EDITORIAL: Hate only worsens tragedy's aftermath

What happened at Fort Hood was shocking and unexpected, even to those who say that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's actions ought to have been anticipated. But there is never any way to truly know when a shooting rampage will occur, and we should not live in a constant state of fear where everyone is a suspect and shootings are assumed to be imminent. Fort Hood was a tragedy, not a call to arms. One must remember and honor the victims of the tragedy, not turn the tragedy into something that it is not. Hasan's extremist views cannot be viewed as a general sentiment of the Muslim population. As a nation, we cannot be divided by terror, because that means that the terrorists have succeeded. They cannot be allowed to cause us to curtail rights and make wild accusations.

In the aftermath of 9/11, people were afraid. They projected their fears in the wrong way, though, fulfilling the terrorists' goals by nearly tearing apart the nation. Racial profiling, hateful words and actions seeped into society. Those who had been Americans as much as they had been Muslim suddenly found themselves ostracized and feared. They were accused as a group for a view that was only held by a few. Eight years later, we are beginning to recover. It is a common hope that we as a nation are able to move forward as a whole and recognize the war on terrorism as merely that - a war on terror, not on any particular ethnicity or group of people. Despite what has happened, we must remember this first and foremost.

Finally, people are coming together and relying more on one another, managing to heal the wounds that had been created. After finally moving forward, we cannot afford to take any steps back. The Fort Hood incident was already tragic enough, but to allow it to cloud people's judgment is to give it a life it should not have. Hasan's actions were his actions and his alone. They were deplorable but they were unique to him. To generalize his feelings to the rest of the Muslim people in America is unreasonable and unfair, not to mention dangerous. We all remember what happened after 9/11 and for that reason we cannot let the same things happen again. In the aftermath of fear, we must love and not hate.