As a Harry Potter fanatic, I have read the book series every summer since my freshman year in high school. As I read the series this summer, various obstacles have been thrown at the United States such as the Orlando shooting, presidential candidacies and everyone’s majorly different opinions of gun control. Whenever I made it to the book “Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix,” I had a major ah-ha moment.
Let me catch you up if you’re not a fan of Harry Potter. As a baby, Harry’s parents were murdered by man who must not be named (Voldemort) and his followers (death eaters). However, Harry survived and set Voldemort into hiding for 11 years, whilst he became stronger, more powerful and built a bigger army. Voldemort makes subtle attacks on the innocent until he finds a way to regain full power and gets Harry close enough to kill. The ultimate plan does not go as followed and Harry is able to escape the attack. Now, Harry has had to inform his headmaster - who totally believes Harry - and the Ministry of Magic (the government) - who does not believe Harry - of the return of this terrorist (Voldemort). The Ministry of Magic is making sure to do its best to not let this news become public, but ultimately it gets out and everyone is in denial of Voldemort’s rise back to power. Instead of tackling the problem head on - the ministry wants to point fingers and just assume Harry is just loony.
Sounds totally familiar right? If not let me put into easier terms for you: Terrorists attacked us - the United States of America - in 2001, have made subtle, but vicious, attacks on us ever since - but instead of handling the problem head on the government forms the distraction focusing on how much gun control American citizens should or should not have.
So back to the Order of the Phoenix - pages 95-96 give a scene which is very much like the predicament we are in now. Wizards and witches have formed a secret alliance with the sole mission of informing the public of this terrorist’s return and how they plan to destroy him. However, it is difficult to do so whenever the death eaters blend in with the wizarding population - much like followers of terrorism are doing to us as Americans. With good people attempting to prove to the whole who is evil, and evil people dodging all bullets, the only conclusion that can trend is that Harry Potter is a liar - or in our case it is that there is no major terrorist here and we to just chill out and enforce more civilian control.
My conclusion of all of this is to say this: radical terrorism is happening. However, they aren’t doing the “terrorism” part in America like it is done everywhere else. Terrorists are getting familiar with laws - our laws. They aren’t using bombs like they do everywhere else. No, that is not the point - the point is to attack us in a way that will harm us far beyond what a bomb will do. They are using guns to cause mass destruction in America so that the government will crack down on our rights and hopefully take guns out of the equation completely. Radical terrorists are attacking us at the root of our protection, so once that is taken away they will have the easiest access to conquering America.
