In 2001, the George W. Bush administration placed hundreds of individuals and organizations on the nation’s list of terrorists and terrorist organizations. Most of those names and organizations were extremist Islamic groups with histories of violence. So, it came as a shock to me when Greenpeace, an organization with a track record of nonviolent civil disobedience, had been included. I just mailed them a check to support their efforts to protect the boreal forest in Canada.

Since the focus of this list was to prosecute the funding mechanisms of these groups, I wondered: am I now considered a terrorist? Because I think we can do better than process oil from the tar sands that produce less energy than its actual extraction demands?

As chilling as that seemed, it is nothing compared to the implementation of the T-word under Republicans, our president and the head of the Department of Homeland Security in recent years. Pretty much every act of civil disobedience is now labeled by the right as terrorism. Renee Good of Minneapolis may or may not have been obstructing justice, but calling her a domestic terrorist is beyond absurd.

If she wanted to hurt that ICE officer with her car, it would have been easy. What’s next: do we label children who cross the street on their bicycles, in front of police cars, without signaling, as terrorists?

The only terrorism I see is masked men, with rifles, showing aggression toward unmasked observers armed with smartphones. It’s no stretch to call that state terrorism.

Christopher Ring
York