in Orlando, Florida.
Interestingly, Democratic Party
presumptive nominee for 2016 general elections, Hillary Clinton, has no problem
using the label of radical Islam; but accept as well that this phrase, would
hardly prevent another terrorist’s attack. Characterization of home-grown
terrorists and pseudo connectivity with other extreme terrorist groups across
the globe by a lone gunman, which underlies the current mayhem, fails to articulate, the true reasons for dastardly acts that lead to unfortunate deaths of
innocent souls: insecurity, fears and isolation. Donald Trump has chosen to
exploit fear and anxiety in the populace, to create further mistrust among
Americans, for pure political gain. The terrible repercussions of the Orlando
Florida nightclub disaster and current lambasting of President Obama by Donald
Trump, have the potential of exacerbating divisions and disagreements among
Americans; and no one can better articulate this rather more than the men and
women in the military, especially those who have vested their time in fighting wars
against terrorism, including unfortunately, those following the Islamic
Religion, who may be wondering by now, if their dedicated efforts and attempts, are subject to suspect, just because of a deranged action of a wacko, who
mowed down an already disadvantaged and frightened group of Americans, the gay
community?
Without any direct correlation or
proof, the presumptive nominee for Republican party, Donald Trump, cannot
conclude that President Barack Obama is in anyway sympathetic to the cause of terrorist
groups. Knowing what President Obama’s Administration has been doing in
fighting terrorists and international terrorism, including the escalation of
the use of drones in fighting terrorists and removal of many of their generals
from the battle field in the past seven and a half years, it is rather
difficult to argue or convince any independent observer that President Barack Obama
has been soft in fighting terrorists, or has sympathy for terrorists. Albeit,
his administration’s continuous efforts to go into accords and work with any
international partnering country to bring to justice anyone or group, known to
be associated or sympathetic to any group bent on killing Americans. One thing
he has not done and which he continues to defend without apologies, is the unwholesome
use of derogatory language against the religion of terrorists. For the President,
it is not only challenging, but unfair to lump the guilty with the innocent in
the long fight against terrorism. President Barack Obama has been fighting the
war against global terrorism with the urgency it deserves and demands, without
lumping the innocent with the guilty; and, those who still believe in the grand
illusion of using derogatory language in defining the religion of the enemy,
hardly understand the hard long road to fighting and overcoming domestic and
global terrorism; and the need to acculturate even people in the Islamic
Religion, in fighting global terrorism.
One of the basic flaws in Mr. Trump’s
reasoning and allegation against the President of the United States, that he
hardly cares about fighting terrorism or paying attention to issues of fear and
anxieties in a unique American minority group, the gay community, is that
members of his party have been the major antagonist of recognition of equal
rights for the same group. Republicans have on many occasions voted against the
interest of the gay community and in many instances have been a road block to
the progress of equality between mainstream and minority population in America.
Yet, Mr. Trump continues to use intense and aggressive rhetoric, or demeaning
TWEETS, that disadvantage and dispossess the LGBT groups, including
on issues of gay wedding and tax relief for those in civil unions or partnerships. Whether Mr. Trump knows it or not, the LGBT community is
already suspicious of the condescending comments coming from him, regarding what
just happened in their community in Florida.
Many Americans understand the
hard-liner position towards LGBT groups from the Republican
Party. Further, members of the Republican Party have never been accommodating of
the choices of the LGBT groups; neither have they been ready to
engage these groups to address their concerns over discrimination at the local
and national levels. The unfortunate event in Orlando Florida, only exacerbate an
already tense atmosphere of distrust between the gay community and the rest of
the nation; that even in a place these groups consider a safe aboard, where
they can mix freely without being judged, out of the glare of the many who do
not love them, they can still be hunted down and killed. Wow, how cold can the world be?
Outdistancing all these
tit-for-tat responses from the Republican nominee toward the mayhem in the
Orlando, Florida, nightclub is probably the reality of what hate can decimate or degenerate
into; and, what discrimination against a particular minority group in America
can engender and culminate in. The competition for who to replace President Barack
Obama in the White House, is not going to be defined solely by this misfortune;
but will most likely bring to the forefront, some of the issues that have been
left unattended regarding this particular minority group(s). Further, the
competition will also bring along for deliberation, issues of domestic and
international terrorism, who is better prepared to address and fight these
problems for America, between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton? The presumptive
Republican Nominee, Mr. Donald Trump, has been making attempt to undercut the
campaign of Ms. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Nominee; and the attempt by
Donald Trump to cast President Barack Obama’s fight against terrorism in a bad
light, is actually an attempt to pass or cast an administration which Ms.
Hillary Clinton was part of, as very weak in the fight against domestic and
global terrorism.
Library of Congress Clipart The Library of Congress
Library of Congress Clipart The Library of Congress
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