Jun 15th 2016

Donald Trump’s Dangerous, Panic-Stricken Speech on the Orlando Massacre

by Charles J. Reid, Jr.

Charles J. Reid, Jr. was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he majored in Latin, Classics, and History, and also did substantial coursework in classical Greek and modern European languages. It was during his undergraduate days that he developed an interest in canon law, doing a year of directed research in Roman and canon law under the supervision of James Brundage. Reid then attended the Catholic University of America, where he earned J.D. and J.C.L. (license in canon law) degrees. During his time at Catholic University, he organized a series of symposia on the bishops' pastoral letter on nuclear arms. The proceedings of these symposia were published under Reid's editorship as "Peace in a Nuclear Age: The Bishops' Pastoral Letter in Perspective" (Catholic University of America Press, 1986). This book was called by the New York Times "among the most scholarly and unsettling of responses" to the pastoral letter (December 28, 1986).Reid then attended Cornell University, where he earned a Ph.D. in the history of medieval law under the supervision of Brian Tierney. His thesis at Cornell was on the Christian, medieval origins of the western concept of individual rights. Over the last ten years, he has published a number of articles on the history of western rights thought, and is currently completing work on a book manuscript addressing this question.In 1991, Reid was appointed research associate in law and history at the Emory University School of Law, where he has worked closely with Harold Berman on the history of western law. He collaborated with Professor Berman on articles on the Lutheran legal science of the sixteenth century, the English legal science of the seventeenth century, and the flawed premises of Max Weber's legal historiography.While at Emory, Reid has also pursued a research agenda involving scholarship on the history of western notions of individual rights; the history of liberty of conscience in America; and the natural-law foundations of the jurisprudence of Judge John Noonan. He has also published articles on various aspects of the history of the English common law. He has had the chance to apply legal history in a forensic setting, serving as an expert witness in litigation involving the religious significance of Christian burial. Additionally, Reid has taught a seminar on the contribution of medieval canon law to the shaping of western constitutionalism.  Recently, Reid has become a featured blogger at the Huffington Post on current issues where religion, law and politics intersect.

One should never shout fire in a crowded theater. In his panic-stricken response to the horrifying massacre that occurred over the weekend at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Donald Trump has come close to doing just that.

Crises demand a coolness of purpose and language. That is especially so where ISIS-inspired terrorism is concerned. News reports indicate that ISIS is a weakening, not a growing, threat in the Middle East and around the world. The territory it controls in Syria and Iraq is shrinking daily. Its access to money and weapons has been gravely impaired. Indeed, there are credible news reports indicating that ISIS has been forced to execute deserters from its ranks as a last-gasp means of keeping its own adherents from abandoning the cause.

If this is the case, then we should not want to embark on a course of action that will only succeed in reinvigorating a movement that will soon enough collapse. Unfortunately, the proposals Donald Trump advanced in his speech of June 13 will have precisely that effect. Indeed, they will weaken the United States and gravely damage our interests in the Middle East and throughout the Islamic world.

Let us review the steps that Trump has proposed the United States undertake. First, he has reiterated his plan to close down immigration from the Arab Middle East and from other predominantly Islamic nations. Where to begin? Despite Trump’s bluster, his proposal is not a show of strength but a declaration of fear and panic. It says to the world that we stand in such abject fear of one of the world’s great religions that we shall try to prevent its followers from traveling to or residing within the United States.

The consequences of such a ban would be devastating to America. We are a global nation. Everyday we invite the world to our shores, to do business, to marvel at our nation’s beauty, to attend our colleges and universities, and to seek out the world’s best medical care. Think of the impact of shutting down travel from Islamic nations. There would be no engineers from Egypt or Jordan. There would be no gifted surgeons from Kuwait or Pakistan. Professors from Indonesia to Tunisia would be forbidden to deliver papers or to exchange ideas with our greatest minds. There would be no eager young students from Malaysia or Qatar. The world works through intellectual, economic, cultural, and social interchange. The Trump ban would cut off the circulation of world talent that makes America great.

We would, in other words, erect castle walls and moats around our nation and hunker down in irrational fear. We must not do that. Americans ought not to live in trembling and trepidation, withdrawn and isolated from the wider world.

Not only would the Trump ban plunge Americans into fear and isolation, it would empower ISIS. ISIS has announced that its purpose is to eliminate the “gray zones,” those spheres of coexistence, cooperation, and ambiguity where Muslims living in the West interact on a daily basis with the secular world.

Donald Trump’s plan would effectively do ISIS’s dirty work for them. He would blow up the gray zones and substitute for them a binary choice: our way, or ISIS’s. William McCants of Brookings Institution wrote that ISIS “selected a stark black for [their] flag rather than green, yellow, or white; the color suits their Manichean world view, which permits no gray areas.” (ISIS Apocalypse, p. 151). Donald Trump would have us hoist the very same flag of defeat and despair.

This is bad enough but there are yet other destructive elements to Trump’s speech that require attention. He called upon Americans to conduct surveillance on one another. “The Muslim community,” he stated, “has to work with us.” “They have to cooperate with law enforcement and turn in the people who they know are bad. They know, and they have to do it, and they have to do it forthwith.”

Trump should know that most Muslims are like most other Americans. They work hard, pay their taxes, and seek better lives for their children. And, yes, like other Americans they cooperate with law enforcement.

Trump’s call for self-surveillance and self-policing has an authoritarian quality to it. Neighborhood vigilantism was a feature of Soviet Communism and of fascists everywhere. Police your neighbors, ferret out their hidden thoughts, and if they harbor forbidden ideas, report them to the authorities.

Does Trump have any idea how such a system can be abused? How such systems have been historically exploited to take petty vengeance on neighbors who just don’t quite “fit in?” The tyranny of the neighborhood watch committee has been a staple of oppressive regimes around the world. And now Donald Trump wants to build such a system on shores? I think it is time to question Trump’s loyalty. Just how un-American is he?

Trump, finally, would empower gun owners. There is much that was horrifying about his speech, but ask yourselves whether this was not the single most frightening passage: “I will be meeting with the NRA, . . . to discuss how to ensure Americans have the means to protect themselves in this age of terror. I will always be defending the Second Amendment.”

And just what would the NRA propose as a solution? Their steady recommendation is to put ever more weapons in the hands of ever more Americans. So, the way to solve gun violence is with more gun violence? We are a nation of guns and gun owners. There are more than 300 million guns in the United States, more guns than there are adults. A depressingly large number of Americans already fetishize their guns. It would make more sense to pass an assault weapons ban. Or would Donald Trump arm us all with AK-47’s subsidized by the federal government?

There are yet other aspects of the speech too absurd to merit comment, such as the conspiracy-mongering about President Obama. This is McCarthyism relived as farce.

There is, however, one aspect of his speech which I will refrain from criticizing, and that was his expression of solidarity with the LGBT community. This, after all, is more than many members of his Party have had the courage to say. Paul Ryan (R.-Donor Class), for one, in his statement of June 12, never mentioned that the targets of this heinous attack were gay. As bad as Trump is, Ryan managed to be even more craven.

In truth, this horrific mass murder in Orlando has a depressing familiarity to it. How, really, does Omar Mateen’s crime differ from that of the alleged mass murderer Dylann Roof? Roof was motivated by white supremacy. He flew the Confederate flag, he made racist jokes, and visited white supremacist web sites before entering that Charleston church. And while we do not know all the particulars about Mateen’s path to mass homicide, I am guessing that there are some resemblances to Dylann Roof’s journey.

Omar Mateen is a domestic terrorist, no different than the Charleston church shooter. They each found extremist ideologies that gave them license to act on their darkest impulses. The problem we face, in other words, is that of dealing with domestic terrorists armed with guns. And lamentably, Donald Trump does not even know what to call this crisis.

 

This article is brought to you by the author who owns the copyright to the text.

Should you want to support the author’s creative work you can use the PayPal “Donate” button below.

Your donation is a transaction between you and the author. The proceeds go directly to the author’s PayPal account in full less PayPal’s commission.

Facts & Arts neither receives information about you, nor of your donation, nor does Facts & Arts receive a commission.

Facts & Arts does not pay the author, nor takes paid by the author, for the posting of the author's material on Facts & Arts. Facts & Arts finances its operations by selling advertising space.
 

 

Browse articles by author

More Essays

Alzheimer’s: mouse study may have uncovered drug that can prevent the disease
by Mark Dallas
Mar 10th 2021
EXTRACT: "Although around one in 14 people over 65 have Alzheimer’s disease, there’s still no cure, and no way to prevent the disease from progressing. But a recent study may bring us one step closer to preventing Alzheimer’s. The trial, which was conducted on animals, has found a specific molecule can prevent the buildup of a toxic protein known to cause Alzheimer’s in the brain."
Quantifying Artistic Success: The Ascent of Andy Warhol
by David Galenson
Feb 24th 2021
EXTRACT: "The art historian George Kubler observed that scholars in the humanities “pretend to despise measurement because of its ‘scientific’ nature.” As if to illustrate his point Robert Storr, former dean of Yale’s School of Art, declared that artistic success is “completely unquantifiable.” In fact, however, artistic success can be quantified, in several ways. One of these is based on the analysis of texts produced by art scholars, and this measure can give us a systematic understanding of how changes in recent art have produced changes in the canon of art history."
I was the Australian doctor on the WHO’s COVID-19 mission to China. Here’s what we found about the origins of the coronavirus
by Dominic Dwyer
Feb 24th 2021
EXTRACT: "The most politically sensitive option we looked at was the virus escaping from a laboratory. We concluded this was extremely unlikely."
Reflections on the Tuskegee Study and Its Moral Harm
by Sam Ben-Meir
Feb 16th 2021
EXTRACT: ".... these men were completely unaware that they had put their lives in the hands of doctors who not only had no intention of healing them but were committed to observing them until the final autopsy – since it was believed that an autopsy alone could scientifically confirm the study’s findings. As one researcher wrote in a 1933 letter to a colleague, “As I see, we have no further interest in these patients until they die.” ...... The unquestionable ethical failure of Tuskegee is one with which we must grapple, and of which we must never lose sight, lest we allow such moral disasters to repeat themselves. "
Remembering the Center for Creativity Economics
by David Galenson
Feb 14th 2021
EXTRACT: "In 2010 Carlos Rodriguez, the president of Buenos Aires' Universidad del CEMA, created the world's first - and only - Center for Creativity Economics.  During the next ten years, the CCE presented a number of short courses and seminars.  But the most important of its events was an annual lecture by an Argentine artist, who was given a Creative Career Award."
Let’s Get Real About AI
by Stan Matwin
Feb 11th 2021
EXTRACT: "It’s not hard to see why. Although AI systems outperform humans in tasks that are often associated with a “high level of intelligence” (playing chess, Go, or Jeopardy), they are nowhere close to excelling at tasks that humans can master with little to no training (such as understanding jokes). What we call “common sense” is actually a massive base of tacit knowledge – the cumulative effect of experiencing the world and learning about it since childhood. Coding common-sense knowledge and feeding it into AI systems is an unresolved challenge. Although AI will continue to solve some difficult problems, it is a long way from performing many tasks that children undertake as a matter of course."
Do we really need to walk 10,000 steps a day?
by Lindsay Bottoms
Feb 7th 2021
EXTRACT: "When it comes to being fit and healthy, we’re often reminded to aim to walk 10,000 steps per day. This can be a frustrating target to achieve, especially when we’re busy with work and other commitments. Most of us know by now that 10,000 steps is recommended everywhere as a target to achieve – and yet where did this number actually come from?"
Why creationism bears all the hallmarks of a conspiracy theory
by Paul Braterman
Feb 5th 2021
EXTRACT: "This so-called elite supposedly conspires to monopolise academic employment and research grants. Its alleged objective is to deny divine authority, and the ultimate beneficiary and prime mover is Satan.Such beliefs derive from the doctrine of biblical infallibility, long accepted as integral to the faith of numerous evangelical and Baptist churches throughout the world, including the Free Church of Scotland. But I would argue that the present-day creationist movement is a fully fledged conspiracy theory. It meets all the criteria, offering a complete parallel universe with its own organisations and rules of evidence, and claims that the scientific establishment promoting evolution is an arrogant and morally corrupt elite."
Anti-ageing treatments: these two drug types are being investigated
by Richard Faragher
Jan 29th 2021
EXTRACT: "Ageing is so far known to be caused by nine biological mechanisms, sometimes called the “hallmarks of ageing”. In order to prevent ageing in our tissues, cells, and molecules, we need to be able to slow or prevent these hallmarks of ageing from taking place. While there are numerous treatments currently being investigated, two approaches currently show the most promise in slowing the development of age-related disease. .... One area researchers are investigating is looking at whether any medicines already exist which could tackle ageing. This method is advantageous in that billions of pounds have already been spent on testing the safety and efficacy of these drugs and they are already in routine clinical use in humans. Two in particular are promising candidates."
Cognitive decline due to ageing can be reversed in mice – here’s what the new study means for humans
by Richard Faragher
Jan 23rd 2021
EXTRACT: "The ageing global population is the greatest challenge faced by 21st-century healthcare systems. Even COVID-19 is, in a sense, a disease of ageing. The risk of death from the virus roughly doubles for every nine years of life, a pattern that is almost identical to a host of other illnesses. But why are old people vulnerable to so many different things? It turns out that a major hallmark of the ageing process in many mammals is inflammation. By that, I don’t mean intense local response we typically associate with an infected wound, but a low grade, grinding, inflammatory background noise that grows louder the longer we live. This “inflammaging” has been shown to contribute to the development of atherosclerosis (the buildup of fat in arteries), diabetes, high blood pressure , frailty, cancer and cognitive decline."
Now’s the time to rethink your relationship with nature
by Matthew Adams
Jan 20th 2021
EXTRACT: "Anthropos is Greek for human.... The term is used to convey how, for the first time in history, the Earth is being transformed by one species – homo sapiens. ...... The idea of the Anthropocene can seem overwhelming and can generate anxiety and fear. It can be hard to see past notions of imminent apocalypse or technological salvation. Both, in a sense, are equally paralysing – requiring us to do nothing. .. I consider the Anthropocene as an invitation to think differently about human relationships with nature and other species. Evidence suggests this reorientation is already happening and there are grounds for optimism."
Lord Haw-Haw: popularity of wartime Nazi propagandist made the BBC up its game
by Tim Luckhurs
Jan 7th 2021
EXTRACT: "During the second world war, Nazi Germany banned all listening to foreign radio stations. Germans who overlooked their duty to ignore foreign broadcasts faced penalties ranging from imprisonment to execution. The British government imposed no comparable ban which would have been incompatible with the principles for which it had gone to war. That’s not to say, though, that it wasn’t alarmed by the popularity of German stations. Most effective among the Nazis broadcasting to the UK was William Joyce. This Irish-American fascist, known in Britain as “Lord Haw-Haw”, won a large audience during the “phoney war” in 1939 and early 1940, with his trademark call sign delivered in his unmistakable accent: 'Jairmany calling, Jairmany calling'. "
Power vs. Duty in American Politics
by Sam Ben-Meir
Jan 6th 2021
EXTRACTS: "The revelation of Trump’s hour-long recorded call with Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Secretary of State, over this past weekend crossed a new line – a line that not only set a high-water mark of moral reprehensibility, but a legal line as well, specifically in his pressuring Raffensperger to 'find the 11,780 votes' that would hand Trump the state and his veiled threat (' it’s going to be very costly…') if Raffensperger failed to comply. ........ Raffensperger – who has been forced to endure intense pressure, intimidation and threats – has proven himself to be a man of integrity and principle."
Why does Boris Johnson delay coronavirus lockdown decisions? A psychologist gives her view
by Nicola Power
Jan 6th 2021
EXTRACT: "A final, perhaps more sinister, possibility is that Johnson knows exactly what he is doing. His political style evokes a unique blend of dishevelled buffoon and privileged Etonian. He is someone who likes to bring good news and doesn’t take life too seriously. Making tough, controversial decisions threatens this persona and so hiding in the shadows until his hand is forced helps him to reconcile his identity threat."
Conservative Christians Remain Silent About Suffering Bethlehem 
by James J. Zogby
Dec 21st 2020
EXTRACT: "The resultant loss of land, the growing impoverishment of its citizens, and the hostile actions of Israeli occupation forces and settlers have forced many Bethlehemites to leave their beloved city and homeland. Given these accumulated violations of human rights and their impact on Christians and Muslims, alike, one might expect Christians in the West to speak out in defense of these residents of the little town they celebrate each year.  That, sadly, is not to be – most especially (and I might add ironically) among powerful Christian conservative groups in the US which, after all, claim to be the defenders of their co-religionists world-wide."
Giving with the Heart and the Head
by Peter Singer and Lucius Caviola
Dec 7th 2020
EXTRACT: "Worldwide, people donate hundreds of billions of dollars to charity. In the United States alone, charitable donations amounted to about $450 billion last year. As 2020 draws to a close, perhaps you or members of your family are considering giving to charity. But there are, literally, millions of charities. Which should you choose?"
Anarchism and the Avant-Garde: Félix Fénéon at the Museum of Modern Art
by Sam Ben-Meir
Dec 1st 2020
EXTRACT: " The Museum of Modern Art is currently presenting Félix Fénéon: The Anarchist and the Avant-Garde – From Signac to Matisse and Beyond, examining the immense influence of this art critic, editor, publisher, collector and anarchist............A crucial feature of anarchism is the emphasis on the individual as the fundamental building block, the essential point of departure for any human association whatever. The individual was characterized by Grave in 1899 as a social creature who should be “left free to attach himself according to his tendencies, his affinities, free to seek out those with him whom his liberty and aptitudes can agree.” "
Maradona: why the English can’t let go of the Hand of God and Latin Americans love it
by Matthew Brown
Nov 29th 2020
Diego Maradona with the World Cup, 1986.
Is belief in God a delusion?
by Ryan McKay and Robert Ross
Nov 25th 2020
EXTRACT: "As the pandemic raged in April, churchgoers in Ohio defied warnings not to congregate. Some argued that their religion conferred them immunity from COVID-19. In one memorable CNN clip, a woman insisted she would not catch the virus because she was “covered in Jesus’ blood”. "
Exercise and the brain: three ways physical activity changes its very structure
by Áine Kelly
Nov 18th 2020
EXTRACT: "Here are just a few ways exercise changes the structure of our brain."