The most overused word in the English language today is “terrorist.” I’m so sick of it. Anybody can be a terrorist. Every leftist protest is an act of terrorism to some right-wing nut job. 

The Tea Party holds gatherings, but those are considered patriotic, even when its members are hurling the N-word at black congressmen and “faggot” at U.S. Rep. Barney Frank. After all, what’s more all-American than bigotry?  

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer probably takes the prize for the most creative use of “terrorist.” In talking to Fox News, which by the way takes great liberties with the terms “journalism” and “journalist,” Brewer said, “You know, Arizona has been under terrorist attacks, if you will, with all of this illegal immigration that has been taking place on our very porous border...the whole issue comes back, that we do not and will not tolerate illegal immigration bringing with it very much so the implication of crime and terrorism into our state.”

Yet ICE officials are not terrorists when they nab people from their homes or jobs and break up families, leaving children living in poverty? Too bad ICE wasn’t around when Brewer’s family emigrated from wherever they originated.

Recently, Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente described the actions of Occupy Oakland members who invaded City Hall and burned American flags as “domestic terrorism.”

What does that even mean?

It’s domestic because it’s homegrown as opposed to someone from another country flying airplanes into buildings while a president with a brain the size of a pea reads to children in a classroom?

It’s terrorism because protesters weren’t peacefully marching around in circles accompanied by a score of police men and women in riot gear ready to shoot at them with rubber bullets? Hooray for civility!

I’m not a fan of violence, either from demonstrators or cops, but I think De La Fuente’s comment was downright stupid. What really happened in Oakland last night remains to be told. I certainly don’t believe mainstream media accounts I’ve read so far. 

I do know that using the word “terrorist” every time there’s social unrest in this country is ridiculous. In the old days when I was growing up, the word used to discredit any type of anti-Vietnam War or civil rights demonstration was “communist.”

Communists were behind all of the social unrest of the 60s. Now it’s terrorists.

The real terrorists are those who are foreclosing our homes or evicting tenants for profits. The real terrorists are those who allow people to go without healthcare, housing, jobs and food. The real terrorists are those who allow children to go to school hungry every day of the week in this country. The real terrorists are those who think that it’s okay that 1% owns the majority of the wealth and resources. The real terrorists are those letting banks and lending institutions off the hook for their trashing of our economy.

The perpetrators of real terrorism call the rest of us terrorists.