I'm sure cartoons about Jesus molesting little children were drawn somewhere by someone, just as those cartoons showing Mohammed in a manner beyond disrespectful were drawn by someone somewhere. But they didn't appear in a single newspaper. The fact that complete and utter lies are being used to fan the flames of righteous anger make me angry and saddened - what has humanity come to that we purposefully pit people against each other, purposefully inciting others to the violence we wish to commit but don't have the guts to potentially put ourselves in harm's way?
The problem with "houses made of glass" saying is it says that if we fail to live up to an ideal we aren't allow to ask anyone else to aim for it either. Since humans are never perfect, we will never fully achieve any right completely, but there's a distinct diference between those who are trying and those who are not. We are *trying*, despite ourselves, to allow anyone to speak their opinion or do things that others consider taboo (I've never seen a Jew get pissed off that someone else was eating pork). I don't see why it's OK to say it's wrong to stone a woman who isn't wearing a Burqa but it's not OK to say that cartoons shouldn't incite violence.
I refuse to tolerate harm done to people. Count the bodies when this whole thing has blown over and I'll bet you money that more Middle Eastern people will be dead than Europeans and at their own hands. Whoever published those pamphlets with the horrible offensive cartoons are the ones who should get the blame for those cartoons, not the papers and the countries where those cartoons were never published. This pises me off for exactly the same reasons that the spying program and the Plume case and the Abramoff scandal and the Iraq war piss me off - people were taken in by lying leaders, and it's causing harm to them.
Our houses can be damaged by thrown rocks, but that doesn't mean they're made of glass.
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Date: 2006-02-08 02:37 pm (UTC)The problem with "houses made of glass" saying is it says that if we fail to live up to an ideal we aren't allow to ask anyone else to aim for it either. Since humans are never perfect, we will never fully achieve any right completely, but there's a distinct diference between those who are trying and those who are not. We are *trying*, despite ourselves, to allow anyone to speak their opinion or do things that others consider taboo (I've never seen a Jew get pissed off that someone else was eating pork). I don't see why it's OK to say it's wrong to stone a woman who isn't wearing a Burqa but it's not OK to say that cartoons shouldn't incite violence.
I refuse to tolerate harm done to people. Count the bodies when this whole thing has blown over and I'll bet you money that more Middle Eastern people will be dead than Europeans and at their own hands. Whoever published those pamphlets with the horrible offensive cartoons are the ones who should get the blame for those cartoons, not the papers and the countries where those cartoons were never published. This pises me off for exactly the same reasons that the spying program and the Plume case and the Abramoff scandal and the Iraq war piss me off - people were taken in by lying leaders, and it's causing harm to them.
Our houses can be damaged by thrown rocks, but that doesn't mean they're made of glass.