Re “France, paradise lost” (Opinion, Nov. 4): Pamela Druckerman concludes her article on France with: “These days, it’s just a flawed, ordinary country that mostly thinks for itself.” I, too, have lived in France for over 12 consecutive years and do not recognize the France the writer describes. The French remain book readers, rational, caring for the “other,” simultaneously pragmatic and abstract in their thinking, both altruistic and realistic, and believers in the idea that thought has no frontiers.
France has the largest Muslim population in Europe and must be commended for insisting that those who aspire to become French citizens adhere to the rules of the enlightened republic and its secular laws—and that learning the French language is mandatory. Likewise, France ought to serve as an example to the United States, mired as its political system is in Christian fundamentalism, gun culture, and a phobia of the immigrant “other.” The French have succeeded in finding the balance between non-savage capitalism and the humanistic tenets of the French Revolution. Theirs is a country whose values beg emulation.
Constantine Christofides
New York
Note from KBJ: Theirs is a country on the verge of destruction. Good riddance!
