Fort Hood

A guy walks into a 7-Eleven early Thursday morning and buys his usual breakfast hash browns. Unusually though the clerk notices he is wearing Muslim religious attire. The clerk resolves to ask him why to which the man replies, "I just do this sometimes."

At his Killeen, Texas apartment the same morning, the man hands out copies of the Qur'an to fellow residents. Some residents notice him cleaning out his apartment.

A few hours pass. It's 1:30 p.m. and our next scene contains the man at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center brandishing two handguns exclaiming "Allahu Akbar" just before he fires the weapons killing 13 and injuring 28.Three minutes of mayhem pass before Officer Kim Munley arrives on the scene and trades bullets with the man leaving Munley wounded and the man comatose.

At first details of the attack were scant. Headlines serving merely as death toll counters and disclaimers denying terrorist ties. Nothing was released about the suspects race or religious affiliation. When his name, Major Nidal Malik Hasan was released all focus was cast on his position as a military psychiatrist. A doctor and soldier recently notified of his upcoming deployment to Iraq. A tone was set describing the hardships soldiers face upon deployment, the lack of sufficient mental care provided to military personnel and the irony of this shortcoming alongside his post as an Army Psychiatrist. It became apparent that few were willing to face Hasan's true motivations.

Today, information continues to surface regarding the the radical nature of Major Hasan; Blog posts heralding suicide bombers among images of him donning religious attire the same day as the shooting. His facebook has been taken down. An air of secrecy has quickly enveloped the details of Hasan's personal life. And with this I'm forced yet again to question government and media integrity. In the age of viral political correctness , we are handicapped from rational thought processes and bullied into silent submission. We don't report what raises the hairs on the back of our neck. More worrisome still, we don't even register the warning signs. Is anyone going to ask the tough questions? When and how can we punish those who refuse to do it? I am willing to stand up to those who would silence me. Will you?

“Fear has its use but cowardice has none.”

-Mahatma Gandhi