AH yes…social injustice… a familiar bell ringing in my old hippie ear. Shall I wade in?? Well…I’ll go in ankle deep here, OK.
This is not a problem that has a solution. At the very best, it has only agreements to disagree.
I disagree profoundly with the KKK but I defend their right to free speech and, yes, even when it points it’s boney finger of vitriol my direction because of some of the beliefs I hold dear.
I have an idea…”Hey, Muslims, if you don’t like Charlie Hebdo cartoons, don’t look at them” because there are MILLIONS of your brothers who are peace loving, free speech defending, and TRUTHFUL practitioners of your “faith”. Matter of fact, a police officer that these guys murdered was a Muslim.
In a society, we have to have rules, laws, and boundaries. I could possibly drive 50MPH in a 25MPH zone but there are laws against that because at some point in time, lawmakers decided the risk to reward balance was too great to drive faster than 25.
Even though I am (confession alert!) a bit of a voyeur and even a bit of an exhibitionist, I don’t have or watch sex in public because there are laws against it (damn!). I SHOULD be able to freely copulate in a city square, but some Bible thumper took exception to it when someone did it once, so lawmakers did their thing.
This silly analogy can be extended to the extreme, as it was/is with Charlie Hebdo.
The French have laws against veils, crosses, etc etc for a just that particular social reason. Frankly, I’m iffy about it, but if I were Muslim, I’d abide by that law because it is the law of the land I choose to live in. Don’t like it? MOVE, or get involved in the accessible French system and lobby for changes you deem necessary and acceptable.
Terrorism has historically not worked and now the Muslims have an even BIGGER PR problem. Even folks who disagree with some of Charlie’s provocative tactics, have now come to defend their “right” to publish what they will. Millions of dollars have now poured in to keep that magazine running and people are flocking to want to work for the publication.
A blog I recently read stated, “And as I write this, I get this feeling the third world war has already begun, and nobody has quite understood that yet (and I also hope I’m wrong).”
The hope I maintain is that we are now coming into an age where people are more informed, more educated, and more world aware. With education, statistics suggest, religion dissipates and it’s power shrinks. Not in my lifetime, I know, and probably not even in the lifetime of my children, but if humanity survives, my hope is a larger awareness of the consequences of actions will precede the actions themselves. That is my HOPE.
In the meantime, I turn 65 in March and am able to see more clearly the scope and limitations of my own sphere of influence to make this hope become flesh. But as I have produced two children who now share and spread this hope, Mr. Jihadist just had a litter of 7.
Rather than take up more space, I will simply refer you all to the Bard, who said it best.
Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” Act II, Scene VII http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/you-it-act-ii-scene-vii-all-worlds-stage
