Precarious Assumptions :: Research Essays Term Papers

Precarious Assumptions It is easy to look back on an event and judge people's motives and consequential actions, deciding or at least speculating about whether or not they acted reasonably. But, few people can step back and examine their impulse while making a decision. On January 13, 1898, French writer Emile Zola attempted this when he interrupted the cry "Death to the Jews!" sounding from mobs of Frenchmen, and wrote the famous expository article, "J'Accuse" (Burns 104). The letter addressed to the President of the French Republic, foretold that a scandal the government left unsettled, The Alfred Dreyfus Affair, would haunt France as one of the most shameful events in its history. His motivation, he wrote, had "but one goal: that light be shed, in the name of mankind which has suffered so much as has the right to happiness" (Burns 102). The outright accusations Zola publicized assured him a cell in jail, but only for a short time for his candor also exposed the fiasco to the previously naÃÆ'Â ¯ve publ ic. Despite his immediate influence on the events of the republic, it was not until 1998, that a French president formally acknowledged Zola's courage and insight. On the centenary of "J'Accuse," President Jacques Chirac wrote his own letter thanking the man who "rose up against the lie, the baseness, and the cowardice. Shocked at the injustice against Captain Dreyfus, whose only crime was to be Jewish, [he] launched his famous cry. . .that. . . struck like lightning and, in a few hours, changed the destiny of the Affair. Truth was on the march" (Burns 191). Even the words of the trusted French author Emile Zola obliged a century of reflection before inspiring the adulation of President Jacques Chirac. Had Zola remained indifferent, another Frenchman may have taken up Dreyfus' cause. But if not, could France have remained shrouded by an injurious lie? What historical price do we pay when fear and prejudice mingle? My heart sank when I received an Instant Message three nights before Halloween from a high school friend who now attends Columbia University: Two Arab men were apprehended yesterday at a Costco in New Jersey after a suspicious employee phoned the police on the men who were attempting to buy $5,000 worth of candy. One of the men escaped, but the one detained was found to be in the country illegally. Josh and I agreed that if it were true, the incident would make it on the news, actually, that a reporter would most likely have made it to the New Jersey Costco before the Police.