Anyone reading almost any religious founding tract can find cover for almost any action.
Most people missed a major point about 9/11. Not just any act of terrorism, it was designed as an attack on the financial system that supports the democratic – and many not-so democratic – nations of the world in maintaining the prosperity that allows people to feed, clothe and house themselves and enjoy all manner of perks of actual civilization.
Now there has been a direct attack on the key freedom – freedom of expression – that underpins all the other freedoms we mostly enjoy. If you can only write, draw or say what people with guns approve of, there is no longer any freedom to be had.
The rub for free people is creating a way to protect their societies without drastically altering those societies into less-free organizations. “Better safe than sorry,” cannot be taken to extreme.
As surely as most of those who fought in the great wars did not fully know what they were defending they were immensely proud of the positive consequences of their service for mankind. They saved for the world the ability to expound, contrast and compare ideas about what was the best way for people to organize and live.
Every little bit of freedom we allow to be eroded is an attack on their service and all other martyrs to equality.
Keep all that in mind as events, in and out of government, move towards dealing with the barbaric types that committed this latest atrocity.
Dave Thompson
Trail
