Outrage after GOPer posts picture of Paris corpses to blame ‘diversity’ for terrorism https://t.co/EzqccirThC pic.twitter.com/K2OW2iN0uO
— Raw Story (@RawStory) November 19, 2015
A former Republican congressman and failed candidate for both Colorado governor and president twice posted an anti-immigration message on Facebook showing the bodies of victims slain in a Paris nightclub. Tom Tancredo, who served seven terms in the U.S. House, twice posted the unedited image of dozens of victims killed during a concert at the Bataclan theater — which he used to criticize Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s stance on Syrian refugees…. “Celebrating Diversity, One massacre at a time,” reads the post’s text, shared Monday above a photo of the massacre scene. “Coming soon to a concert hall near you.”…. Tancredo, who staked his political career on fighting immigration, said he welcomed the controversy that he hoped would “start a conversation” about potential risks posed by Syrian refugees to U.S. security…. “I’m referring to the fact that this tragedy (in Paris), this horror, is something you cannot contain to one country if you don’t do something meaningful about immigration — a subject I’ve been involved in for some time — these are the kinds of things that result when you don’t protect your citizens,” Tancredo told The Denver Post.
When a politician has plenty of ambition, but precious little in the way of positive ideas, you’ll most likely have someone like Tom Tancredo on your hands. Believing that power should rightfully- and only- rest in the hands of Conservative White Christians, Tancredo has never met someone who falls outside those parameters that he couldn’t demonize.
Tancredo knows that posting graphic photos of massacred (Caucasian) bodies will generate a collective visceral expression of shock and horror. He also knows that it will attract a lot of attention and feed his considerable ego (a problem that yes, I recognize I’m contributing to). When not even the Colorado GOP will defend him as one of their own, you have to know that Tancredo has strayed far off the reservation and is now primarily and only concerned with ensuring he’s not ignored.
Espousing the conviction that diversity will ipso facto lead to acts of terrorism is offensive to people who believe in acceptance, tolerance, and inclusion…or, as I like to call them, Americans. An American worthy of the appellation understands and accepts that we’re a nation shaped and defined by diversity. This isn’t- and shouldn’t be seen as- the exclusive property and playground of Conservative White Christians. America always has, and, if it’s to retain any claim to greatness, always will be a melting pot, a place where people from different backgrounds can come together to make the world a better place.
People like Tom Tancredo know nothing about building and creating; all they know is destruction, anger, hatred, and fear-mongering.
[Tancredo]…accused Hinkenlooper, who has said he would welcome refugees from the Syrian civil war after they had been closely vetted by federal authorities, of creating “a sanctuary state for Muslim terrorists.”
The Democratic governor declined to join more than 30 other U.S. governors in rejecting the refugees — although they don’t technically have the authority to do so.
“Great idea, John,” Tancredo said in a second Facebook post Wednesday that used the unedited Bataclan image. “What could ‘possibly’ go wrong?”
If Tancredo was willing, even if only for a moment, to think critically instead of reacting with hatred and fear-mongering, he might just realize that there’s a pretty good chance he’s falling into a trap set by ISIS/ISIL.
Think about it for a moment; why would a (likely fake) Syrian passport have been planted at the National Stadium in Saint-Denis? Could it be that ISIS/ISIL was hoping to generate exactly the sort of hateful, ignorant overreaction as that exhibited by Tancredo? What does he think that barring the door to Syrian refugees will accomplish? Such heartlessness will only radicalize even larger numbers of Muslims convinced they no longer have anything to live for and that lashing out against those who’ve turned their backs on them is their only remaining option? When you remove the last vestige of hope from those who’ve already suffered far too much for far too long, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when they take up arms to right what they’ve become convinced are wrongs done to them.
I realize Tancredo is part of a small minority of fools and haters whose lust for power overpowers all remaining vestiges of compassion and decency. I understand that I’ve already given his destructive lunacy far more attention than it deserves. Still, his actions are illustrative of what can happen when we allow our darker angels free, unchecked reign over anything that might be confused for humanity, decency, compassion, and a desire for peaceful coexistence.
We’re better than this, but the only thing that will send cockroaches like Tancredo scurrying will be holding his hatefulness and bigotry up to the light. Compassion is not a sign of weakness, nor is the desire to help human beings in dire straits an invitation for them so kill us. We cannot allow a sorry excuse for humanity to define how we relate to those whose only “crimes” are living and believing differently from America’s majority religion.
Besides, didn’t Jesus preach love, tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion? Isn’t it time Americans practiced those things? Won’t someone help Tom Tancredo find his long-lost humanity?
