The scariest thing about it is that Ilhan Omar's description of 9/11 is actually healthy

[ck4829]

Let's look at "A Terrible Thing Happened"

Sherman Smith saw the most terrible thing happen. At first he tried to forget about it, but soon something inside him started to bother him. He felt nervous for no reason. Sometimes his stomach hurt. He had bad dreams. And he started to feel angry and do mean things, which got hi m in trouble. Then he met Ms. Maple, who helped him talk about the terrible thing that he had tried to forget. Now Sherman is feeling much better. This gently told and tenderly illustrated story is for children who have witnessed any kind of violent or traumatic episode, including physical abuse, school or gang violence, accidents, homicide, suicide, and natural disasters such as floods or fire. An afterword by Sash a J. Mudlaff written for parents and other caregivers offers extensive suggestions for helping traumatized children, including a list of oth er sources that focus on specific events.

This book is praised by the psychology and therapy communities for letting children deal with calamities and disasters in a healthy manner... I have no doubt in my mind that many children were reading this book after 9/11, the ones who lost family and friends, and the ones who were just afraid of what happened.

This book doesn't say what the terrible thing is, this way, it cultivates healthy dialogue.

Using this book doesn't minimize disasters and violence... nobody has ever suggested that.

I dunno, makes me wonder if Republicans have some other motivation.

[still_one]

1. Trump and his cronies are beneath contempt. That said, Representative Omar should get her facts

straight and choose her words more carefully. Yes, I understand what she was saying, however, if she had said instead that Islamic terrorists did something terrible, and we were unfairly put into that same group, it would have acknowledged the seriousness of what happened, and at the same time acknowledged that anti-Muslim bigotry exists.

It really doesn't take a PHD in political science to understand this would happen. Representative Omar can continue her current approach, or work on her tone and wording.

[ck4829]

3. Her tone and wording will be attacked no matter what

Said "uh" in a speech.
Too combative.
Too passive.
Too aggressive.
Too weak.

There is no scenario where Republicans don't attack her.

[moondust]

2. One could probably argue

that by using the most general description possible of "an event that happened" that everyone knows all about--without mentioning any details--she may have spared some people traumatized by the horrific details of the event another round of nightmares.

If Republicans decide it's okay to assign blame/guilt simply by ethnic association then they better look out whenever a white guy shoots up a school or a mall or a concert or a theater or a whatever. Or wickedly invades another country based on lies, ultimately costing hundreds of thousands of lives.