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BamaD -> RE: And yet, these people didnt matter..... (11/16/2015 9:56:33 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: dcnovice
FR
I have a few thoughts/theories about the different reactions to Paris and Beirut:
-- Sad to say, Beirut has endured strife and violence for as long as I can remember, so we're numb to its sorrows. An attack of this sort in Paris, on the other hand, was a huge shock.
-- At least in my circle of friends and family, people felt a personal connection to Paris. We'd visited there, studied there, worked there, lived there, dreamed of visiting, and so forth. On my Facebook feed, I was struck by the number of folks who knew someone in Paris at the time of the attacks and feared for their loved ones' safety. I was also jolted, looking at a map of the attacks, by how the killers had struck places I'd been to myself.
-- Paris and the U.S. have a long, if sometimes thorny, shared history. We probably couldn't have battled Britain during the Revolution without French aid, and one of our most iconic emblems--the Statue of Liberty--was a gift from France.
-- The City of Lights has, I think, a special place in the world's (or maybe just Westerners') hearts. I know I'm not alone in thinking of it almost as the capital of civilization itself. A famous saying, variously attributed to both Franklin and Jefferson, says "Every man has two countries: France and his own." So the Paris massacre was an assault on the world's heart/soul in many eyes.
In a way you are echoing the OP, Paris was covered more because we care more. You are correct though that there has been so much violence in that region, and Africa, that we have been numbed by it.
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