A 26-year-old man opened fire on a community college in rural Oregon Thursday morning, killing 10 people and wounding seven. Another day, another mass shooting in the United States. A student who witnessed the attack told a local newspaper that the gunman had asked people to stand up and state their religion before he started firing. She watched as the man shot her teacher in the head. It’s hard to find words anymore to describe these shootings. There have been so many of them, so many words and so many shootings. US President Barack Obama, who has given so many speeches, and attended so many memorials, in the aftermath of so many mass shootings, found some words on Thursday, deeply exasperated ones. Yet there’s been little to no action, no change. Why, when these shootings happen, do we not scramble our military or overhaul our airport security? What if this man’s name was Tsarnaev? Here’s a word that might help us describe what happened yesterday: terrorism. It is a word that inspires America’s leaders like no other. When heavily armed American men attack public spaces in broad daylight, we don’t call it terrorism. But what if we did? The truth is, these days Americans — mostly white Americans — are the biggest terror threat in America. Is America ready to do something about it?…
About Egberto Willies
Egberto Willies is a political activist, author, political blogger, radio show host, business owner, software developer, web designer, and mechanical engineer in Kingwood, TX. He is an ardent Liberal that believes tolerance is essential. His favorite phrase is “political involvement should be a requirement for citizenship”. Willies is currently a contributing editor to DailyKos, OpEdNews, and several other Progressive sites. He was a frequent contributor to HuffPost Live. He won the 2nd CNN iReport Spirit Award and was the Pundit of the Week.