[lit-ideas] Re: Link to "Mohammed" cartoons

  • From: "Cassidy Dann" <cassidy_dann@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 12:37:46 -0500

> That's because Europe by and large simply doesn't
> get the
> diversity/integration equation and we are streets
> ahead of them on it. We
> just can't believe, nor can we accept, by and large,
> the sheer blinkeredness
> of what seems to be the mainstream European
> reaction.

I don't quite understand this point:  the "free
speech" defence of publishing the cartoons is in fact
a very US one.

Yes, indeed. But (as we have heard in the clamor of this debate ad nauseum) something that is a right is not therefore an obligation. My sense is that most of us in the US are clearer (and more confident) over this distinction because of our searing hands-on experience in grappling with the dilemmas of inter-cultural co-existence.

(I should also clarify that I am not, in this early evening mood of sweeping generalization, including Britain in my definition of Europe. The UK is closer to us than to the rest of Europe on this issue, in my view.)

Sincerely, Cassidy Dann
Rappahannock, VA

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