With terror on the rise, hypocrisy is our worst enemy

Whenever there’s an attack on United States soil, whether it was carried out by a terrorist or not, the American people turn on each other instead of the enemy. Everyone wants to point fingers at the other side, seemingly scrambling to find someone to place quick blame on. When we do this, we distract ourselves from the real problem and the potential solutions that could fix it. [caption id="attachment_17260" align="aligncenter" width="838"] The Setonian Logo[/caption] We’re seeing this now in the days following the terrorist attack in New York City that killed eight and injured 20 people. The suspected attacker, Sayfullo Saipov, who police say is responsible for careening a rental truck down a busy pathway, purposefully striking pedestrians and bicyclists, entered the U.S. via the Diversity Visa Lottery program, according to The Washington Post. President Donald Trump took to Twitter following the incident, shifting the blame to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D - N.Y.), who was a sponsor of the Diversity Visa Lottery bill when it was passed on a bipartisan basis in 1990. Trump called the bill a “Schumer beauty” and said he is working to terminate the diversity visa lottery and create a merit-based visa program. He failed to mention (or possibly to just do his research) that Schumer actually proposed to end the diversity visa lottery and increase merit based visas in 2013, but the bill died in the House of Representatives because of a GOP majority, according to NPR. “We have to get much tougher,” Trump said in reference to immigration. “We have to get much smarter. And we have to get much less politically correct.” Mr. Trump, we assure you, nothing you do is politically correct. We don’t know how much less politically correct you could possibly get. We also find it very ironic that Trump was so quick to place blame on Schumer and immigration laws following the New York attack, considering Senate Democrats say he proposed cutting over half a billion dollars in anti-terrorism funding in his most recent budget. NPR said that New York City Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill called the money “absolutely critical” for counter-terrorism efforts. If Trump wants a better future for this country, then he needs to actually do something about our terrorism issue, not just rant on about immigration reforms that will either never work or are too wild to pass. As we sit here and watch our politicians blame each other and hypocritically point their fingers, ISIS leaders continue to recruit members and devise attacks like the one that took the lives of eight innocent people on Tuesday. The Voice is intended to best represent the collective opinion of The Setonian’s Editorial Board. It is written by The Setonian’s Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor.