Hey, sometimes the truth isn’t pretty to look at. And while we get that not everyone wants to be reminded of 9/11 every day on the way to work, the people who put up a controversial billboard supporting President Trump’s travel ban in Catawba County, North Carolina can’t be accused of shading the truth.
A local North Carolina news station covered the flap last week surrounding a billboard that recently went up on Interstate 40. The billboard, a version of which was also put up in Tennessee, reads:
Why Support President Trump’s Immigration Ban?
19 Muslim Immigrants Killed 2,977 Americans
9/11/01
“I think the numbers are powerful enough in themselves,” one individual told the local news. “So, if you look at it and think something is wrong about it, it makes you wonder about you.”
Exactly. The billboard doesn’t have images of people burning. It doesn’t show ISIS holding up the severed head of a captor (leave that to liberals like Kathy Griffin). It merely states a fact. A fact that everyone in the U.S. should be reminded of every now and then, because sometimes it seems like a lot of Americans have forgotten about it.
The station spoke to some who found the message offensive, like resident Oliver Reitzell.
“I believe in the Christian way and that’s to embrace everybody,” Reitzell said. “Kind of the hate message behind it. I’m not for that.”
How is it a “hate message”? It’s a fact. Are facts hateful? Have we really reached that point.
They also spoke to war veteran Andrew Katocs, who said, “It sounds like somebody is trying to cause some issues that don’t need to be worried about now.”
Right. Because Islamic terrorism is a thing of the past. Thanks for your service, sir, but let’s get serious here.
We find it extremely hard to believe that anyone other than an outright, bleeding-heart liberal (or a Muslim immigrant) would have a problem with this billboard, and we imagine the local news went out of their way to try to find Christians and vets to represent the opposing view. We wonder how many people they spoke to and how cherry-picked the responses were.
Truth is, we could use more billboards like this one. More reminders of just what we’re talking about, because you’re not going to get them from the media. The next reminder is going to come in the form of another blazing building. It would be nice if we could take some action before that reminder comes.
