April 27, 2007
Among Myriad Scare Stories, Real Terrorism Is Ignored
One of these things is not like the others:
- An instructor at the University of Maryland compared an Asian-American student to Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui and threatened to call the police.
- An Asian-American high school student in a Chicago suburb is arrested for writing a class essay that mentioned a school shooting.
- South Indian instructor at Shippensburg University leaves a box of recycling by a trash can, triggering a campus lockdown.
- At South Illinois University in Carbondale, a gym bag filled with sand for a student's class project provokes a security alert.
- In the parking lot of a women's heath clinic in Austin, Texas, a police bomb squad detonated an explosive device.
Only one of these, the clinic bombing attempt, represents an actual act of terrorist violence. And it has received minimal coverage in the news.
Quoth zuzu at Feministe:
We saw something similar with the Virginia Tech shooting — the campus police initially dismissed the idea that the gunman would be a danger to anyone else — even though they hadn’t identified or caught him at the time — because they saw a dead woman and just assumed that it was a “domestic incident” and there would be no further violence. Clinic bombings are treated as the equivalent of shrugged-off “domestic incidents” — hey, it’s just violence against women. It’s not like it’s going to affect real people or anything.
(hat tips to Elf Sternberg and Atrios)
Posted by abostick at April 27, 2007 10:31 AMDear Alan — I found your web-page while searching to see where a recent work of mine (THE FÚFUMAL) turned up on the Net.
I think I know your father, Bill Bostick — at least, if /a/ he lives in Michigan, /b/ the "Bill" stands for "William A.", and /c/ he owns an enterprise called LA STAMPA CALLIGRAPHICA and shares my decades-long interest in calligraphy and handwriting improvement through Italic. If indeed I have stumbled on the son of this old friend, then I can only say "Small world!" (or however one might express that in Ancient Viking Bunny-Speak). If so, give Bill my regards — though you may want to skip the stuff about what brought me to your page, as he doubtless has little time or interest in the adventures of archaically rewritten nursery-fiction beasties.) So just mention that Kate Gladstone, the Handwriting Repairwoman, found you on the Net and tells him "Hello!"
