This May or May Not Be an Excerpt + Terrorism in My City

So I put up another excerpt of the novel I may or may not be writing HERE if anyone wants to check it out.

On a heavier note, there was a mass stabbing at the mall in my city the other night.

Not the city I currently live in, but the one I went to college in, where I lived for seven years. I went to that mall a few times a month for seven years. I've probably been there hundreds of times.

No one was fatally injured, except that the perpetrator was killed by an off-duty cop. I'm grateful none of his victims suffered any life-threatening injuries. Eight people were stabbed in all, and not only did no one die, but most of them had minor enough injuries to be treated and released on the spot.

It's just that you don't expect things like this to happen in a place you're so close to, geographically or emotionally.

I still consider that "my city" in a lot of ways. I don't entirely know what to make of it.

And "my city" is a racist one. We have a high Somali population, and a high population of people bitter and suspicious about our high Somali population. And now, people who had nothing to do with this--people who were probably, just as I was, waiting on news with bated breath and frantically texting loved ones to ensure they were safe--are being harassed and attacked and may be in danger. I'm even more upset about that than I am, I think, about the attack at the mall itself.

I posted this on Facebook:

It's come forward that the man who stabbed eight people at the St. Cloud mall last night was a Somali immigrant who had been radicalized.

ISIS is claiming responsibility themselves because of course they are. I don't necessarily trust that they're behind everything they claim--when the perpetrator isn't alive to say the contrary, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by claiming any attack that will increase their notoriety. But all signs do point to radicalism regardless of affiliation, and it doesn't benefit anyone to deny that.

I still believe opening our doors and our arms to refugees is the right thing to do. I still believe supporting St. Cloud's, and the rest of the nation's, Somali communities and Muslim communities is the right thing to do.

Because those communities are part of our community. This isn't an "us" vs. "them" issue. Every member of the community, regardless of ethnicity or religion, suffers the same shock, fear, and worry for their loved ones when something like this hits so close to home.

Yes, the perpetrator of this attack was also, in many ways, part of our community--he lived here, he studied here, he formed his beliefs based on what he saw here. And he came to very, very wrong conclusions.

But he is not representative of the St. Cloud Somali community. I'm already hearing word of members of that community being targeted and harassed, and this is not okay. I'm not living in the St. Cloud area anymore, but to those that are still there: Please speak out when you hear or see something whenever you can. People who have been affected the same way you have may be in danger. I worry about retributive attacks. I worry that people who had no part in this are going to be made to answer for it. And this isn't something our community should stand for.

I care a lot about the St. Cloud community. All of it. It's a good time to show the strength St. Cloud has."


I'm waiting for someone to respond to that about how dangerous immigration is.

But I still believe compassion is the right choice. Even in the face of risk, I still believe compassion is the right choice.

I hope my city is keeping everyone safe.
September 20th, 2016 at 12:22am