Some insightful comments from
Washington Post columnists on the violence in France. From
Jim Hoagland:
“France and its beautiful, troubled capital are proxies for all affluent nations that have elevated into an art form the habit of ignoring the world's poor, desperate and criminally inclined…Our collective neglect lumps them all together, and it helps make the disadvantaged become prey or accomplice for criminals and Islamist fanatics. In that sense, we are all French right now. It is not just Paris that is burning. It is Africa, and the Middle East, and parts of Asia and Latin America, that are burning and showering flames on the Paris ghettos. And on London, Madrid, New York, Bali and Casablanca.”
And from
David Ignatius:
“The average (white) French person believes fiercely in the country's revolutionary traditions of liberty, equality and fraternity -- to the point of pretending that these virtues exist for everyone when they clearly don't. France's prized educational meritocracy -- a gulag of tests and exams that prepare the way for the best and brightest to enter elite national schools -- is in fact gamed by the existing elite.”
Throughout history, when the poor, marginalized, and discriminated against are denied a voice for long enough, they will rise up and demand to be heard. May France and the world hear the wake-up call and respond not only by listening, but by addressing the inequities that make liberty and fraternity impossible...and may the violence cease.
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