This is Where I Am

I could say it’s been an emotional day, but in all honesty, as an American Human it’s been a long year. I feel like at least a decade’s worth of heavy heart has taken its toll in 2015. To be frank, I haven’t lived a day of my adult life outside the shadow of domestic or international terrorism.

You see, terrorism doesn’t begin or end with an event causing mass casualties. Terrorism has a purpose. And, not to be insensitive, but a freak accident can cause tragedy. Terrorism is the strategic annihilation of hope in place of blindly disheartened fear. Terrorism isn’t a car blowing up on the side of a road. Terrorism is a man driving into the middle of a crowded street in order to publicly blow up his car near others for the purpose of inciting widespread fear of an unpredictable predator.

The thing that makes terrorism, terrorism isn’t that a bad thing happens–bad things happen every day. It’s when bad things are made to happen in order to stop or hinder people from living a full life either by destroying their physical ability to do so or instilling enough fear or hatred to prohibit them from attempting to gain it themselves.

Living in a state of terror is reflected by a lack of trust that governing bodies, law enforcement, community, or other authorities are able or willing to protect you or your best interests from a known and active threat.

Please be sure, I am deeply grieving for France, Beirut, Kenya, Baghdad, and many others that have suffered mass attacks over the last weeks. But the issue here isn’t that terrorism is a new global problem. The American issue here is that we focus on global pain while ignoring the domestic, internal terrorism that is flooding our borders under the guise of freedom. The fact of the matter is that every single one of our systems are broken, causing the majority of Americans to live in systematically oppressed states of terror all over the nation.

Our political machine. Our education institution. Our economic process. Our healthcare programs. Our justice system.

Each broken in a way that pierces a hole in the lungs of hope for millions of Americans each day. Leaving them deflated with little to no hope in themselves or for their future. Causing them to face a reality that says, “You’ll never be anything other than what we make you, have anything we don’t give you, or do anything we don’t allow you to. Oh, and the rules change daily without notice.”

This isn’t fiction, it’s reality for the socially and economically disenfranchised (read non-white or female or poor) in America.

So if there’s any wonder who’s the biggest terrorist threat to America? You can be sure, it’s herself.