Yes Virginia, there is a boogey-man and it is radical Islam!

Submitted by Randy Mills (United States), Oct 12, 2004 at 16:02

Will Beslan Awaken Us?

Sleep used to come so easily. Now he comes only as would the failed Patron Saint of Beslan, timid and not at all sure that he will be able to fulfill his obligation. I try to drag Sleep out of his hiding and force him to do his job, but he is impatient and very edgy when he does come. His visits are fleeting, like a small wild kitten that you cannot quite touch even if you feed him. Any interruption (such as a bathroom visit) causes him to retreat for the night, looking for more certain and less turbulent souls to call upon.

Sleep is afraid of the images slowly advancing across my mind. Children, covered with blood, naked and eagerly drinking from bottles of water because some Islamist fanatic has made them drink their own urine for 3 days. Bombs rigged to basketball goals. Russian soldiers with cigarettes hanging as lifelessly as the little ones they carry out of the gym, their eyes hollow with disbelief at their task. A tiny cross in a dead and bloody palm. I could go on, but you have all seen them and if they do not haunt you as they do me, then you are already dead. At least on the inside.

Then there are more images that the terrorists took themselves, of themselves; gymnasium-long blood stains running two feet wide through the middle of hundreds of kids who should have, at that particular time, been learning to add and subtract. Pictures of children shot in the back as they attempted to flee when the explosives detonated. Another witness who told of his friend who was run through with a bayonet for asking for a drink .

My mind cannot grasp the images that we have not been shown of the terrorists filming themselves raping the children and forcing the parents to watch. If Sleep knew of these images or that their unseen hauntings are what are keeping me from embracing him, he would likely never come again.

Then my mind drifts from the far-away to the close-to-home and I try not to picture my own future grandkids (or any other children) in the same horrible circumstances. But, try as I might, my intuition tells me that it is only a matter of time. When I have previously discussed airplanes and air travel with my friends and family, I have always told them "Forget the airplanes, the next attack will be on a soft target like a school." Right target. wrong country…for now. We too, are very vulnerable in that area of our culture.

There are so many of these soft targets that it is hard to pick the most vulnerable. Hospitals, amusement parks, non-secured areas of an airport, and voting locations are all areas where law abiding citizens are not allowed to carry firearms. Only the terrorists will have the weapons in these areas. I hope your unarmed combat skills are finely tuned and work well against bullets and bombs!

For all of you with whom Sleep is still a friend, it is time to wake up.

Are you and your family prepared? What can you do? One thing to do is talk to your school administrators and make sure that your children's schools are locked up tight. In Beslan, the terrorists drove up to the front of the school and stormed the building. Ask the principal how he would handle a Beslan style attack. Better yet, ask the Security office in the local school district. The answers (if you get any) will probably scare you into home schooling your kids. Do you think your school is a safe zone because there is a "Gun Free Campus" sticker on the door? Get your head out of your proverbial backside!

Another thing. We as a nation are blinded by the politically correct crowd who have decimated our ability to pay special attention to those most likely to do us harm: a few Muslim males between the ages of 17 and 40. Do all that you can to make sure these idiotic laws are overturned. They are going to get our kids killed.

Terrorist scenes are nothing new. However, with notable exceptions, few of them involve direct attacks upon the children of their assumed enemy. That difference may be the one thing that our busy-ness and preference for prosperity over terrorist worries cannot push to the back of our minds. THEY HAVE ATTACKED CHILDREN!

Let that soak in for few days and then find your anger.

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