I'm too much of a Coward: Go see for Yourselves

What a friend wrote to me......
"It's OK to burn the American Flag, to preach 'destroy Israel,' --- but not to publish cartoons offensive to Muslims. What am I missing? "

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Yes, what are we missing in discussing whether freedom of the press includes the freedom to run cartoons offensive to a religious or ethnic group?

And who decides what is offensive? Who decides when wisdom demands retraint rather than provocative polemic? Should we trim our sails when angry protestors get violent -- or reassert our freedoms to avoid intimidation?

We all sometimes thrive on double standards.

Some in the Middle East offended by cartoon satires on Islam have now proclaimed their right to intervene and censor the culture and media management of Europe and the United States. Perhaps that is only fair given the West's many interventions in the lives and cultures of the Mideast.

In the end our own excesses can be our greatest enemies.

"Insensitive" Danish cartoons satirizing the prophet Mohammed were a gift to radical Islamic agitators, who could use them to mobilize mobs, grab headlines, to intimidate corporations, media, educational institutions, and governments.

Burnings of American flags during the Vietnam war were sometimes a gift to patriotic extremists who could rally popular support by casting anti-war activists as traitors stabbing American soldiers in the back.

Like the cartoonist, we all can hand our "enemies" a weapon to club us with when we behave provocatively without wisdom or balance.

Then our enemies can go on to "shoot themselves in the foot" when they respond with foolish intimidation and violence which reinforces negative stereotypes of them. Which appears to confirm the negative image of Islam in the cartoons.

We can all benefit from the excesses of our enemies.

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This blogger himself had to make the decision: should he post the offending cartoons here? Should he omit them out of intimidation and/or a sense of wisdom or taste? And what would the host server of this blog do if this blogger posted the offending cartoons?

So let me be both wise and cowardly and simply steer you to a web address where you can see the offending cartoons for yourself.

Gentle Reader, you definitely need to see these cartoons to fully understand what has triggered the reaction. You must see them to understand the sensibilities of the offended. How nice that the web gives me the opportunity to cowardly censor my own copy -- yet give you the opportunity to "see for yourselves."

So visit this site and see for yourself.

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/sarticle.php?id=12146

Yes, every person can pose as a victim of some offense. We can all do battle to preserve or grow our turf -- and let our own sensitivities fuel our hunger to put down our real or imagined enemies.

In the end we all share something in common: our own excesses can be our greatest enemies.