Freedom from Terror Should be a Basic Human Right

This past weekend has been awash with news from France about the Charlie Hebdo attack and the reactions to it. It is heartening and awe-inspiring to see millions of ordinary people in the streets of Paris, London and other cities showing support for freedom of expression in the face of terrorism. Clearly, I don’t know all of the political intrigue which may or may not have been behind the attack, but the fact that it happened at all was meant to strike fear in the hearts of ordinary people. The ordinary people of France have responded:

“We are not afraid!”

Here in the US, there have been very few, if any such demonstrations. Watching the videos from Paris, it struck me that if there had been such demonstrations here-say in New York, for example-the response to them would have been completely different.

It is hard to imagine such a demonstration here which would not have been met with riot police, SWAT teams, dogs, and a military presence (at the very least as a back up for local or state law enforcement). The demonstration, if it happened, would have been seen as threatening, a terrorist act in itself. Two million people on the streets of New York? That would send shivers down the spine of every local, state and national official. It would be reported as violent by the media, even it it were not. The mere act of that many people blocking the streets, forcing the closing of shops and businesses, snarling traffic and eruptions of thunderous applause would be seen as an attack on our civilized society.

If twelve staff members of Mad Magazine been murdered, would we have responded in the same way? How about if the Onion staff had been attacked? These are both long-established publications of biting political humor.

Let me answer my own question….it was a bit rhetorical, after all….No. There would not be two million people in the streets over such an attack. We did not have that big of a response to the Boston Marathon attack.  Or the 9/11 bombing. Or any other act of attack on private persons, none of whom were in the business of rattling the cage of the extremists.

America prides itself on its’ freedoms. We boast about how free we are. We fight over how our freedoms should be balanced against each other. Americans claim their freedom of religion, speech, press as the definition of what it means to be American.

How free are we?

The American reaction to a terrorist attack has been to take away the freedom of its’ citizens in the name of protecting us from future acts of terror. Our fear of a future attack has been used as a reason that none of us can be fully trusted. Our phones calls are monitored, cameras follow our daily routines, arrest without charges or trials are justified if there is suspicion of bad acts, and the media is denied access to some public information. All in the name of fighting terror.

We are still living in terror. We are afraid.

The French, on the other hand, seem to be angry as hell.

It will be very interesting to see which response is more effective in stopping these attacks on freedom.

At this point, I think the win goes to France.

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