Re: French Secularism, suburbia and Burning Beds

I thought I was going to have a nice evening, and all, when I opened my mail
box and had the stupid curiosity to take a look at the article about Chirac,
and , the best!, at the comments coming from subscribers. My feelings were
shared between sadness, rage, and consternation. And pity.
Hmm, I'm gonna try to save the next hours from total despair ....
Oh, Jim, are you sure you know what 'sadistic" and 'totalitarian" mean?
Valérie
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Rovira" <jrovira@drew.edu>
To: <bananafish@roughdraft.org>
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: French Secularism, suburbia and Burning Beds

> I'm glad Luke posted this. Chirac, I think, can argue what he argues as
> a valid principle of government, but he sounds in this paragraph:
>
> > He said, ""In France, there are no rules superior to the laws of the
republic," adding that there was a need to "put limits on the public
expression of one's own characteristics, to understand others, and to put
oneself in their shoes." At Thursday's ceremony, Chirac appointed a
commission to review how secularism fits in with everyday life in France and
will report to him by the end of the year, putting off calls for new
legislation restricting religious expression until then.
>
> that he's arguing for it as a normative principle of life for all French
> citizens. That's sadistic and totalitarian, in my opinion, and worthy
> of the numerous critiques it's been subject to over the last 75 years or
> more.
>
> In the Enlightenment position from which Chirac speaks, faith and reason
> are indeed irreonciliable. But people from outside that position don't
> agree....
>
> Jim

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Received on Mon Jul 7 14:49:10 2003