Oh my gosh, we're all going to die
By Julie Herman
I got two things out of Jared Loughner's shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords: President Obama can work an audience, and people in the United States have a talent for mass hysteria.
The first point sparks no real interest — I've had enough of watching pundits banter about the value of the President's political capital — but the second intrigues.
Massive backlash has already occurred since the shooting. Conspiracy theorists have accused Sarah Palin of complicity in the crime due to her unfortunate "hit list" of Congress people in conservative districts who voted for health care reform.
Less publicly discussed is the story of the Oklahoma 7 year old whose school suspended him for pretending to shoot at other students with his fingers. When U.S. citizens are on red alert, even young children are considered threatening.
Regardless of your opinion of guns, such mass panic should alarm you. If you think these little incidents of outrage surrounding Giffords' shooting are merely coincidence, allow me to remind you of a few other occasions of American hysteria.
In the summer of 2009, swine flu broke out. You might remember the hordes of people showing up at clinics and hospitals panicking because they thought their mild cold was a case of H1N1.
You might also remember discussions of quarantines and the merits of buying up all the masks in hardware stores "just in case." Some unknown source put out the statistic that one in five people were going to die.
That particular panic died down, but this final proof has been in motion since September 11, 2001. Men we labeled "terrorists," aptly named since we were and are so very afraid of them. "Terrorists" attacked us, and in return, we have since attacked two foreign countries.
We have acted out in fear toward our Muslim peers. We have refused to allow them to build a sacred space in this supposedly free country because it was too close to Ground Zero, a spot that Americans still regard as a wound from the events of Sept. 11.
One of our religious men, Terry Jones, used the Constitutional tenet of freedom of religion to further this hateful propaganda by threatening to burn the Muslim holy book.
Again, your views might be that Jones' exercise of Constitutional freedom was warranted. You might think the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan right and just. Regardless of opinion-based analysis, these actions were based on fear. Ultimately then, such fear causes Americans to slowly but surely band together and lash out. After Sept. 11, united we stood — until politics and religious bias and racism kicked in.
Now, after the Tuscon shooting, the unification is happening — conservative politicians offer their condolences, Obama's comforting words receive bipartisan applause, the country holds its collective breath.
In a few weeks, however, the situation will devolve. We can only hold our breath, and one another, for so long.
Some of the politics are coming through already. Soon, it will be an all-out war; anti-gun rhetoricians versus the NRA, blue versus red. Another issue to block up Congress and ruin friendships.
These things interrelate through fear, and only once that fear is recognized can it be averted. I can only hope that you will choose to avoid the carnage. Better yet, you might choose to stop it.
Julie Herman is a freshman undeclared.