I promised myself last week that I wouldn’t write a column about Orlando. What could I possibly say that hasn’t been said already? Yet I feel compelled to respond to those politicians, especially Donald Trump, who have used this horrific tragedy to drive their political agendas.
I remember feeling really frightened after 9/11. At the time, I wanted reassurance that our government could protect me. I have always considered myself politically progressive, anti-war and a believer in free speech.
Still, I remember saying to my husband, “I’d be willing to give up some of my freedoms to keep my family safe.” I retracted those words quickly, horrified at how easily I had been manipulated by the politics of fear, so often used by George W. Bush to justify his post-911 actions.
Donald Trump is continuing to capitalize on people’s feelings of vulnerability with simplistic answers to complex issues. Despite Trump’s assurance that Islamic terrorism is responsible for the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, there are many unknowns about what drove Omar Mateen to target his victims for death. He expressed hatred toward homosexuals, blacks, Jews and women, and physically abused his wife, who described him as “mentally unstable,” and “mentally ill.” Reports are being published suggesting he may have been gay. His praise of ISIS was only one piece of a puzzling picture of an unstable man.
Donald Trump has used the tragedy in Orlando to spread Islamophobia. He has viewed this heinous crime as a simple case of ISIS-inspired Islamic terrorism. He ignores the truth, stating that Mateen was born in Afghanistan, when in actuality he was a U.S. citizen, born in New York. The evidence about his ties to ISIS are murky at best. Yet Trump has not had to work very hard to convince his supporters that he will “smash” ISIS. He continues to call for a ban on immigrants from Muslim countries, boasting that he can make it happen through executive action.
The Republican presidential candidate has even implicated President Obama, stating, “We’re either led by a man that is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind.” Pair this with Trump’s insinuations about Obama being a Muslim, and it’s not surprising that a Public Policy Polling survey from last August revealed that 54 percent of the Republican primary electorate thought Obama was a Muslim.
He may sound like a simpleton, a liar, a loose cannon, but Trump’s hate speech seems to appeal to many fearful Americans who see the world as made up of “good guys” and “bad guys” who need to believe that “President” Trump can “take out” ISIS. He has exploited the pain and suffering of Orlando’s Latino community to try to drive a wedge between Latin-Americans and Muslims, even though both groups have been the target of Trump’s fear-mongering.
His tactics continue to remind me of of Adolph Hitler, who managed to convince an entire country that the Jews were responsible for Germany’s social, political and economic difficulties. We know the tragic results of Hitler’s campaign of hatred.
This country needs to be engaged in difficult self-examination. The LGBT population continues to be the target of hate crimes. The year 2015 recorded more murders of transgender people than any other. The shame that drives many people into the closet still exists. Some of those murdered in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando were outed for the first time, when family members learned of their deaths.
What happened in Orlando needs to be identified as a hate crime, even if it is an act of terrorism. Since the 2006 mass murders of 20 children in Newtown, according to Gun Violence Archive, there have been 998 mass shootings (defined as four or more people, excluding the shooter, killed at roughly the same time and location.)
Despite this epidemic, the NRA continues to exert its powerful influence over legislators. Mateen, like others on the terror watch list, had the legal right to buy a gun. There is no federal law that denies spouse abusers the right to own a gun. Universal background checks still haven’t been passed and assault rifles are readily available for purchase, even though there is no rational reason for a civilian to own one.
There is far too little attention and funding provided for assessment and treatment of mental illness, or policies that prevent mentally ill people who are violent from owning a gun, without unfairly stigmatizing the majority of mentally ill people who do not put others at risk.
And yes, we need to fight terrorism, but not by condemning all Muslims. This country must address the tangled web of issues that made Mateen become a mass murderer. Let’s start by making sure that Trump does not become president of the United States.
Sara Weinberger of Northampton is a professor emerita of social work and writes a monthly column.