Terrorism is defined by Merriam-Webster's Dictionary as "The systematic use of terror especially as a means or coercion."
Usually when most people think of terrorism, they automatically think of those who wear a turban and have a beard. It's not our fault that we have the impulse to picture that kind of person, that's just how the media has told a single story about terrorism for a long time post 9/11. But what about the Las Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock? He shot and killed at least 58 people and injured even more. So why is it that when we hear the word terrorist, we don't automatically think of a white guy from Las Vegas?
The media manipulates us into believing that it is just Muslims who are the terrorists, and everyone else is simply "mentally ill". The fault in this way of thinking is looking past the fact that anyone who has the ability to kill someone is a terrorist. No sane person would violently kill people. You would have to have a mental illness to do so becuase that is not the way society teaches people. We are taught that murder is bad, so therefore anyone who doesn't agree with that statement clearly has a mental disability.
It's time to understand that all the people who are attacking innocent civilians are mentally ill. The white men from local towns who fire at innocent civilians are mentally ill. The people who work for ISIS are also mentally ill. It is not just the white people who are the ones with a mental problem.
The scary part about that is no matter how many bans we put in place, how many security checkpoints we have at the airport or how many walls we build, there is still no way to detect if a person is mentally ill and has the ability to carry out a terrorist attack.
An article written by the Huffington Post points out that majority of mass murders are committed by white people, not Muslims. Even President Trump acknowldges this is a mental health issue saying, "This isn't a guns situation. This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It's a very, very sad event." That being said, this leads us to the fact that any time one person kills another, whether it be in mass numbers or not, that is a mental health issue which needs to be addressed.
It's easy to forget the internal issue that lies within a terrorist, which is a mental health problem. Sure, we can assume that a terrorist attack performed by ISIS is simply a terrorist attack. While that is true, that's not the end of the discussion. There is more to it than that. Mental health affects more people than you could ever imagine and must not be forgotten in the war against terror.
