Alva James-Johnson: Rethinking the 'terrorism' label

The word "terrorism" in the Western world has come to mean Islamic extremists blowing up commercial airliners and wreaking havoc with suicide bombs.

But maybe it's time that we broaden the term to include anyone who uses violence out of political, racist or religious ideology.

That would include people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, many of them living in this country; because, let's face it, we have a lot of homegrown terrorists lurking around.

These days it seems there's always a mass shooting -- and many of them have nothing to do with ISIS or al-Qaida.

It was exactly a week ago that Robert Lewis Dear allegedly opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, killing three and injuring nine.

Though the motive remains unclear, he apparently had strong anti-abortion views that likely played a factor in his senseless rampage.

Then, before we could totally wrap our minds around that horrific event, news broke Wednesday about another mass shooting -- this time in San Bernardino, Calif.

The married suspects, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, allegedly opened fire at a social services center for the disabled, killing 14 and injuring 21.

But first they dropped off their baby at grandmother's home.

That case is being treated as a possible terrorist attack because of the couple's recent travel to the Middle East and the high-powered weapons they had amassed.

But what about all the other mass shootings that have occurred in recent months?

Shouldn't many of the shooters also be considered terrorists?

Earlier this week, it was reported by the Washington Post and other news outlets that the nation had 351 mass shootings in 334 days this year. That's more shootings than days, if you didn't notice.

The list includes, of course, the massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., carried out by an alleged white supremacist who killed nine innocent people.

And then there's the shooting at the Umpqua Community College in Oregon, where a student fatally shot an assistant professor and eight students in a classroom. The list goes on and on.

So while we as a society grapple with terrorism, let's not focus only on jihadists and Syrian refugees.

We also should be concerned about all the domestic terrorists who don't fit the stereotypical profile.

The question is: What are we doing as a society to breed such violence? And why aren't we doing more to address the problem?

Maybe it's time to face the threat in our own backyard.

Alva James-Johnson, 706-571-8521. Reach her on Facebook at AlvaJamesJohnsonLedger.

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Alva James-Johnson: Rethinking the 'terrorism' label."