If I can't tell you you're wrong, we are not equal. That is a phrase I'm borrowing from Douglas Murray, British Conservative thinker and author of The Strange Death of Europe. He, in turn, gleaned it from one of his mentors.
As an American, the phrase instantly jogs from memory our Founding Fathers' famous declaration: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …" And to the credit of our nation, this accepted God-given right has evolved these past 250 years to include all races and all genders.
As I write this, a protest is underway here in Paris at the Place de la République. People have gathered en masse in support of freedom of speech, and in anguished protest against yet another heinous crime meant to silence us as a people and strike fear into our hearts.
This time it was a teacher. Samuel Paty, 47 years old, was beheaded on Friday Oct. 16, in plain day, in the middle of the street in a suburb of Paris, Conflans-Saint-Honorine in Yvelines. The young man was a refugee from Chechen. The teacher's crime? He showed a caricature to his history-geography class from the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine that the student perceived to be derogatory toward Islam.
The police investigators so far have announced that this was far from a Lone Wolf operating in isolation, and much more likely a case of his being part of the organized "Lions of the Caliphate" or "Soldiers of the Caliphate." These members are often salaried and then sent on missions of terror.
In the United States this past week we saw our own iteration of domestic terrorism against free speech. For us it came in the form of Twitter and Facebook outright censoring the sitting President of the United States' campaign from re-tweeting a story published by one of the nation's oldest newspapers, the New York Post.
What is flagrantly alarming in this juxtaposition of two attacks, on different continents, in countries that value and hold sacred the right to freedom of speech is that they were perpetrated by different organizations — Silicon Valley Big Tech on the one hand and Daech, as in organized jihadists, on the other. And yet the purpose, aim and outcome is similar if not the same: "Silence all who disagree with us."
Paige Donner has contributed to Newsmax since 2018. She's a media expert, commentator, novelist, and serial entrepreneur. She founded the company, Paris Food And Wine in 2013. In 2018, she founded IoTShipping, a supply chain logistics startup that uses the Internet of Things (IoT) for precision traceability of shipped goods. Paige began her journalism career in Paris, France in 1990. Her first job out of university was with Time-Life's rue Fbg. St. Honore offices. Within the next two years, she took freelancing work as a copy editor for the International Herald Tribune, now re-branded the International New York Times, as well as writing assignments for Variety — the film and television trade magazine. Paige has also clerked for the Senate President of the Hawaii State Legislature. A filmmaker, she has written several television pilots as well as directed television commercials and film shorts. She also contributed to American Cinematographer, the Los Angeles Times, Daily Variety, Huffpost, and a film production trade magazine, Below The Line. As of 2010, Paige has again made Paris, France her home. She has also written for the International New York Times. Since 2013, she has been the sole regular local editor/photographer contributor based in Paris, France for USA Today. Read Paige Donner's Reports — More Here.