Remember Ahmed? You stood with him. There was a hashtag.
Skinny runt from Texas, took apart a clock and put it in a shiny new case that looked a lot like an IED? Went to go play a game of poke-the-racist-authority-figure at his school? That one.
What happened to Ahmed on an official level is what happens when people, guided by emotion, make a tangible decision based on "we've got to do something!"
The "something" may or may not have stopped any bombs. But it sure made Ahmed's life lousy for a while.
But here's the thing. Most people who run afoul of "something" aren't like Ahmed. Most people who run afoul of "something" don't have a daddy who's balls-deep in a national lobbyist group. Most people who run afoul of "something" don't have their stories go viral.
Most people who run afoul of "something" just get fucked in the life a little harder. Whether that's suspension, expulsion, fines, jail time, or shit down the road.
So before you start being a hand-wringing herbivore and babble about "we've got to do something!" open your damn brain and spend some processing time actually THINKING about what "something" might be.
Remember Ahmed?