I’ve seen this happen quite a bit but I’ve kept quiet about it. With the new legislation passed after 9/11, the term ‘terrorism’ has taken on a life of its own in this country. Every time someone thinks a crime is heinous or serious they refer to it as terrorism. I offer a big….WHATEVER!
So now your thinking, “WTF are you rambling about Moby?” Well, I’m catching up on headlines this AM and I stumbled across this story about the accidental release of a list of names involving people who are HIV positive. Apparently, some of the folks on the list received a harassing letter stating that someone knew their names was on the states list of HIV positive people. While I am of the firm belief said person who did this is a big time coward, sending someone a harassing letters is not an ‘act of terrorism’. For clarity I’ll say it again, I think the person responsible needs his ass whooped. Clear enough? Good…moving on.
For the record, the word terrorism is defined as the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature.
All I’m saying is we have a habit overreacting as a society at times and this a is a glaring example of such. Don’t even get me started on the whole “patriotic” issue anytime someone w/half a brain disagrees w/our not so brilliant leader & chief.
I’m all for punishing the pathetic waste of skin that did this however, yelling “wolf” every time only serves to diminish the belief that the wolf exists.
That’s the problem with the definition. The ‘attain goals’ piece has become so obtuse that just causing terror and destruction is seen as a goal to itself. With re: the letters – that’s more harassment than anything.
Won’t somebody think of the children?