A couple of weekends ago, my Twitter account was flooded with bad news. That’s not really a surprise anymore. However, it seemed as if that early Sunday morning I was supposed to read nothing but tragedy.
First it was an explosion in a trash can in New Jersey that, thankfully, injured no one. Then it was a bomb in Chelsea, New York, injuring 29 people. And then there was another bomb discovered in Elizabeth, New Jersey, but it had not yet gone off.
We also cannot forget the shoppers at a mall in Minnesota who were stabbed by a man who repeatedly mentioned ‘Allah’. An ISIS news source has since said that the man was a soldier of theirs and the attack has been identified as an act of terror.
Something else was dominating Twitter as well. Donald Trump. Of course all he was doing was offering his condolences and throwing in some heavy politics. Trump claims he will keep our country safe. We’re just not sure how he plans to do that.
Clinton is determined that we will not cower, we will be strong and we will conquer. We’re just not really sure how that’s going to happen either.
This is a cycle. Some terrible event happens, such as 29 people injured by an explosion or eight people stabbed at a mall, and the two adversaries jump to a response and then clobber each other with insults.
They want us to think that their way is the correct way. That’s politics and that’s how that works. At some point, they have both accused the other of being a part of the Islamic State and they have both said that the other candidate is only aiding ISIS to victory.
There is an entire city that’s on edge because of at least 6 explosive devices found and the response is to accuse someone of being an ISIS supporter. There is no right side in this one.
Meanwhile, Governor Chris Christie, everyone’s favorite lap dog, has said that we need to be more vigilant. “We need to say out loud that those people who are radical, especially radical Islamic terrorists, need to be called out.”
So maybe if we say “radical Islamic terrorists” three times and really fast, terrorism will go away. There is also another side of politics to this. His name is Gary Johnson.
Johnson is grateful that no one got hurt in the explosions. Except that 29 people just got hurt and were taken to the hospital.
There is no good answer for terrorism. It’s an awful thing and unfortunately, it will never go away. If ISIS is defeated, then there is another group ready to take its place and wreak havoc on the world and in our minds.
However, this is the presidential election season. There are only three responses available and that’s not one of them
Response number one is to be like Clinton. We can persevere and conquer as long as you remember that the other guy is bad and probably helping ISIS right now, so vote for Clinton and whenever this happens, she’ll give you platitudes and encourage you to stand strong. Meanwhile, she does pretty much nothing. Maybe she’ll just drop a couple of bombs in Syria and that will do nothing but add to the chaos that they have.
She has this great list about what she plans on doing. It looks really great. It has points and everything. However, it really amounts to about nothing.
Response number two is to be like Trump. We should be terrified and afraid and he is the only one who can protect so we need to vote for him. Meanwhile, the other person running only enables terrorists and don’t forget the media because they are the ones to blame too.
If we take a look at Trump’s website, he has no clear listing of his stance on national security and foreign policy. So I guess we can assume that he really won’t do anything.
Response number three is to be like Johnson. The good ‘ole libertarian. He doesn’t know what Aleppo is and he didn’t know that 29 people were injured. That’s why you should vote for him. Because he will just blatantly ignore the problem and hope it goes away. Isn’t that what we should do too?
The fact of the matter is, there is no good response. My prayers go out to everyone who was injured both in New York and Minnesota. Terror is a horrible thing and nothing any politician will ever say will make it better and sometimes, they just make it worse. But then again, that’s just politics for you.
Laina Yost
Managing Editor