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PIPE-BOMBS—SCARY MOMENTS IN AMERICA
The United States of America is considered one of the greatest countries in the world and the bastion of democracy, but it has been profoundly punctured by a deep division over political and social issues to the extent that the country is broken.
Politically, Americans have moved further away from the moderate centre to the extreme ends of their respective ideologies. Extremism which is occurring on both sides of the political aisle is bleeding the nation. People are upset and emotional; their emotions have boiled over into taking the law into their own hands.
Anger in America has reached a dangerous low and has led to incivility which has now escalated into the making of pipe-bombs to harm opponents.
Over the past few days, fear gripped Americans as a number of crude but supposedly functional pipe bombs were mailed to high-profile politicians, mostly Democrats across the country. This sparked mass evacuations and put the nation’s security agencies on high alert. Police have since arrested 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc of Plantation, Florida.
Every single recipient of the bomb packages has one thing in common. They have been a target of President Donald Trump’s vicious, offensive and often pointed comments at his raucous rallies.
Although he did not personally send the bombs and has vehemently condemned such heinous acts, political scientists have asserted that his actions and speeches could have motivated Sayoc to take such action.
In the same speech in which he called for unity, peace and understanding, President Trump blamed the negativity of the media and protesters for the anger and frustration in the country.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly described sections of the American press as the enemy of the people and has focused his attacks on CNN. But for him to attack the media at a time when employees of CNN were being evacuated because of a pipe-bomb found in their basement in New York City is unbecoming of the president. It is beneath the office of the presidency to be flippant and accusatory with baseless claims at a time when America is enduring one of its worst frightening moments.
President Trump has called for civility, but it is public knowledge that he has advocated violence against reporters, mocks and ridicules the mainstream media. He refers to democrats as angry, ruthless and unhinged mob. Therefore, it would be hard not to link these unnerving events to Trump’s behaviour and comments.
It seems that President Trump does not understand that words matter especially in the age of social media. More importantly, President Trump’s words carry significant weight and without evidence to back up his claims, he is only stirring a pot. He must stop his fear-mongering and reckless rhetoric and make clear that political violence is intolerable.
He needs to realize that he is president for all Americans, not just those who voted for him. What is more, it is critical that journalists be allowed to do their jobs, which means fact-checking and reporting. They should not be afraid to dig for the truth and they should always strive for accuracy in their reporting, which is a core pillar of democracy.
However, while today’s news-media has become hyper-partisan in the U.S., the President must understand that in a democracy, it is still important for the media to hold governments accountable. Simply put, freedom of the press should not be stifled.
As the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson said, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”
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