Home-Grown Terrorists

A recent article by Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald spoke to the existence of home-grown terrorism. He had been writing about how we need to stand together with Bostonians.

“We stand together,” he had written. “We stand defiant. And we stand with Boston.”

A letter-writer to Mr. Pitts disagreed.

“Your wrong pal we do not STAND TOGETHER.OH MY GOD we need a CIVIL WAR. The American people against the LIBERAL DEMACRAT SCUM that we have let allow SCUMBAGS like those that would BLOW UP people in BROAD DAYLIGHT to be here … WE NEED A CIVIL WAR. Those demacrats that happen to still be breathing after that CIVIL WAR will have a choice. BECOME NORMAL or you are LEAVING with the 11 million illegals that ARE GOING HOME … THIS IS SO CLOSE TO HAPPENING THAT EVERY LIBERAL IN THIS COUNTRY SHOULD START LOSING SLEEP … THERE IS A CLEAR REASON WHY WE ARE ARMED TO THE TEETH ...”

This letter is indicative of the existence of an increasingly radicalized group of US citizens, who are likely armed and dangerous. They need to be on an FBI terrorist watch list. But are they??

Mr. Pitts’ article today was, frankly, both scary and "suspicions confirmed". I have long believed, reading and listening to the hyper-partisan rhetoric flowing from the right wing, that we were in the beginning stages of a civil war. When I read about all the efforts now going into determining where/how the brothers who bombed Boston received their radicalization and training, I am drawn now to wondering where/when Mr. Pitts’ letter writer received his radicalization and training. We seem always driven to looking for clues when the terrorist is a Muslim. Do we imagine that the letter writer is a Muslim? Hmmm . . . probably not. But he has been radicalized, and now represents a potential terrorist threat to the United States, and should be on an FBI terrorist watch list. Now, he may simply be crazy and in need of medical treatment and probably hospitalization. But perhaps the same could be said of all terrorists. Don't you have to be crazy to do these things??

What troubles me is that I don't see any equivalent effort being expended by the police and FBI to look for the crazies represented by Mr. Pitts’ letter-writer. I am being drawn inexorably into a state of depression about our nation's future. I have grandchildren and even great grandchildren. I fear for their future. It once seemed bright, but the future now seems dim and potentially catastrophic. And the threat isn't even foreign. It's all home-grown, with the right wing megaphones--read the Faux News Network, Sarah Palin, Ric Santorum, Hannity, et al, urging them on. And they feel no shame.