HispanicVista Columnists

Where does extremism end and terrorism begin?

By Patrick Osio, Jr./HispanicVista.com

April 25, 2005

 

 

On breaking up a fist fight between two men, the policeman asked the smaller and showing the worst of it, What started this? The badly bruised and bloodied man describes to the officer how the bigger guy came right up to him stomped on his toes, kicked his shins, slugged him on the mouth, the belly, then everywhere else. When I finally realized he wasn't going to stop, I started to hit him back. The policeman asked the barely bruised and bigger man, What have you to say?

 

The trouble started, the big guy said, when the little guy started to hit back.

 

And this in a nutshell, is the history of non-White minorities in the United States of America.

 

To a segment of white-Americans, minorities fighting back is simply an escalation of the minorities self-made conflict there is no conflict if colored-minorities would accept their place in American society created by whites, who in turn through their benevolence allow and share the fruits of what they have created with the lesser non-whites amongst them.

 

In some of his earlier writings, Pat Buchanan longed for the days when Negroes had their own neighborhoods, schools, and restaurants in Washington D.C. this avoided confrontations and conflicts between them and whites. That sense of segregation was to similar thinking whites, not prejudice or bigotry, nor unjust nor hurtful to Negroes, but rather, just and fair and free of conflicts.

 

That trend of thought continues to persist in a large and vociferous segment of white-Americans. Used to the power base theyve enjoyed since the founding of the country, they have defined what justice and fairness is, not considering that minorities of color interpret those definitions as unjust and unfair.

 

At the base is the idea that white-Americans, and only white-Americans, are responsible for creating the United States the country that it is. They hold that people should get benefits in proportion to what they contributed to producing those benefits.

 

But, since school curriculum and the media for most of the countrys history has been under the control of like minded white-Americans, the contributions of colored-minorities has been glossed over or altogether ignored and, at its extreme, purposely concealed to avoid giving equal recognition.

 

Prejudice, bigotry and racism are hereditary and highly contagious diseases that eat away at the very heart of the nation. We accept the high probability of an abused child growing up to be an abusive adult, but we have yet to recognize that the majority of todays bigots and racist came from like parents, possibly extending for generations before. And those afflicted, like alcoholics, are the last to admit and face their problem, but instead embrace extremism, and the worst of them, domestic terrorism.

 

The Dictionary of Political Thought defines "extremism" as: 1) Taking a political idea to its limits, regardless of 'unfortunate' repercussions, impracticalities, arguments and feelings to the contrary, and with the intention not only to confront, but also to eliminate opposition. 2) Intolerance towards all views other than one's own. 3) Adoption of means to political ends which show disregard for the life, liberty, and human rights of others.

 

The United States Department of Justice defines domestic terrorism as: The unlawful use of force or violence, committed by a group(s) of two or more individuals, against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

 

One of our nations most pressing problem is the search for stopping illegal immigration and the providing such folks employment. The extremists among us have personalized the issue calling Mexicans terrorist-aliens, scum of the earth, rapist of our women, leeches of our society, in addition to blaming them for most crimes, and economic ills of the nation. There is no fact, no untruth, and no myth that is not twisted, invented or falsified in pursuit of dehumanizing poverty stricken human beings.

 

Caught in this tidal wave of extremism are US citizens of Mexican ancestry. We have been brought into the melee as part and parcel of the overall anti-Mexican movement. We are the foreign-minority not Americans, but Mexicans. So our identity as Americans and value of our culture are denied and scorned, our hard earned place in the social and political system is suppressed, and our forever on going struggle for educational and economic improvement hindered.

 

Where does extremism end and terrorism begin?

 

When the little guy starts to hit back.

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Patrick Osio, Jr. is Editor of HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com). Contact at: PosioJr@hispanicvista.com