An idea I'd like to share

So, the Discovery building hostage crisis. We can now add to the list of extremists who might possibly attack you in your office building: environmentalists. That would be in addition to religious zealots, political wing nuts, income tax haters and drug traffickers. And of course, the whacko who got fired last week and has spent the time filling out unemployment paperwork and polishing his gun.

Worse, now they have to treat every one of these people seriously. Because you can practice your attack your first-person shooter video game. And you can buy guns by the truck load. And you can go on the internet and learn how to make a pipe bomb. Seriously, 20 years ago if some guy had shown up with something strapped to his chest, you assumed it was traffic flares, pipe cleaners and an alarm clock. Now it’s so easy to come up with a workable assault plan, you can be pretty crazy and still do damage before a sniper picks you off.

And there seem to be so many people who are willing to strap on a gun and try to make a point because of their beliefs. The more I see, the more I think Kevin Smith was actually prophetic in Dogma, when the angel Rufus said, “I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can't generate. Life becomes stagnant.” Or worse, when hardcore beliefs are threatened and a person becomes volatile.

So, as we all know will happen with a shocking incident perpetrated by a diehard member of a faction who goes rogue (because it happened with Islam, it happened with survivalists, it happened with Tea Partiers, it happened with abortion protesters), somebody is going to try to paint all environmentalists with this nasty, nasty brush. I suppose it would be too much to ask of America that instead of pointing fingers, we all looked within. Looked within our own groups, whatever they may be, and look to see if we have our own extremists. Anyone who feels so passionately that they might take up arms for the cause. Talk them down, bring them into the fold. Don’t let them isolate themselves. Because in isolation, madness grows. Tell them that you understand their frustration, but violence is never the answer. Ideas bend. But beliefs shatter. And shattered beliefs can cause shrapnel.