Posted on 06/13/2016 7:07:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
My first thought when I turned on my TV Sunday morning and found that the Orlando shooting had occurred in a gay nightclub was: They're dead because they were gay.
I have a lot of gay friends. I tried to come up with words that would express my feelings for what they must have been going through.
I couldn't.
I assume they were going through the same feelings I had - and will have again, I fear - when Jews are attacked in shops and restaurants. Those attacks occurred not because they were in the wrong random place at the wrong random time, but because they were in a place that Jews were known to frequent.
It is clear that the people at the Pulse night club were targeted because it was a place where gays were known to frequent.
You don't have to be a member of a targeted group to have feelings of shock and sadness when that group is attacked, but if you are a member of a targeted group it is that membership alone that sets you apart.
Christians have attacked Christians and Muslims have attacked Muslims because of differences in theocracy. Tribal atrocities in Africa have been well documented.
Tribal atrocities in Europe have led to two World Wars.
By noon Sunday the shooter, Omar Mateen, had been identified as the American-born son of Afghan parents. Mateen apparently called 9-1-1 to claim fidelity with ISIS just before he began shooting, perhaps to make certain he got appropriate credit for his crime.
Of course the political aspects of the slaughter began almost immediately. I will not repeat them here because the families of those killed have not yet all been notified.
At a minimum, we can wait for that before pointing fingers and blaming one another.
Meanwhile we can think about and thank the men and women of the police services who went into that nightclub not knowing what they would find. They didn't know if there was one shooter or many. Didn't know if the shooter was willing to die or would surrender. Didn't know how many people had been injured or killed - but I'd bet a total of more than 100 would not have been their first guess.
Let's also give thanks for those customers, friends, and others whom we've seen in video after video carrying the wounded to safety.
They, too, ran toward the danger.
President Obama spoke just before 2 pm - about 12 hours after the attack began. He's good at this sort of thing; unfortunately, he has had a lot of practice.
He touched lightly, I thought, on the issue of gun control. Resigned in tone rather than angry as he has been other times.
He spoke about the stories we will learn of those who were killed; stories that stopped suddenly in mid-sentence.
We will also learn more about the killer. We know that he worked for a security company for almost seven years and was qualified to carry a firearm even though he had been a minor player in at least two FBI investigations.
We will hear from his colleagues and friends. We will learn, perhaps, of his descent into fanaticism, and whether he shared that downward spiral with any of them.
The details will be filled in. Most questions will be answered. We may never know what pushed Mateen over the edge of accepted human behavior but we do know this: He wasn't the first and he won't be the last.
But, you can't say: It wasn't my people. You can't say I'm not Muslim so none of my people didn't do the shooting and, I'm not gay, so none of my people were the victims.
Martin Niemöller famously wrote, as the Nazis took over control of Germany:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.
Great post!!! And, oh so true
“Bake-the-Cake Nazis” versus “Muslim Slime.”
May they both meet with death, horror and destruction.
Great. Now you’ve given them a goal...
Mormons murdered 120 Christian men, women and children including babies at the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Utah Territory 9/11 1857...
The uneasy pact between Terrorism and Queerdom is for the purpose of destroying Western culture. The queers, of course, are late to realizing they are in their Ally’s crosshairs.””
Exactly. Both groups have done irreparable damage to America and both are forces of hate and change, just like BO promised.
They aren’t dead because they are gay.
They are dead because they were attacked and had no means to defend themselves. They were unarmed.
They are dead because we are at war, and the national enemy infiltrated our own government and society to carry out attacks against unarmed revelers.
They aren’t dead because they are gay. They are dead because our government disarmed them and their culture thinks that defending yourself is wrong.
“Bake-the-Cake Nazis” versus “Muslim Slime.”
May they both meet with death, horror and destruction.””
Both groups are hate groups. They have attacked Christianity with impunity and Western Culture with a vengeance.
That’s REALLY strange.
Only a few minutes ago, I was gonna ask in a related thread if someone had that poem. I’d remembered it being posted a number of times here at FR, so I knew someone would repost it. I decided to just Google it...and found it immediately.
And, then you posted this thread. Spooky.
This poem is the first thing I thought of upon reading the news yesterday morning. No...i still do not believe gay activities are alright. But gays are citizens of this country, and they deserve every protection afforded any other US citizen. They should not be slaughtered like sheep in a pen.
Eh? The Lakota had plenty of weapons, training and resolve.
Mr. Galen,
A very weak and poorly crafted bit of journalism. You neither delve into the human tragedy of this story, nor the true and loudly shouted rationale.
While all of the victims were human, the murderer was not. To do such an inhuman thing strips one of that humanity. Whether you agree with their sinful “lifestyle” or not, they deserved no such fate. The Moslem that committed this murder acted according to the founder of his faith and was in adherence to its bedrock principle, that of domination.
I’m not talking about the Lakota.. I’m talking about the gay guy who said that his “...friends died because they were gay”.
Being gay wasn’t the x-factor here. Being unarmed was.
Someone else proposed the question: Why pick a gay nightclub? The answer may be simple. Nightclubs are normally run by the mob, gangs or some other highly armed unstable individual who will fight back. With authority.
You don’t go into a nightclub waving a gun. They’ll never find your body.
Now of course the shooter (And his father.. and his whole cult) DID want to target gays but that doesn’t change my answer. He could have attacked a pride parade. He could have attacked the mens changing rooms at the beach. But the fact that gays are by-and-large unarmed makes the disco a perfect choice for taking out crowds of them.
Gay had nothing to do with it. It was unarmed.
Don’t forget Waco Texas...the U.S. government killed 76 innocent men, women and children.
They were attacked by an Afghani because they were “American”.
They were attacked by an Islanozai because they were infidels.
They were attacked by an Islanozai because they were drinking.
They were attacked by an Islanozai because they were dancing.
They were attacked by an Islanozai because they were partying in a room with members of the opposite sex.
They were attacked by an Islanozai because some were engaged in same sex romantic encounters.
There wasn’t navel gazing as to who a particular demographic was singled out for attack in California.
we are all Americans and side with the victims and their families and friends. Same as if it had happened at a strip bar.
Only the Left said that the Irving and Paris cartoonists brought the attacks upon themselves.
I don’t abide by the Democrat “identity” politics in this story. “The gay community is coming out to hold vigils”. All Americans should mourn these deaths. As we did after 9/11 and Boston and so on.
Has a gay bar in Israel ever been bombed or attacked? Did the media treat it as somehow “different” than every other nightclub or pizza parlor bombing?
will the Italian community in America stag rallies when a pizza restaurant gets attacked by an Islamonazi in America?
I don't agree with the homosexual lifestyle, and am disgusted at their attack on Christian bakers. However, when a Muslim attacks Americans on American soil, I don't care about their political affiliation, they're attacking US ALL.
The shooter was of Afghani descent.
we know from the military trial that our government is aware that Afghani men will rape Afghani boys without prosecution. Maybe the terrorist shooter had been assaulted as a boy.
Islam is not completely against homosexual relations. It exploits them.
50 Americans are dead. Murdered in cold blood (a little Truman Capote irony in that statement).
50 American families will never see their loved ones alive again.
The fact that they were gay and targeted as a group is really irrelevant. They were murdered for nothing more than being Americans, enjoying their freedom and liberty, by a religious fanatic who could not assimilate his own freedom and liberty with theirs.
The bottom line of most of the so-called ‘great’ religions of the world is basically, “Mind your own business, and don’t bother other people.” And then there’s Islam.........................
This murderer wanted to kill Americans.
It’s disingenuous to keep trying to make this an attack on homosexuality.
He called to say he supported the enemies of the US. He didn’t call to say he was attacking homosexuals.
The murderer yelled “Allah Akbar!” During the attack. He didn’t yell “Death to homosexuals!”
He found a place where a lot of Americans were drinking with no weapons and attacked.
To focus on the victims being homosexual is to take the focus away from where it belongs.
Barrack Hussein Obama.
Our dipshirt President was warned on numerous occasions to NOT release Moslem terrorists from the prison at Guantanamo because our enemies would see that as weakness and that would invite more attacks on Americans.
Well, here we have a Moslem terrorist attack on Americans in Orlando.
Obama owns this attack. His arrogance resulted in the deaths of 49 Americans.
Obama is responsible.
Keep in mind the muslim was an American too. Both groups have done much damage to civilized America.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.