Write a letter to the editor of an english daily expressing your concern about terrorism privileged in different parts of the country
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We’re horrified by acts of terrorism: Orlando, Charleston, San Bernardino, Newtown, Oklahoma City. What we see less clearly is the terrorism so interwoven in a culture it seems normal: colonialism, imperialism, slavery. Today its terrorism against women by their intimate partners — three women killed every day, 4,774,000 women experiencing extreme violence every year. American troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2012 numbered 6,488; during that same time 11,766 American women were murdered by current or former male partners.
I think of other homegrown unrecognized “terrorism,” our violence toward Earth, our only home. Chemical and oil spills, methane leaks, toxic waste dumped into rivers, loss of coral reefs and wetlands, the ocean used as a garbage dump. Our Defense Department declared man-made climate change our greatest terrorist threat — depletion of water causing water wars, droughts and floods destroying crops and homes, millions of refugees fleeing violence and hunger. Here record heat, intensity of storms, wildfires, floods, yet the extraordinary denial of this “terrorism” and its root causes.
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Terrorism as not just violence but an attitude toward others; viewing women, the Earth and other beings as objects to be used, abused, exploited, a feeling of separation and superiority allowing us to justify greed, power, privilege and cruelty.
Throughout history demagogues have manipulated people’s fear, insecurity and anger, blaming “another” for all problems; in Nazi Germany Jews were easy scapegoats. Here it’s Muslims, blacks, refugees, Mexicans, women, gays, abortion doctors. Rather than real institutional changes to create economic and racial justice, these “leaders” offer the illusion of security and promise of power by denigrating a chosen enemy. Dialogue, compromise, peace, empathy, friendship are seen as weakness. Concealed guns, military-style assault weapons, waterboarding, barrel bombing and rage are seen as manly strength.