FREEDOM FIGHTERS

We’ve all heard that free speech in America is not absolute. For example, you just can’t scream “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater. Not unless it’s actually burning, that is. Then feel free to go as nuts as you please. This shocking news story illustrates why there are limitations on what you can say.

Any other week, this story would likely have been all over the headlines. But Katrina, understandably, has dominated our media – so a lot of people won’t hear that nearly 700 Iraqis died in a stampede today. Yes, a stampede. Not your ordinary, everyday stampede of frightened livestock. Not a stampede of horses or camels…or even a stampede for fun – like the ones they throw in Spain every year for the criminally stupid.

This was a stampede of people.

Massive crowds had gathered to attend a religious ceremony at the Kadhimiya mosque in an old district of Baghdad when someone shouted that there was a suicide bomber in their midst. Panic ensued, and hundreds of people began scrambling in every direction, funneling to safety over a nearby bridge. Many threw themselves off the bridge. Many others were crushed underfoot by the frenzied mob. A majority of the victims were said to be women, children, and elderly.

The death toll has been listed at 700, but is climbing and expected to reach 1,000. Can you even imagine a thousand dead bodies, crushed and trampled by a wave of terrified church-goers? Just when you think they’re making some progress over there, some idiot screams “Suicide Bomber!” near a crowded mosque and 700 people are instantly no longer. Restoring the peace over there has proven nearly as futile as opening a ketchup packet with greasy fingers.

I personally find it extremely ironic that so much death can result from the very freedoms we struggle to support: Freedom of assembly. Freedom of worship. Freedom of speech. In this case, a deadly combination.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take some scissors to this ketchup packet.