In Korea, I have a limited set of resources for world events at my fingertips. Of course, I can always search the internet for the latest information on current goings-on, and I do. The difference from my life in the US is that I don't have newscasters boring a hole in my head with the same newsreel everytime I turn on the TV or radio. And to be sure, I'm pretty lazy. I'd rather not spend my break times at work watching video news on the web or sorting through network websites for articles. (And I quite dislike reading news articles on the computer.)
Aside from all this, I have been watching CNN intermittently for the past few days to get updates on the latest in world terrors. First was the attack on two stations in Moscow's underground by a pair of female suicide bombers. As of a day ago (according to this AP Report), 39 people were killed and 71 were hospitalized after the two Chechen rebel attackers entered the subway and detonated vests filled with steel bolts and wire.
Really? Bolts?? Reports are saying that women of Islamic militant groups from the Northern Caucasus, called Black Widows, have initiated other attacks on Russian targets to avenge the deaths of loved ones. But I can't see how 39 innocent business people, children, or housewives out shopping have anything to do with those women's lost family members.
Secondly, I heard from MSN Home yesterday that 9 people from a Christian extremist group were arrested for selling pipe bombs in connection with an attack plot. Allegedly, they had planned to kill a police officer and then bomb the funeral "in hopes of touching off an uprising against the U.S. government." The group is called the Hutaree, and it seems they've been in the woods in Michigan training and learning how to make bombs for the past 2 years. MSNBC Article: 9 Arrested in Michigan
So far, there have been no victims of these bombs (that we know of), but this is scary stuff. Making and selling munitions in rural MI? And, I'm pretty clever, but even I couldn't imagine bombing the funeral of an officer I'd killed in order to cause a rebellion.
ABC News Blogger Marisa's Musings on these two (among other) issues
Now how can anyone honestly feel the least bit justified to fear, insult, hate, or distrust those who come from outside? People, foreigners whom we don't know? To all those living in the midwest, look around you. You may be living next to a "terrorist." You live in Melbourne? LA? Shanghai, Saskatchewan, Sweden? South Korea? Terrorists. I'm just saying, the news lately has reminded me that the last time I worried about a "terrorist" threat from within was probably 1995 (Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh & Terry Nichols). There have also been various school shootings since then with victims numbering around the single digits to the 20s. Think long and hard next time you pull your handbag closer while passing someone who looks different from you or is speaking another language. Consider the recent goings-on next time you warn your children to be wary of trouble; remember that strangers are strangers no matter where they're from, but also that good, kind, warm people also come from everywhere.
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