On November 13th, 130 people died from terror
attacks. That's a horrible tragedy, but
a bigger tragedy is the way we have reacted to the terror attacks. Let’s get some perspective here. That night 89 people were killed at the
Bataclan Theatre; that’s a terrible tragedy, but it’s only 6% of the
story. In a packed concert hall that
holds 1500 people, 3 terrorists shot at unarmed concertgoers for 10 to 15
minutes, then two of the terrorists blew themselves up, and yet 94% of the
concertgoers lived. That week 77 French
people died in car accidents, almost as many as were killed at the concert. In fact, the same day that terrorists killed
130 people in Paris, 200 Frenchmen died as a result of tobacco related illnesses; many
of them died long, slow, painful deaths.
As a result of the terror attacks Paris was closed down for
several days, the President of France has been given special powers, and there
is talk of changing the French Constitution to give the French President
additional power to deal with emergencies.
In America, the media has kept the story going because it sells
papers. Huckster politicians have used
this as a way to get attention by the time honored method of scaring people.
In an average year there are well over 30,000 deaths from
auto accidents in the United States, but fewer than 7 deaths from
terrorism. That’s nearly 5,000 deaths
from auto accidents for each death from terrorism. Yet, the fear, publicity, and political
rhetoric are about terrorism rather than car crashes. In fact, as a result of the terrorist attacks
in Paris and San Bernardino, many Americans are calling to stop allowing Syrian
refugees immigrate to America because some of them could be terrorists. We don’t owe them anything, right; why take
the risk? It’s amazing that many of the
people espousing these Ideas consider themselves Christians. The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) didn’t owe
anything to the man who fell into the hands of robbers, but he went out of his
way to help the man at great cost to himself.
If a friend was in a burning car would you watch them burn or would you
try to help them - at great risk to yourself?
How about a stranger? What if the
stranger was Syrian? Right now there are
millions of Syrians trying to get out of a burning country. They don’t have homes, they don’t have jobs,
they don’t have food; they’ve lost everything.
They’re just trying to get out of a war and make a new life. They don’t have any less right to come to
America than my great, great grandfather did; really. Could some of them be terrorists? Of course,
but you’re far more likely to kill one of them in a car accident than they are
to kill you with a gun.
Terrorists won’t win by killing tens, hundreds, or even
thousands of innocent people. Terrorists
will win because people allow themselves to be terrorized. When it comes down to it, you aren’t
safe. You won’t be safe no matter what
our blathering politicians do.
Suck it up and deal with it!
