The Terrorists Next Door

The-Americans-FXOK, I admit it–I love my DVR.  Like most of us, my evenings can get a bit crazy, and it’s a rarity for me to be on the couch and ready for prime time by 9:00 pm.  But, thanks to my beloved DVR, I don’t miss a thing.  (Anyone remember the Sex & The City episode with Miranda and her TiVo?)   So the other night I finally got a chance to catch up, and I noticed I had three episodes of “The Americans” in my queue.  For those of you who have not watched, by all means, check it out.  Airing Wednesdays at 10pm on FX, “The Americans” tells the story of a couple of KGB Agents who are living in America in the early 1980s.  The characters, Phillip and Elizabeth, were “urged” to marry back in the Motherland and come here and immerse themselves in everyday American life.  They have jobs as travel agents, parent their 2 kids, attend PTA meetings, host Bar-B-Q dinners for their neighbors, etc.  And once in a while, pretty much always in the dark of night, they go out and kill somebody.

While I was totally enjoying the craziness of episode one of the three I was planning on mini-marathoning through, I realized this was the first time I had watched the show since the horrific bombings in Boston on April 15th.  And it hit me that in all the reporting on Dzhokhar and Tamarlan Tsarnav, one thread seemed pretty constant.  When the friends and classmates of Dzhokhar were questioned, they were shocked, surprised, the boy seemed so nice, so quiet.  “They can’t square the terror he is accused of sowing this week with the boy they knew from sports and just around school.”

According to another classmate, he was  “a sweet guy”; a neighbor said he was a “lovely, lovely kid

My initial thought was DUH, that’s what he wanted you to think.  That’s what Phillip and Elizabeth on “The Americans” wanted their neighbors to think, too–blend in, fly under the radar; maintain your cool, don’t draw attention to yourself.  Basically, act like everybody else–  until you drop a backpack bomb at the feet of innocent race fans gathered at the finish line, and then just stroll away.

Like it or not, terrorists are here.  They might be in your Weight Watcher’s group, or members of your gym.  They could shop at your supermarket, go to your son’s little league games, and hand out candy on Halloween.  Like Nadal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood (until he opened fire yelling ‘Allahu Akbar’), they are serving in our military.  They work with you, eat with you, live in your neighborhood–maybe even right next door.

What’s a patriotic American to do?  After getting my “aha” moment, I was fired up.  I would write my next article for PolitiChicks, I would post on Facebook; I would rant and rave until I was hoarse.  But first, I turned off “The Amerikans” and switched over to “Real Housewives of Orange County”.  There goes the neighborhood…

Written by Debby Wolf

Ann-Marie Murrell

Ann-Marie Murrell is one of the creators of PolitiChicks and co-owns the site with Morgan Brittany. Ann-Marie is co-author of two bestselling books, “What Women (Really) Want” and "PolitiChicks: A Clarion Call to Political Activism". She has appeared on dozens of television shows including Fox & Friends, CNN, Hannity, the Dr. Phil Show, Huckabee, Lou Dobbs, C-SPAN, One America News, Stuart Varney & Company, Newsmax, MSNBC, and more. In addition to PolitiChicks, Ann-Marie has written for multiple other news sites. You can find Ann-Marie Murrell on Facebook and Twitter: @PolitichickAM E-mail: thepolitichicks@gmail.com

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