I can handle that........
Posted on 08/29/2006 1:39:38 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
You’re probably quite sick of hearing about Mel Gibson, so I promise this column isn’t primarily about him or his drunken rant. Instead, I’m wondering why we’ve been treated to a seemingly infinite number of media stories about Gibson’s arrest and so few about Naveed Afzal Haq.
Haq shot up the Jewish Federation in Seattle on July 28. He hid near a security door until he saw a likely victim. Kelsie Burkum, 14, was there to visit her aunt, Cheryl Stumbo.
According to the charges filed, Haq stuck a semiautomatic pistol in Burkum’s back, telling her to open the door and to be “careful.” As they came through the door, he told her, “I'm only doing this for a statement.” He kept the gun in her back until they reached the desk of receptionist Layla Bush on the second floor. She gave him the slip while he was demanding that Bush, a Christian who is said to have loved working for the charity because of her love of helping communities, allow him to speak with a manager.
Just after that he opened fire, blowing out Carol Goldman’s knee with his first round before shooting all those nearby. Bush, Cheryl Stumbo and Christine Wexroad fell, each shot in their abdomen. At some point he also shot Bush in the left shoulder, though police believe he was probably aiming for her head.
Haq also shot Pam Waechter in the chest. She scrambled for the stairs, and Haq chased her, leaning over the railing and shooting her in the back of the head. As Dayna Klein came out of her office to investigate the noise, Haq fired at her abdomen. Klein was 17 weeks pregnant and instinctively placed her forearm in front of her belly. The bullet cut through crucial nerves, but was deflected by an arm bone and ended up in her thigh.
Despite hearing Haq say he would kill anyone who called the police, Klein crawled to her desk and dialed 911. When he returned to her office, she convinced him to talk to the dispatcher. It was then that Haq told the world why he shot six innocent and defenseless women in cold blood:
"I am a Muslim American who is angry with Israel," he proclaimed. He also expressed opposition to the American invasion of Iraq, and then went on to say, "I want these Jews to get out … I'm tired of getting pushed around, and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East."
So there you have it. Here is a man killing unarmed Jews, for reasons that fit perfectly with the agendas of Hezbollah, Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Here is an American who decided at the age of thirty to throw his life away doing the work of Hezbollah on our soil.
True, Haq’s horrified parents—in a letter of condolence and apology to Jewish groups-- mention a history of mood swings and other mental problems that eventually interfered with his work life. In fact, he was even up on charges recently for exposing himself at a shopping mall. So, some might say that the story has gained little coverage because he’s a “lone nut,” a crazy man who just happens to spout Islamist rhetoric, rather than a real terrorist.
For the problem with that assessment, consider this: When Andrea Yates killed her children and Jeffrey Dahmer killed young men, the press was rife with speculation on whether they were sane at the time of their crimes. We’ve seen none of that in the case of Naveed Haq. It’s not a willingness to declare him insane that is strange, what is strange is that there was no declaration, no debate, only a whisper barely indistinguishable from silence. Indeed, this was a “one day story” in the national media.
Instead, the void was filled with the sound of the Mel-O-Drama. We heard what Mel said drunk, but not what Haq said while sober and shooting. What Gibson said may have been little more than gibberish inspired by liquor, but Haq’s twisted vendetta can be heard across the world each Friday as venom dripping from the lips of radical imams who’ve never had a drink in their lives. Even if Gibson’s rant was heartfelt, who has he killed? Whose child has he aimed a bullet at? The worst Gibson could be is a sad bigot; the worst Haq could be has already been seen as he turned a charity into a charnel house.
The media has asked what will happen to Gibson. I ask whether Dayna Klein will use her left arm again. I ask whether Layla Bush, with a bullet in her spine, part of her liver and pancreas gone, one kidney left functioning and her spleen removed, will ever fully recover. I ask what Pam Waechter’s two adult children will tell their own kids if they ask how Grandma died.
In Los Angeles the world’s Jews were insulted by a drunk. In Seattle, six women, five of them Jews, were shot down like dogs by a man speaking the language of terror. I ask why the media thinks one is so much more important than the other.
I can handle that........
The very first job I ever had was working for an attorney in a small law office. The very first case I worked on was a boy who was mauled. Sorry if I'm slow, but I didn't get your analogy about the padlock to your post of the question. Maybe you can clarify for me.
You're not slow. I'm just saying, the prosecutor had made his case, but the padlock was for dramatic effect, to remind everyone just how heinous the crime was. This column was the same sort of thing, a reminder of the pain and suffering and its source that was intended to show how shallow and vindictive our national media has become.
Thanks. You did an excellent job. I always enjoy your posts.
Well done, sir! "I’m wondering why ..." No need to wonder, you know the whoredom of mass media has an agenda so far left of normal as to be a tipping into insanity with the self-destructive self-imposed blindness they worship as a means to empower their leftist bent.
If this column is an example, please put me on the column ping list for the next one.
I am humbled. Thank you.
Done, and humble thanks for your compliments and friendship. The next one will run on 7 September.
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