By Spencer Michlin, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX – Recently, my wife and I went to our favorite French bistro. It wasn't until we were seated that we realized that we were the only patrons in the place. It hadn't occurred to us until that moment that the proprietors, who confirmed it to us, were suffering from the idiotic "freedom fries" syndrome.
Unlike most of my friends I am not opposed to this war. Unlike a lot of my neighbors, I am not rabidly for it, either. It strikes me as one of those adult choices, the least horrible long-term option. My internal ambivalence more or less mirrors much of what our society at large felt before the shooting started. And an array of diverse countries, almost all of Western Europe, China, most of South America, even our Arab allies oppose or have distanced themselves from the war.
It seems unreasonable, therefore, to hold it against France for having the temerity to take a point of view representative of most its people and a significant portion of our own. And it strikes me as insane to react by pouring out Perrier and Chablis. When the people who make French's mustard are obliged to head off a boycott by making a point of their non-Frenchness, some absurd line has been breeched, and when this attitude is carried to its ultimate conclusion - violence - it begins to erode the fundamental values of America. A quick and unscientific survey of some French and French-sounding businesses in our community revealed that, yes, almost all of them claim to be hurt by this attitude. A call to my friend Shirley French Reichstadt, who operates the dry cleaners started by her parents Mr. and Mrs. D.D. French, yielded a chilling story. While Shirley said that her business doesn't seem to be off, colleagues at a recent convention advised her to change the name of her store because a business in California that called itself a French dry cleaners had been torched by vigilantes.
Of all the stupid rhetoric flying about on this topic, the most no-nothing of all is the rant that, if it weren't for us, the French would be speaking German. Yeah. And if it weren't for the French, we'd still be British subjects. Know what? Each country came to the aid of the other, at least in part, because it was in its national interest to do so, and right or wrong, like it or not, each country is serving what its leaders perceive to be its national interest now.
One of the miracles of the human mind is its ability to simultaneously hold opposing thoughts. Therefore, one can accept the sincerity of President Bush's belief that this war will make the world safer and hope that he is right while wondering if most of the rest of the world knows something that we do not. And one can be proud of our fighting men and women and pray for their safe return without destroying our Dixie Chicks CD's. Loyal Americans support this war and loyal Americans disagree.
To oppose the policies of the French government is to exercise the freedom we've fought many wars to defend. To boycott French products may be ill advised but it's our right. To extend that boycott to Americans, whether or not of French origin, is moronic jingoism and to do so violently is, of course, criminal. Meanwhile, if you've got some Bordeaux that you just don't feel right about drinking, don't pour it out. Send it to me.
Spencer Michlin is a writer from Dallas.