I've been trying to find words to describe how I feel about this. Most closely associating with the belief system of Unitarian Universalists, and having friends and acquaintances who regularly attend Unitarian services, it frightens me to know that this could have happened in any state, in any city, in any Unitarian gathering place. This could have happened to one of my friends. A few years in the future, who knows? I'm still on the fence as to whether I'll ever go, but It could have been me and my children. For being loving. For being welcoming. For being accepting... of ALL.
Even the wife of one of the men who wrestled the shooter to the floor, rather than calling him some choice words, described him as "a man who was hurt in the world and feeling nothing was going his way. He turned the gun on people who were mostly likely to treat him lovingly and compassionately and be the ones to help someone in that situation."
But apparently, in his eyes, those people deserved to die.
It ma not be a very Unitarian thing to ask, nor a very Catholic one for that matter (the faith in which I was raised), but I'll ask it anyway: Why is this man not being referred to as a terrorist? When non-white non-Americans go on the attack, for reasons they claim to be religious (no matter how much of a bastardization of their actual religion the reasons may be), especially when they feel the victims' lifestyles are too liberal, we have an overwhelming tendency to refer to them as terrorists.
So... why? Is he too white? Is he too American? Does he espouse too many of the conservative values that so many in this country hold so dear? Can these people not bear to refer to someone who was seemingly one of their own in the same terms as the people we've been fighting since shortly after the eleventh of September?
I don't get it.
Rest in Peace, Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger.
1 comment:
Excellent post and I happen to totally agree with you.
If he had been any other ethnicity than white you know the media would pounce all over that shit like white on rice. It's bullshit - the double standards, the racial profiling, and the ASSumptions made by so many against others.
We must remember that this country is being ran by a bigoted bastard who sees anyone who is not white, rich, and for him call everyone else a terrorist save for his white buddies.
It all sickens me and saddens me.
Post a Comment