John Robert,

Thank you for your thoughtful response. I had two reasons for rather unfairly critiquing your short response. One, I thought that you had something more insightful to say. And you did!

Two, I had a gut reaction to the idea of “ignoring” terrorism. You are absolutely correct that our current reactions to terrorism perpetuate it and that we should work to put the actual danger into perspective. However, by encouraging people to “ignore” terrorism you are encouraging them to cede the issue those who are making the bad policy.

We are in one-hundred percent agreement that people should realize “Chicken Little” responses feed terrorists and jingoist politicians. Nevertheless, they should also seek to understand the root problems behind the terrorism, in the same way they would any other social problem, and why things like closed borders, closing mosques, tracking bracelets, etc. won’t work. That unfortunately can’t involve ignoring the issue, but rather involves delving deeper into the muck. When they do, they can understand, for example, why there is a preponderance of those with North African descent involved in the attacks in France and how this has very little to do with the inherent characteristics of their faith.

Once armed with that knowledge then they can ignore the latest terror attack and focus on advocating for solutions to the underlying problems.