Tom connects violence in Baghdad and New Orleans, citing a car bomb that killed 88 people and the murder of activist Helen Hill. New Orleans has a murder rate 30% higher than the U.S. average, with police superintendent Stephen Nicholas describing a culture where criminals fear no repercussions. Tom argues civilization's order is fragile against forces of incivility and criminal intent.
Good morning, it's Tom. I was struck yesterday by a couple of parallels that I saw that I wanted to just talk about and maybe get your thoughts about. The parallels are between what's going on in Baghdad and what's going on in New Orleans. We all know that what's happening in Baghdad is now a struggle of very significant proportions between forces of— order, civility, and forces of disorder. Now we know that there are plenty of reasons why there are these— why the struggle is going on. And nevertheless, regardless of how the struggle came into existence, It's a struggle nonetheless, the way I see it. Everyday people, you know, this morning on the front page of the New York Times, you know, there's a picture of this poor fellow, you know, who's, you know, he's, He's screaming in horror over the death of someone, we don't even know who, it just says a relative, as a result of yesterday's car bombs, 88 people killed in one day in Baghdad. And then last evening, on the NewsHour, Jim Lehrer NewsHour on Public Broadcasting System here in the United States. There was a story about New Orleans and two murders that took place in New Orleans. In New Orleans this year so far, there have been 11 murders in 2007. The story on the news hour was about these two people who were remarkable in several ways. One of them was a 36-year-old woman named Helen Hill who was holding her 2-year-old at the time that she was killed. She was a community activist trying very hard to fight for recovery in New Orleans. She was also white, which clearly has an impact on the way people viewed her murder in New Orleans. But I wanted to read you just a couple of quotes from— the police superintendent, the assistant police superintendent in New Orleans who says, "We have a culture, a certain population in this city with an intent on committing violent crime." This is Stephen Nicholas, the assistant police superintendent. "They feel no repercussion. They have no fear of the police." New Orleans murder rate is 30% higher than anywhere else in the country. So we have two cities, two different parts of the world, both of which are being torn apart by forces of disorder and incivility and criminal intent. And, you know, we have here at YouTube, we have little minor incidents when compared to the kind of problems that, of course, you see in New Orleans and in Baghdad. I mean, but for our community, the kind of reactions that people have gotten from people who have been called haters, I think reflects some similar trend in, in what we're seeing in different societies today. We see people under attack for their for a variety of reasons, but in some instances for their beliefs, for what they do and what they say. The suspicion is that this woman was killed because she had been speaking out against the criminal elements that had been— that have been flourishing in New Orleans. And certainly we know that people in Baghdad who have been speaking out against the criminal insurgent elements within their own, either their own religious group or in other religious groups, have also been killed as a result of speaking out about their beliefs. I just think that the The challenges that we're facing as a species, as human beings, to find ways to live together in the midst of all the things that can be used to pull us apart is our greatest challenge. You know, we have thousands of years of civilization, but as we see in these two cities, that civilization is a thin veneer, you know, that sits on top of tremendous forces that can rip civilization apart. We don't want to believe that. We think that, you know, we've gotten to a point where civilization is something that we can count on, that it's part of our— that the sort of incivility that we see in these two pockets are isolated incidents. I also last night saw a film which is, of course, a fictional depiction of a future that has some connection with these two events, these two cities, the events in these two cities. And that was Children of Men. Um, if you have a chance to see this really compelling and very disturbing film— disturbing for lots of reasons, but also very heartening film— I suggest you do so because the theme here is a future in which some of the tensions that we see coming into our world today—tensions among groups, rebellions, the responses of governments and those in power to threats from immigration and other forces within their countries. When you see the way the filmmakers have put this film together, it's a not-incredible future. It is a credible— it is possible that the kinds of things that take place in that film could take place in civilized countries. That Children of Men takes place in England. In a fictitious England in the future, in like 2027 or some such thing. Anyway, these, all of these data points kind of lined up for me, and I don't know what conclusion I'm trying to draw from them. I don't think I'm trying to draw any conclusion from them as much as I am trying to say that, you know, there are there are large struggles taking place today, and people are fighting very hard to try to retain order in a world where there are others trying very hard to create disorder. And I don't— none of us are on the sidelines. None of us. We're all in this. Take it easy, by the way.
