“Other” Terrorism News

I like to highlight terrorism that’s committed by “other” terrorists throughout the Homeland because main stream media doesn’t.  Why anyone would want to do anything suspicious in and around an airplane is beyond me, but this “unnamed” individual did the unspeakable, sneaking a Leatherman KNIFE in a bottle of mayonnaise that he wanted to take on to a plane departing JFK Airport. Anyone who has flown in post 911 America from that airport knows how incredible this story is.  The act of putting a knife in a jar of mayonnaise, then sealing it not only speaks to his poor culinary tastes….mayonnaise is most likely not something you could add to airplane food to make it better but our Nation’s history where people  used such instruments to hijack planes must never be forgotten.   It is for that reason TSA was formed and they did their job to perfection in this case, discovering the weapon but what happened next is beyond me?!?!?!  They let this “unnamed” person get on his plane!  Is it possible they think he accidentally put the knife in the mayonnaise jar while making a bologna sandwich?  Undoubtedly this passenger was NOT a Muslim, otherwise he would be in Gitmo Bay by now and his name and picture splashed all over the pages, bandwidth and airwaves of main stream media.  For now he/she remains unnamed, and their religious/ethnic identity is neither mentioned nor regarded by most of those who read this news story; but that’s how it should be America….for EVERYBODY.

This next story is a typical American tragedy.  Back when it happened a lot we used to call it going postal…someone in the workplace snaps and takes out his/her frustration….but because a lot more political mileage can be garnered by calling it terrorism when it applies to certain groups it’s very difficult to see it any other way when anyone else does it.  One L. Goh went postal in Oakland, Ca and killed 7 people at one of the local colleges there.  The reason why he went on this killing spree is he felt disrespected by the school’s administrators and his classmates.  Such disrespect and frustration happen to almost all of us, but rarely results in such extreme actions and when it does it gets mentioned but not magnified in America’s media…much like this story….because we’ve come to accept this is a by product of a large heterogeneous society that has a violent edge that manifests itself in such ways.  Up until recently religious, ethnic motives were not examined nor mentioned when reporting such stories.  The perpetrator(s) was seen as a cultural aberration that we as a society needed to let the judicial system deal with while we not focus on him or her.  That’s the way it should be no matter who commits such insanity, or if we insist on attaching cultural identities to violence when none exists, then we should do it for all.  One and “unnamed” in the previous story are either anonymous criminals or terrorists.  You decide…but be consistent.  If our system of justice is truly blind, then so should our labeling of those who must face that justice.