The Alphabet of Bigotry and Fear

Bigotry and Fear: Just what are we so afraid of that the idea of banning an entire group of people based solely on their faith has any traction at all? This country was founded by the pursuit of religious tolerance and freedom. It is ingrained in our very DNA as a nation of freedom and of law. It is guaranteed by the same First Amendment that allows fear-mongers and bigots to spew out their vile, hate-filled rhetoric and allows me to respond without fear of retaliation, reprisal, or persecution. Can a handful of extremists who use terror to further their agenda, or a handful of extremists who use language to further theirs, be allowed to win and thereby curb the freedoms our nation has earned? Who are the terrorists? How many of them are religious fanatics who, by their extremism, defile the very teachings they proclaim to defend? I keep reminding myself that thirty-one Americans are murdered at the hands of gun toting terrorists EVERY DAY on America's streets, another 59 Americans use guns to kill themselves, and 231 Americans are wounded by gun fire.  That's EVERY DAY.  The Sandyhook killer, the Aurora Movie Theater Killer, the Charleston Killer, the San Bernadino Planned Parenthood Killer were all home grown and non-Muslim.  Not to mention Timothy McVee, or a host of mass killers.  People who buy the rhetoric of reaction are being distracted by primal fears that come from deep seeded and naked bigotry.  Remember that the KKK could teach ISIS a thing or two about sytemized terror, and those folks were upright Christians and “Patriotic Americans.”