Joe Lane
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The process of writing a column is fairly straightforward. We, as opinion writers, try our best to present unique perspectives on important events in Iowa, around the United States, and around the world. Once in a while, however, something dominates the news cycle so totally and completely that we cannot avoid its importance.
Nov. 13 was officially the deadliest attack in France since World War II, with more than 130 confirmed dead. The events that unfolded in Paris on that night were traumatic and have left many shaken by a terrorist organization that has made it its mission to grip the world in fear.
The implications of the attack on France are far-reaching and far from over. It is a given that these attacks will have an impact on the results of the upcoming presidential election. In fact, these attacks have driven the elimination of ISIS to the top of my concerns for the next president, far above virtually every other issue this country is facing. Though the list of problems the next president of the United States will have to address is extensive, I am saddened to say that ISIS is now the greatest.
Following the attacks on Paris, “pundit” (a ridiculous name for her) Ann Coulter took to Twitter expressing her bigoted, hateful, and ignorant comments about the night. Two of her tweets stand out as particularly shocking. The first: “Can we all agree now? No more Muslim immigration. How is this making life better for us? But the mass immigration machine churns on …”
Mixed in her tirade against all Muslims, Coulter also tweeted, “They can wait if they like until next November for the actual balloting, but Donald Trump was elected president tonight.”
Coulter was not doubt referring to Trump’s aggressive and archaic strategy of isolationism that goes against everything on which the United States was founded.
Do we need immigration reform? Yes. Is it true that the acceptance of Syrian refugees has brought with it the terrifying potential, of a Paris-style attack in a U.S. city? Yes, of course.
However, we cannot allow ISIS to force us to live in fear. We cannot let it win that way. The attacks in Paris were not only an attack on the people of France, they were an attack on a way of life. A way of life that values happiness and freedom over power and domination. A way of life that focuses not on depriving others of rights to better our own but on using our unique abilities to better the position of the world as a whole.
Following the attacks on Paris, party lines have been blurred in my mind. I’ve always considered myself a moderate Democrat — willing to vote on either side of the election but leaning toward the ideals of the left. I will pay attention to the plethora of issues in the United States as I begin to express support for one candidate over another, but I can no longer treat ISIS as a threat on the other side of the world.
And while I refuse to join the ranks of Trump and Coulter (supporters who believe the route to ISIS elimination is through hatred and fear), I will now vote for the candidate who — come election — is most prepared to neutralize the threat of ISIS.