By now you've probably heard about the recent attack in Paris. I just saw it on TV last night, and I want to assure you that I was never in any harm. Although my apartment in Paris is only a mile from the location of the first shooting, I am currently over six hundred miles away from Paris, in a small town called Barcelonnette. I am in full health, away from danger.
As for the attack, I am conflicted. In my opinion, there was no "right side" and "wrong side." There is, of course, a side that took radically more violent and destructive action, and for that they should be punished. But if the Charlie Hebdo magazine had not published the cartoons that they did, the attack most likely would never have happened. If I could wave a magic wand, I would go back in time and make the attackers find a way other than violence to express their anger and dissatisfaction at the cartoons. That is what they should have done. The american press has, I believe, greatly exaggerated in their accounting of these events, claiming that the attackers were "Terrorists opposing civilization." I do not think they were opposing civilization, I just think they were never taught a way to express their anger besides violence. I also do not think the French should have killed them on the spot, as they did. I understand their anger, and their reasoning, but violence will never be a cure for violence. I fear that this situation will escalate, as situations like this have escalated almost invariably in the past. We "civilized people" are just too quick to brand Muslims as terrorists. It's no wonder many of them are angry at us. We think they're all evil.
No comments:
Post a Comment