CNN is running a particularly fluffy piece that speaks about the cost of terrorism to Israeli lives:
One of every 26,392 Israelis has been killed in a terrorist attack in the past six months. The same ratio applied to the population of the United States would equate to 10,888 American citizens. That’s more than three times the number of people killed in the September 11 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and aboard United Airlines Flight 93.
These numbers are interesting indeed. However, when taken into the context of good old fashioned American murder, these figures aren’t very impressive at all. Even when doubled, or even tripled:
In Flint the murder rate is 1.7 in 10,000 or, to use their numbers 4.25 in 25,000. Even when their numbers are doubled and ours are cut in half… they don’t match. Flint is still a far, far more dangerous place to live than even the settlements in the West Bank. The national rate is 1.3 in every 25,000 or 5.5 every 100,000… still far more than terrorism in Israel…
I’m not trying to say that we don’t feel some empathy for their plight, believe me when I say that I don’t understand senseless killing anymore than they do. However, I do feel that it is not necessary to use such dramatic words, numbers and pictures to illustrate one side over another in that conflict, label it Terrorism, and likened it to our own struggle. The article goes on to mention that if that were translated to American lives, then 10,888 people would be dead because of terrorism. This is over and above approximately 12,000 people that have been murdered this year alone. Not counting justifiable homicides.
So, bullshit you say? It’s not the same thing at all? Then tell me: Where’s Flint’s “Office of Homeland Security(soon to be Department)?” Where’s Flints Mossad? Where are the armed soldiers protecting me and seeking out potential “terrorists” to be killed on sight? Why must I be more afraid as a parent than another parent in a war-torn nation “rife with terrorism.” Why is it statistically more likely that I will be killed moving around or about Flint, Michigan, than if I were moving around or about Jerusalem?
I call upon the media, the press, our glorious politicos… Enough of the rhetoric, enough of the hate-speech against terror. Of course there will be another terrorist event soon. Of course there are people who operate outside the perimeters of society that they can only resort to guerilla acts of violence to remain heard. We have far too many problems that remain ignored in this country, in our streets, and in our schools to allow our attentions to be diverted into hysteria.
And if they aren’t listening… then let it start with you.
Pic via filepile, link via metafilter