Well, this headline sure jumped out at me today.
And of course, it reminded me of this post. Now, some folks disagreed with me then, and that's okay. They brought up valid points and disagreed in a respectful tone. But a lot of right-wing bloggers were tossing all sort of insults toward the editors of the papers who cut the Opus cartoon. Cowards, they were called. Islamic lapdogs. Anti-American. Terrorist apologists.
And those were the nice ones.
As I pointed out at the time, however, none of these people have a masthead on their blogs saying who and where they are. It's easy to be brave when no one is paying attention to the man behind the curtain.
Are any of these bloggers willing to come out of the closet, or are they only brave when no one knows where to find them? What risks are they willing to take for their right to say whatever they want whenever they want to?
Are they willing to risk death for free speech?
Are they willing to risk the lives of people around them for it? The people in their office? Their carpool friends? Total strangers on the bus who don't know what they said, or why?
Their own families? Their tiny boys and girls who don't even know for politics and terrorism yet, bless their innocent little hearts?
You know, I'm skeptical about that. Maybe because these same people aren't willing to back the right to be free from unwarranted search and seizure. Maybe because they won't even speak up to their employees in Washington for their own right to privacy. Perhaps because, despite the hot air of nine years ago, they won't demand the truth from their government. And why is all this?
Well, because they are afraid.
They have good reason to be, too. After all, it isn't as if we're any safer than we were six years ago. It's not as if INS suddenly became competent. It isn't as if cargo is being checked on out docks as it enters America. It's not as if a damn thing has been done about the southern border except some more guys on horseback. And it isn't as if the fundamentalist whackjobs they're afraid of are anything close to rational.
So while the idealist in me condemns to the very core this attitude of death for insult, this my-religion-is-the-only-true-one-and-I'll-kill-you-to-prove-it mentality, the pragmatist has another view.
That is, until we have a government that IS concerned, really concerned, for making this a safer country, those with a responsibility for the safety of others, like the editors of major newspapers, just might want to pick their fights a little more carefully for awhile. Of course, I do not mean copping out on verifiable, true news stories no matter who looks bad in them.
But really, when it comes down to it, whose life is a cartoon worth?
