Let's Call All Terrorists "Terrorists" | Thom Hartmann

I do not believe in Original Sin. Each one of us entered this world
as innocent as....as a new born babe.
Murder and violence are learned behavior every bit as much as is love
and caring. Each new baby offers itself as a clean slate. What that
baby becomes is through our example and by way of our teaching. We,
through either our participation or lack of participation, have
contributed to the violence which seems to be washing over our planet.
What role does each of us play? What do we say to our own children
and grandchildren when they see violence on the news or beg us for the
latest violent video game? How many of us conduct family meetings to
discuss world affairs and the role each of us can play?
We can point our fingers and declare other violent people Terrorists,
but are we ourselves clean of hatred and violence? Someone is
painting our innocent new born babies with ugly colors.

Carl Jarvis





On 1/7/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> I also agree with him. I have refrained, so far, from posting all of the
> articles about the Republican Representative who has the third highest
> position in the House of representatives right now, and who has, in the
> past, apparently had associations with white supremacist groups. He says
> that when he gave a talk at one of their gatherings in 2003, he had no idea
> what their ideology was. So he gets a pass. That was all in the past.
>
> Miriam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blind-Democracy [mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On
> Behalf Of ted chittenden
> Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 5:57 PM
> To: blind-democracy
> Subject: Let's Call All Terrorists "Terrorists" | Thom Hartmann
>
> Hi to all.
>
> My father used to get mad at me when I said that one man's terrorist is
> another man's revolutionary. However, reading commentaries like the one
> below reinforces my view.
> --
> Ted Chittenden
>
> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
> ----
> http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2015/01/let%E2%80%99s-call-all-terrorists-%
> E2%80%9Cterrorists%E2%80%9D
> Let's Call All Terrorists "Terrorists"
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> Let's Call All Terrorists "Terrorists"
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> Thom Hartmann Administrator's picture
> Jan. 7, 2015 1:04 pm
> By Thom Hartmann A...
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> Earlier today, three gunmen stormed the Paris offices of the French
> satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people, including two
> policemen. Although we still don't know the motive behind the attack, it
> seems like it was in response to Charlie Hebdo publishing cartoons that
> mocked the Prophet Muhammad.
>
> In the hours since the shooting, politicians and the media have universally
> condemned the gunmen as "terrorists" and called their actions "terrorism."
> And for good reason, too: the killing of unarmed civilians for apparently
> political or religious reasons is the classic definition of terrorism. But
> would people be as willing to call the Paris attack "terrorism" if the
> suspects involved were white or members of a right-wing hate group? I don't
> think so
>
> In one really telling quote form earlier today, former deputy director of
> the CIA Michael Morrell called the storming of the Charlie Hebdo
> headquarters "the worst terrorist attack in Europe since the attacks in
> London in July of 2005." Mike Morrell apparently can't remember the actual
> worst terrorist attack in Europe between the 2005 London bombings and
> today's Paris shootings.
>
> I'm talking, of course, about the 2011 Norway attacks, where a white
> right-wing extremist and racist named Anders Breivik killed 77 people
> during
> a rampage through Oslo and a nearby summer camp.
>
> If Breivik's name were "Omar" and he said that he acted in the name of
> Islam
> as opposed to "Europe" and Christianity, I doubt people like Michael Morell
> would forget who he is or what he did. But like other white perpetrators of
> mass political violence, from the guy who shot up a Sikh Temple in
> Wisconsin
> a few years ago to the guy who attacked a Kansas JCC this past April,
> Breivik gets a free pass from the media. He's a "mass shooter" or "mass
> murderer, not a "terrorist."
>
> These are other examples, too. Are the guys who aimed loaded guns at
> federal
> officers at the Bundy ranch called "terrorists"? They are. Or the people
> who
> bombed the NAACP building yesterday in Colorado? Absolutely.
>
> While this might sound like splitting hairs, it's not. In our society,
> calling an act of violence "terrorism" is an extremely powerful statement.
> It says that that an action is so awful, so beyond what we consider
> acceptable human behavior, that we must do everything we can to prevent it
> from happening ever again. So when we refuse to call acts of violence that
> really are terrorism "terrorism," we're saying as a society that we don't
> need to take them as seriously as we would the acts of violence that we do
> call terrorism.
>
> This has very real world consequences.
>
> According to some estimates, right-wing terrorists have killed more
> Americans since 9/11 than Islamic terrorists have. If we don't call
> right-wing terrorists "terrorists," and thus say to the public that they're
> just as bad as Islamic terrorists, the public won't take right-wing
> terrorism seriously and it will be that much easier for Neo-Nazis to
> continue to threaten and to kill people without causing much sustained
> outrage.
>
> Terrorism is an extremely powerful and persuasive word, but thanks to the
> media double-standards, it's becoming meaningless. If we really want to
> call-out evildoers, let's call all terrorists "terrorists" or stop using
> the
> word altogether.
> .
>
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