Reconciliation: 12

Vice-President Al Gore was lambasted most unmercifully in the press for things he didn’t say, but he can take credit for voicing one polarizing term: “An Inconvenient Truth.”

That happens to us at times, adding to the divisive condition that permeates America. We read or see things that simply don’t fit our preconceptions. After a fact-check proves they are indeed true, we have the choice of ignoring them or altering our thinking. Therein lies the rub.

This morning, I came across such a truth. I had suspected it, but hadn’t realized its full impact. It is a piece from the British news source The Guardian. It outlines growing evidence that home-grown terrorism may be, under the category of “an inconvenient truth” a growing and frightening threat to the American way of life. It is called, “They Hate the USA.” It concerns extremist groups that hate our government to the point of plotting violence against it. It outlines some scary facts.

I, for one, was shocked by the following:

“According to data from the Anti-Defamation League, at least 45 police officers have been killed by domestic extremists since 2001. Of these, 10 were killed by leftwing extremists, 34 by rightwing extremists, and one by homegrown Islamist extremists.

Note the qualifiers “domestic and homegrown.” We must not expand this beyond the given facts. Still though, it should cause us to think, and to be very afraid, particularly when we see the growing audacity of groups such as the Klu Klux Klan.

Can we all agree that we should spend time talking and thinking, rather than hating?

Let us remain on guard.