This was a week when cartoonists and free speech came under assault. The cartoonists died. Free speech will survive. From cartoonist Tom Toles, whose work appears here often:
The one response I saw to the Paris murders that I didnât care for is that they were killed for âjust cartoons.â The event proves the opposite. Amidst the floodtide of âcontentâ that contemporary communications are generating, it was precisely the cartoons that stood out as having so much power that someone felt they needed to be silenced. They still have that kind of power.
Free speech is the single most important aspect of what makes a âfree societyâ free. As a free society, we can debate what is a wise use of our free speech rights. But, we have just been reminded in the most terrible terms, how important and vulnerable it can be. Cartoonist David Horsey, whose work also appears here often, (including today) said this week:
Not only can freedom not exist without truth tellers, freedom cannot exist without obnoxious expressions of opinion, no matter who is offended.
Ted Rall, a cartoonist who also appears here occasionally, said this on his blog:
There could never be a mass shooting of staff political cartoonists in the United States, because American newspapers and magazines have fired almost all of them.
He estimates that today, there are only 30 or so cartoonists employed full-time by American newspapers and magazines. The declining number of cartoonists has made curating Sunday cartoons for this blog more difficult over the years.
How do we move forward? The Wrongologist does not usually quote any Catholic Pope, but this from Paul VI seems appropriate today:
âIf you want peace, work for Justiceâ
What does that mean in practical terms today?
⢠Work toward achieving economic equality everywhere
⢠Include the topics âUnderstanding Culturesâ and âPromoting Cultural Integrationâ in school curriculums. This could help reduce fear of âThe Otherâ, a common human trait
⢠Encourage moderate Muslims living in the West to root out the extremists among them
⢠Ask Muslim countries to do more than to offer condolences to France
On to cartoons. If you stop cartooning, the terrorists win:
Their real motivator wasnât Allah:
In other news, we had a semi-favorable jobs report:
Republicans took over the Congress:
The NYPD continued their soft coup:
NYPD Job Action continued:
I have handled disability claims from police and firemen. Both groups are very focused on their work rules and benefits. I can’t tell you have many fat, entitled police and firemen are living large on our tax dollar for what in any other career would be an illness that the man recovered from. Their sense of entitlement reflects itself in their childish reaction to DeBlasio’s simple statements.