random. terror.

A day after a man rented a truck from Home Depot and purposely ran over as many people as he could, killing 8, in New York City, a man walked into a Walmart in suburban Denver and shot 3 people. 

The words used in news descriptions of the two tragedies are interesting. There are some similarities and many differences...

for no apparent reason...
deranged...
pandemonium...
immigration...
terror...
national security...
planned...
death penalty...
random...
politicize...
laws...
solution...

But, at the end of the day, one is labeled a terrorist attack and the other a random attack. One causes all of our government to call for change and the other doesn't. One sends us all into our tribal roots and the other, somehow, doesn't. One gets all the coverage, one you can barely find.

One is very rare. One is extremely common. 

And, it's that last one, that might be the most terrifying thing of all to me. We still react to "terrorist attacks" because they are so rare. We barely mention "random shootings" because they are so common. 

They are both random. They are both terror. They are both deranged. They are both politicized. They both require new laws and more creative and deeper solutions than reactionary defenses. They are both planned. They are both for reasons that are beyond rational thought. They are both national security issues. They both induce pandemonium. 

I don't know the solutions but I do know there is no difference between a Walmart shooting and a man driving a truck yelling Allah Akbar. 

The sooner we recognize those facts, the sooner we might actually come up with some solutions. 

In the meantime, we grieve. Again.