All Americans Have Something in Common Today

Joseph Farah
Tue, 14 Jun 2016 21:00:00 -0700
Opinion

Like all Americans, I watched the reporting on the slaughter in Orlando filled with revulsion, anger and frustration.

While grieving with the families of those killed in this horror and identifying with the pain and suffering of those wounded in the worst shooting attack by a single person in American history, a thought occurred to me.

America is more divided today than at any time since the Civil War. Citizens have less tolerance for one another's views than during the worst they did in the most polarized times of the 1960s. We've been intentionally played against each other too long. We've been broken up into "interest groups" so effectively by politicians looking out for their own interests that we've actually begun seeing each other that way.
Updated: Wed Jun 15, 2016

Like all Americans, I watched the reporting on the slaughter in Orlando filled with revulsion, anger and frustration.

While grieving with the families of those killed in this horror and identifying with the pain and suffering of those wounded in the worst shooting attack by a single person in American history, a thought occurred to me.

America is more divided today than at any time since the Civil War. Citizens have less tolerance for one another's views than during the worst they did in the most polarized times of the 1960s. We've been intentionally played against each other too long. We've been broken up into "interest groups" so effectively by politicians looking out for their own interests that we've actually begun seeing each other that way.

I will even say I saw evidence in the coverage of this tragedy and some of the statements by the highest officials in the land that obviously reeked of intent to keep that ball of discord and divisiveness rolling.

But what hit me smack between the eyes and in the deepest recesses of my heart was this: There's something all Americans have in common.

When I heard the attack described as a "hate crime," I could not deny it. When anyone murders in cold blood 50 or more Americans, it is so obviously a crime of hate that it scarcely requires uttering those words.

Was the Pulse nightclub attacked because it was a gathering place of homosexuals? I don't doubt it for a minute. Is that the only reason? Not at all.

It was attacked in the month of Ramadan by a Muslim terrorist who announced his allegiance to ISIS and carried out this act of mass-murdering rage against Americans — at the behest of ISIS, which had promised this kind of mayhem would come during this "holy month."

That's what all Americans should realize today.

It ought to be a rallying cry against the self-destructive disunity we are experiencing as a nation torn asunder.

Please don't try to remind me that Omar Mateen was technically a U.S. citizen.

That's not what I mean by an American.

Whatever he once was, he had become an enemy of the American people and all of the positive attributes of American culture and law.

I must note, for the record, that whatever real Americans think about gays, lesbians, transgenders, bisexuals, they don't hold murder in their heart for them. Whatever issues Christians may have with the LGBT agenda being foisted on them by politicians eager to court their support as an interest group, they don't hunt down people who identify with that lifestyle and kill them. Whatever conservatives may think about national bathroom policies dictated from the White House, they don't dream of killing sprees of vengeance.

Those thoughts just don't come to the minds of real Americans.

Real Americans believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We respect the differences between us, while debating and arguing about the best ways to achieve our mutual goals of life, liberty and happiness.

What's my point?

I remember after 9/11, for a moment all too brief, when Americans came together, mourned, shared out grief, shared out pain, cried together and understood clearly this was an attack on all of us.

So was Orlando.

So was Boston.

So was San Bernardino.

In times of war, Americans have put their differences aside and come together to face our mutual enemy.

We've never before been afraid of identifying that enemy. We've never been hesitant before to name it, call it out and do what was absolutely necessary to destroy it as a threat to our nation, to our families, to our communities, to other innocent Americans.

It wasn't homophobia that triggered Orlando. It was hatred of America.

A similar, but smaller terrorist attack on a gay nightclub took place last Wednesday in Tel Aviv. Four were killed. And that wasn't the first attack of its kind there. Another one took place last year. In Israel, they were not viewed as attacks just on gays. They were universally seen for what they were — attacks on Israel.

And please don't accuse me of "Islamophobia," or literally "fear of Muslims," for this column. Islamophobia is what causes the media to hope against hope that every terror attack isn't perpetrated by Muslims. It's why radicals like Mateen are repeatedly investigated for the hateful and suspicious activities in which they are involved before such attacks but never stopped from perpetrating them. Islamophobia — or maybe even "Islamophilia," in the case of Barack Obama — is what causes them to think of slaughters like Orlando as just more "gun violence."

How many more attacks like this will we need to witness before coming together in unity around a common purpose — self-defense, national defense, national security, victory over a determined and common enemy?