Good article for sure, but I don’t agree with the premise that how our leaders react is of singular importance.
What matters now is not how politicians see the attacks, but how ordinary people view them.
The attack in Paris happened Friday, and on Saturday my 17 year old daughter got a call from one of her friends asking her out to a movie. She said “no, I’m afraid to go to a movie, because these people are here in our country now”.
She has never been particularly curious about politics. She’s in the know because she has news alerts texted to her on her cell phone. She is fearful, which I believe to be a perfectly rational, adult response. How the politicians react to events like this become irrelevant when 17 year olds are making up their own minds, and we live in a relatively immigrant-free town. Having announced to us just last week she liked Ben Carson, on Sunday she said she’s going for Trump. She’ll be eligible to vote in ‘16.
At which point do we feel we must take this Islamist terrorist problem into our own hands?
Admittedly, not much has changed post Charlie Hebdo, etc., but at some point the people will act on their own, if politicians continue in denial of the threat.
One appeared dressed normally while a second was hobbling along on aluminum crutches, with an ankle brace on her left foot. The third had a large backpack hanging from her shoulders.
I said to the rest of my waiting party, "What can go wrong here? Shoe bombers and pressure cookers??"
Hoosier Hospitality caused NO one to confront these ladies; not even me; the mouthy one.