The recent heartbreaking act of terror in Manchester has the media buzzing with various perspectives, solutions, and opinions regarding the attack. Celebrities and politicians alike have spoken up about the issue, choosing to discuss whichever aspect of the heinous crime personally hurts them the most. Katy Perry specifically had an interesting comment regarding the event at the Ariana Grande concert:
"I think the greatest thing we can do now is just to unite as people, as fan bases, all of it, ya know...no barriers, no borders, we all just need to co-exist."
People are enraged by her lackadaisical comment and everyone should be.
If she truly believes in what she is saying, that the solution to repeated violent acts of terror against even the most vulnerable demographics is to "just co-exist," then she doesn't think terrorism needs to stop. She thinks not upsetting snowflakes is more important than defending the very people liberal movements want to help such as the weak, poor, hungry, outcast, and disabled. It's an insult to the injured and deceased victims of all terrorists acts to claim that the solution is not to to stop the ideology which propels justification for violence but to idly sit back and pretend that all beliefs are valid and deserve to be valued.
They don't.
Say what you will about respecting beliefs; that's all fine and good, but it needs to have a limit. If we, as a society, push for the mindset that anything and everything which pleases our personal convictions is permissible, than terrorism, school shootings, and holocausts will remain unchecked. True respect, love, and acceptance requires a degree of discipline and intolerance. Preaching that tolerance supersedes acting on behalf of someone will cause us to view terrorism as a weaker threat than it really is. Speaking truthfully about what a movement represents is not the same as stereotyping or generalizing. We do not have to claim that all Muslims are extremists when actively fighting terrorism. When Americans speak as though not offending affiliated parties of a movement should precede eradicating vicious ideology that sanctions murder, we not only slow down the process of defeating an imminent threat, we contradict ourselves.
Allegedly, we advocate for tolerance in order to protect each other and preserve freedom: a noble cause at its core value. However, if we really value protecting others, then stopping terrorism to preserve innocent lives should be more important than potentially offending non-extremist Muslims.
When hailing the "soothing" words from celebrities like Katy Perry or your favorite politician about heart-wrenching world events, ask yourself, "Does this address the real problem?"
Defending lives must supplant defending emotions.
