Over the past several months I have been reading reports about the growing levels of 'race hate' crimes in France. Alternatively, the seeming growing intolerance for modes of dress or lifestyles that don't fit the norm.
So serious have they become that even President Chirac is attempting to cool things down.
Forgive me for being cynical, but he is only reaping what he has sown. The campaign recently to stop the wearing of 'un-French' headgear (scarves and skull-caps, for example) was blatant pandering to the not-so-latent xenophobia that many people don't struggle very hard to keep in check. Or one might point to the recent swift action taken against a mayor in a small town who had the temerity to marry a gay couple.
Liberty. Equality. Fraternity. It is time the meanings of those three words were studied and applied more closely.
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