Sunday, June 12, 2016

Orlando

So now what?  After the latest massacre of 50 people and wounding of 50 more in a gay nightclub in Orlando, now what?  What do we do?  I understand the need to stand in solidarity.  I understand the prayers.  I understand seeking answers and offering comfort.  I even understand some goofy hashtag that proclaims support.  But then what?  After we bury the dead and care for the survivors, then what?  Currently, the only thing I see our leaders doing is to proclaim it terror and hate.  To issue a proclamation condemning the action.  I see a lot of calls for more gun control and a lot of decrying the targeting of the gay community.  But then what?  What will we do?  Unfortunately, the short answer is nothing.  I'm just so sick of the empty words and anemic response.  50 Americans are dead in the worst single massacre in our history.  Their attacker most likely had some weird, sick motivation in attacking a venue that was filled with gay people, but it could have been anywhere.  It could have been a mall, a ballpark, a playground...anywhere.  My view is that this has little to do with gun control and really, little to do with attacking a gay nightclub.  This is the latest manifestation of the war radical Islamic terrorism has launched against the western world, and specifically the U.S.  It's not going away and it's not going to get better until we recognize the threat and take action to protect both our citizens and our way of life.   

So again...what are we going to do?  We all know the answer.  Nothing.  And it will happen again.  It makes me wonder what it is going to take.  Another 9/11?  A dirty bomb in a major city.  A gas attack in a subway?  What will it take?  The sad thing is that we could develop and implement a multi-faceted, multi-agency, coalition-focused strategy to thwart these attacks.  It could be done if there was a will to do it.  But I guess it's going to take more than the loss of 50 lives in Florida.

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