It wasn’t a gay club, it was an American club. We are one nation, and one people, and an attack on any of us is an attack on all of us. It’s not about gay rights, and it’s not about gun rights, it’s about America. It’s about this country and this people, and the fact that we are under attack. And whether it was pegged on Ramadan or Pride Month or nothing in particular, it was theSeptember 11th of this day, a jihadi attack on American liberty and pursuit of happiness. The towers fell again. And in the moments and hours after, the people of Orlando responded just as the people of New York did almost 15 years ago. Americans helped one another hide, or escape to safety. Americans dragged the wounded to cover and carried the fallen to the hospital. Americans did first aid and mouth to mouth. And Americans lined up for hours in the tropical sun to donate blood, while restaurants and neighbors brought food and water to volunteers and police. It wasn’t because the victims were gay. It wasn’t because the victims were Latino. It was because the victims were us – brothers and sisters in the land of the free. We all wept under the rainbow flag. We all rallied under the American flag. And, if we are wise, we will all go forward as one. We will lay aside the immediately asserted partisan agendas, and the social-media sniping, and reject the tribalism that defines the present day. It’s not about the chip on your shoulder, it’s about the humanity in your heart. It’s not about “the community,” it’s about the country. It’s about a nation and a culture under attack. It’s about a branch of Islam so filled with bile and hate that it outlaws homosexuality in the best case and throws homosexuals off buildings in the worst case. A branch of Islam so filled with bile and hate that it denies women the right to drive, own property or get an education, and which increasingly uses women and girls as sexual toilets, the victims of holy -blam!-. A branch of Islam so filled with bile and hate that it has expelled or exterminated Christians and Jews in nation after nation across the Muslim world. A branch of Islam which has its sights set on the United States of America. And which will strike everywhere, every time it can. We must remember that, and not be lulled into refusing to defend ourselves, in the name of tolerance. The president tells us not to give in to fear. But it is not fear we feel. It is resolve – to defend our families, our neighbors and our country. And it is anger – that innocent people out dancing should be butchered by a dog whose savagery was cheered by his fellow jihadis. It wasn’t a gay club, it was an American club. It wasn’t gays who were attacked, just like it wasn’t New Yorkers who were attacked onSeptember 11th. In both instances it was Americans who were attacked. It was you and me who were attacked. Every single one of us. And we must respond with unity and grit. We must stand together as Americans, and we must relentlessly pursue and prevent crimes and perpetrators like this – on our shores or overseas. One young man at the club, a heavy set fellow with a little hat, plugged a bullet wound with a bandana and carried an injured woman to treatment, and later appeared broadly on television. His shirt sent a message. It was an American flag. It looked a little rough and a little worn, like the one Francis Scott Key saw flying over Fort McHenry. But it was an American flag, and it still flies – in our skies and in our hearts. And that’s what we must remember. United we stand, divided we fall. In the wake of this slaughter, and in the face of this threat, we must stand shoulder to shoulder as Americans. We are staring evil in its face and if we blink – or fall back into our partisan and tribal squabbles – we lose. - by Bob Lonsberry © 2016