A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Native born American Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, had a $70,000 per year job, a government job, a good job, a wife, Tashfeen Malik, and a daughter aged six months. Yesterday, he and Tashfeen, dressed in military gear, equipped with legally purchased AR-15 style rifles, shot dead 14 persons, and wounded 17 more, at a seasonal party in San Bernardino, California. They escaped, but later were killed in a shootout with police.
One’s mind boggles and reels at this awful event. What compels the mother of a six-month-old to abandon her child and join her husband in executing what amounts to a massacre-suicide pact?
As yet, no motive has emerged. A terrorist attack has not been ruled out, for obvious reasons. There are reports that Farook was deeply religious — and that might be the key to his conduct. At some point, never defined easily, deep religious convictions can become murderous insanity.
I expect we’ll know the motives fairly soon. Government investigations are moving thoroughly but without delay, and news organizations such as the New York Times are digging into the background of the shooters.
But once we know the motive, will we be able to identify other couples planning similar action? Probably not; not even if we let our fears run wild and turn our country into a police state that would sicken Stalin.
Terrorism is a risk that cannot be eliminated. Fortunately, it is not a significant risk compared to dying in an automobile accident, from a fall, or from surgery or a medical mistake. We will always live in some danger, however faint. But we should not live in fear. Let us bury the dead, heal the wounded, and get on with life as before, preferably with fewer firearms and less easily obtained firearms.