Terrorism
"The word 'terrorist' implies someone from the outside."
Listen
to this Commentary!
By Phil Herrick
Watching television and listening to radio, you would think a terrorist is always
a foreigner.
I’m Phil Herrick with a commentary from Youth Radio.
It’s even an exotic word. Just saying “terrorist”
invokes images of Muslim fundamentalists or Basque extremists in even the most
politically correct of us. We hardly ever think of an American as a terrorist.
It’s as though the word “terrorist” implies
someone from the outside. We’ve become accustomed to calling violence
in Israel terrorism, but native violence in the U.S. is written off as a fluke.
After all, Ted Kaczynski was portrayed as a crackpot, never to be put in the
same category with the well-organized September 11th terrorists.
Maybe it makes us feel safer to make terrorism something “out
there” and rarely “in here.” But for me it’s all the
same. Whether it’s watching breaking news of the sniper attacks, or reading
about gang violence on the back page of the newspaper, I am frightened. The
fact that the person behind the trigger isn’t part of some headlining
international organization doesn’t make me feel any better.
For Youth Radio, I’m Phil Herrick.
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