He’s terror victim, too

Killer not Muslim, so pols mum

And look out when Omar Mateen shot up the Pulse nightclub in Orlando after pledging allegiance to ISIS, even though Mateen was born in Queens, in New York City.

So you can imagine what the reaction would have been, and not just from the White House, if it had been a Muslim who had walked into North Park Elementary the way Cedric Anderson did with a .357 and killed his estranged wife, Karen Smith, killed Jonathan Martinez and wounded another little boy before killing himself. You can only imagine what the reaction would have been if it had been an undocumented immigrant who had been the one who shot Jonathan and his teacher dead.

But it was not. So the country quickly moved on. Sean Spicer referenced the shooting. Betsy DeVos, Trump’s secretary of education, said something about it. But no tweets from the President this time about San Bernardino. Perhaps he sent flowers to the family.

This has been a big, loud time for this President, one that started with all those Tomahawk missiles hitting Syria. Then came what was described as the “mother of all bombs” being dropped on ISIS in Afghanistan. You saw the reaction. There were people in the media who became nearly weepy about it all. Now Trump was being presidential, you heard that. America was back. Before long we were having a staredown with the little nut running North Korea — and the President’s approval ratings were beginning to work their way up out of the cellar.

But underneath the bombs bursting in air was the sound of gunfire out of Jonathan Martinez’s classroom, where he was trying to overcome something called Williams syndrome and the learning disabilities and heart surgeries that came with it, and continue to lead a happy life, one which everybody who knew this boy said began with a smile.

We have been told recently by this President about how much more secure our borders are now that he is in charge, how much safer we’re supposed to feel.

On top of all that, he and his people have bombs and missiles in the air. So the candidate who talked so tough is now acting even tougher, especially on terrorism.

But you want to know what terrorism is? Terrorism is a gun inside a school, another gun that should never have been in the hand of someone like Cedric Anderson, with his history of domestic violence and illegal weapons possession arrests.

Terrorism is a child not coming home from North Park Elementary. The country is safer? Tell that to the family of Jonathan Martinez.

So while so much of the country cheered this big, loud show of military force, there was only a brief news cycle about another elementary school shooting in America.

You can see the problem here, of course. While all these military triumphs were occurring, there simply wasn't enough time to deal with the tragedy of another dead child.

The roar from the crowd because of the roar of bombs and missiles will always be a normal reaction in this country. But when did it become normal that another child has been shot in another school? Maybe a higher number of kids dying at North Park Elementary, the way they did at Sandy Hook, would have gotten more of the country’s attention. Just not for long. And not in Washington, D.C.

At Easter Mass in my church on Sunday, the message was the same as in churches everywhere on Easter, about hope and renewal and even consolation that miracles are still possible, even in this dangerous world.

But where is the hope for the relatives of Jonathan Martinez? Where is the consolation for them? And where is the outrage everywhere over that little boy’s death?

The last time in San Bernardino, Farook and Malik were described as “homegrown violent extremists.” So was Cedric Anderson.

Maybe there would still be aftershocks of grief and outrage this time if the shooter had been named Farook or Malik or Mateen; if he had repeatedly come across the border from Mexico illegally, the way Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez did before gunning down 32-yearold Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco in 2015. Something like that would have gotten our attention.

Just not terrorism once again walking through the front door of a school. It wasn’t a Muslim this time shooting Jonathan Martinez dead. Wasn’t an illegal. Nothing to see in Washington, then. Move along.

Just another tough break for another kid who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time: a classroom.

Jonathan Martinez, 8, was shot dead in his San Bernardino, Calif., classroom last week, but reaction was muted, with no outraged tweets from the President.