POINT MADE--As the details of the nightmare that is the San Bernardino shooting unfold, there's no doubt that many of us (maybe most of us) are asking ourselves this question: why? Yet this tragedy is compounded not merely by the hatred and bigotry of those willing to commit this horrific, outrageous act of evil, but by the hatred and bigotry that the coverage of this event exposed throughout this nation.
First of all, WHY would it ever be acceptable to attack and slay so many innocents doing nothing more than attend a Christmas party?
And WHY would such an act of evil be planned on perpetrated on those working with the disabled at the Inland Regional Center?
Now here's where it gets tricky ... because WHY do we live in a politically-correct nation and world where not everyone is comfortable using the term "act of evil" to describe this crime (even among those who would condemn the act)?
And WHY did the reporting of this act morph from three white men shooting up a Planned Parenthood clinic over a mile away ... to two individuals of Middle Eastern descent (one a woman) shooting up a Christmas party in the Inland Empire?
And WHY did alternative media (both liberal and conservative) report this story correctly hours prior to when the larger media outlets started to (apparently with some reluctance) explain what really happened, including the proper narrative of who perpetrated this act of horror?
And WHY did so much of this same mainstream media start leaping on the Christian right for offering prayers in the middle of the nightmare, and with such vehement hatred?
And WHY do so many "open-minded" individuals in this nation presume that all Christians are all Republicans, and that all Christians (or all Republicans) are of the same opinion of gun control?
And WHY would anyone believe that these three shooters would have been limited from finding their weapons in a pro-gun-control state like California, or that we could have prevented this nightmare from happening with any legislation?
And WHY is it so easy (and so easily bought into) that Republicans (who are as monomorphic as Democrats on issues such as gun control) are to blame for every act of evil (and who are chastised for even using the word "evil")?
And WHY would it make any more sense to blame Republicans than to blame Democrats for everything that is not all right with the world?
So WHY does it matter for any of us to "hope" or "pray" for any given act of savagery and brutality to be perpetrated by a given group of individuals (white, black, male, female, Christian, or Muslim), when cold-blooded murder is ALWAYS bad?
WHY did these three monsters do this horrific deed?
And WHY are we letting ourselves be led into a division when we should all, as a united nation, be in agreement that this was simply an unacceptable act of evil?
(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected]. He also does regular commentary on the Mark Isler Radio Show on AM 870, and co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 98
Pub: Dec 4, 2015
