I am absolutely appalled at the reaction of state Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, and U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, to the Syrian refugee crisis. This kind of fear-mongering and race-baiting is just what brought Hitler to power in Germany in the 1930s, and I am frightened by this backlash against desperate people who are fleeing the terrible chaos in Syria and Iraq.
After reading Coram’s article, I turned on the news which was reporting an active shooter incidence in Colorado Springs where three people including one policeman were killed and at least six more injured by a gunman with an AK-47 and possible explosives. This was no Syrian refugee nor an ISIS terrorist, but mosts likely a radicalized pro-life extremist who thinks that killing people is justified by his “pro-life” ideology. At the same time three people drowned in Dallas due to the worst flooding ever, 70,000 people were without power in Oklahoma, and countless others stranded on icy roads from New Mexico to Kansas.
I challenge both Coram and Tipton to retract their diatribes against the U.S. and Colorado state governments which are doing everything possible to assure that the ISIS terrorists do not harm Americans, and to start dealing with our real and present dangers here at home, most of which have nothing to do with Islamic terrorists. Since January 2015 over 13,000 people have been killed on U.S. roads, many by drunken drivers or those distracted by their cell phones, but not one person has been killed by an Islamic terrorist. I do not have the numbers, but lots of people have been killed by home-grown terrorists of one sort or another, and that does not include random gang violence and police shooting of unarmed teenagers.
These are all difficult problems and any solutions are likely to be controversial and difficult. It is much easier to sow fear and hatred against some outside group or other, but if we want to keep our freedom and maintain a civil society, we must address the real problems, and not tilt at windmills for political points.
Barbara F. Lynch
Cortez