Leadership in New Zealand - Thank you Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

"What has happened in Christchurch is an extraordinary act of unprecedented violence. It has no place in New Zealand. Many of those affected will be members of our migrant communities – New Zealand is their home – they are us." Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

An editorial published in the Middletown Press, a Connecticut newspaper and The Chicago Tribune.

From an American perspective, New Zealand is half way around the Earth. But that perceived isolation doesn’t equal protection from evil. As the world saw in Christchurch, evil can come from anywhere and descend on anyone. 

Moreover, the internet can speed messages of hate.

On Friday March 15, at least one mad gunman attacked two mosques in Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island, killing several dozen people and wounding dozens more. It was afternoon on the day of prayer for Muslims.

The carnage was purposeful and heinously livestreamed on Facebook. This was an abominable act of violence, designed to be seen and shared. A shooter, apparently using a helmet camera, led viewers on his rampage.

The design of the crime is all too recognizable.

• It is Pittsburgh, where a gunman killed 11 people in a synagogue.
• It is a South Texas church, where a murderer killed 26 people.
• It is a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., where the death toll was six.

It is terrorism carried out against a targeted group of victims at their most peaceful and thus vulnerable: people at prayer. 
One can speculate about a possible motive — in this case, white nationalist rage — but logic fails to justify such twisted acts.

New Zealand, like the United States, is a multicultural nation where Muslims are assimilated contributors to society. But like other groups, including Jewish people, Muslims are a highly visible minority, owing to their cultural identity and pattern of worship.

One aspect of this crime that gained immediate attention was the livestream. Early evidence suggested the internet also played a role in fomenting the gunman’s hateful ideology. 

The dark corners of cyberspace are full of such evil lunacy.

All kinds of ideas, good and evil, go viral through social media. Societies can’t outlaw hate. Government cannot regulate thought or ban words. In the United States, the First Amendment doesn’t take sides. Short of explicit threats, free speech must be free, which limits the ability of lawmakers to prevent eruptions of hate like the one in New Zealand.

But that doesn’t mean civilized societies are powerless.  (MaineWriter- Common sense regulations can be implemented without interfering with First Amendment or Second Amendment freedoms.)

Gatekeepers such as Facebook and other social media purveyors do have a responsibility to patrol and regulate their own venues. And all of us have a responsibility to eradicate racial supremacy and other vile forms of bigotry.

Two messages come at us from faraway New Zealand. (a) First is the need to call out the hatred of the mass “them,” no matter who “they” may be; and (2) teach tolerance and embrace the differences that make people of all backgrounds unique and equal.

If all of us listen, those messages have a chance of squelching these senseless acts.

This editorial is from the Chicago Tribune.