Except for some versions of pacifism, the right to armed struggle against oppression is universally recognized. The doctors of the medieval church recognized the right to rebel against tyranny. The U.N. recognizes the right to engage in armed struggle for self-determination. Thomas Jefferson inscribed into the U.S. Declaration of Independence the right to take up arms against a government that proceeds with "a long train of abuses and usurpations."
Indeed, many Americans believe they have a right to shoot a burglar who intrudes into their house to steal a VCR. How, then, can one deny the right to take arms to people who have, indeed, suffered a 50-year "train of abuses and usurpations," who have been dispossessed and expelled, who live under a vicious military rule for the last 35 years, without human rights, without civil rights, with even their own water taken from them, with sewage running in the non-streets of the world's most overcrowded concentration camps, with soldiers shooting at them at will and settlers, living on their stolen fields, attacking them at will? How is it possible to deny the right of people to take arms against those who work to disappear them?
It isn't possible. And that is why none of those who attacked Paulin has any patience for discussing the rights and boundaries of legitimate rebellion and violence. Instead, they resort to name calling.
Indeed, many Americans believe they have a right to shoot a burglar who intrudes into their house to steal a VCR. How, then, can one deny the right to take arms to people who have, indeed, suffered a 50-year "train of abuses and usurpations," who have been dispossessed and expelled, who live under a vicious military rule for the last 35 years, without human rights, without civil rights, with even their own water taken from them, with sewage running in the non-streets of the world's most overcrowded concentration camps, with soldiers shooting at them at will and settlers, living on their stolen fields, attacking them at will? How is it possible to deny the right of people to take arms against those who work to disappear them?
It isn't possible. And that is why none of those who attacked Paulin has any patience for discussing the rights and boundaries of legitimate rebellion and violence. Instead, they resort to name calling.