Bears, Beets, and Burkas

The ability to love and speak freely is inherent to the American experience. While it might seem at some times that the United States is falling behind the rest of the world because of their forward thinking attitudes, occasionally something comes along that reveals where our place really is. Perhaps it's our tolerance of free speech that often embarrasses us, but in the end that is all we have to set us apart from other developed nations. The inspiration for this line of reasoning comes from

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/22/sarkozy-burqas-are-not-we_n_218920.html

the statement that French president Nicolas Sarkozy made regarding the Muslim burka. Sarkozy, in an attempt to support women's rights, said that they were not welcome in his country. While his motives may have been sincere the only thing worse than telling people what they can do is telling them what they cant. Denying women the ability to express themselves in a way that you think is oppressive only compounds the problem. Part of me thinks that a person who has the charisma to become the leader of a powerful country like France should already know this, and perhaps he does. Either way, the ban of the burka reeks of the same ban of female sexuality that brought the burka in to existence in the first place.