Yesterday’s horrific, unthinkable tragedy in Nice invariably raises the question of why.  Why do they hate us?  Why does someone get into a truck and drive it into a crowded parade of kids and their parents?  Why does this keep happening?

Despite the growing trend of these kinds of attacks, I believe that they augur greater hope in the long run than despair.  I would suggest that the reason behind their increased frequency is the realization that, year after year, the terrorists are losing ground and the frustration that this engenders in the marginalized radical elements in our society.  This frustration then leads to the compulsion to lash out and strike soft targets as they can.  They are in effect sore losers, trying to inflict as much pain and suffering on their way down as they possibly can.  And they are losing because their vision of the world is simply not as attractive and not as compelling.[1]

The attacks themselves stem from intolerance.  Intolerance of a certain way of life that clashes with their anachronistic value system.  They dislike our perceived hedonism but what is that but an expression of our passions.  They dislike our push for equal rights, clinging to the medieval belief that women are somehow less deserving of self-determination.  As evidenced in Orlando, they dislike our tolerance and respect for a different vision of sexuality and sexual preference.  In their narrow world view, these behaviors are intolerable and should be punishable by death.

So how should we respond?  Should we close our borders?  Cast a suspicious eye on all those who fit a certain profile?  Bomb them back to the Stone Age?  The strength of our society, and that which has us on the winning end of this historical clash, is our ability to come together and tolerant difference and dissent.  We don’t need to agree, nor should we.  If someone wants to lead a more conservative lifestyle, they have every right to do so.  If a woman wants to wear a burka, a hijab, a tichel, or a bonnet, we should not stop her.  Nor should we look down on her for doing so.  But we should make sure that it is her choice and an expression of her will, rather than that of a domineering patriarch.  We should respect their choice as they respect ours to wear bikins and sungas.  If a gentleman wants to kiss another gentleman or a lady a lady, live and let live.  These are values that we have increasingly embraced as a progressive, more tolerant society.  It is the source of our collective strength.  And the reason we are attacked.

The major victory for the attackers would be if we were to change our society and our vision of progress.  It would mark defeat to put up more walls, draw more boundaries, and cut off dialogue and contact between our different communities.  In America, we have experienced less of these attacks because it is generally easier for foreigners of all race and creed to assimilate.  Our system has plenty of flaws and is far from perfect, but it is on the whole better than the banlieues of Paris and the ethnic ghettoes of other major European cities that stoke the flames of separatism.  It is what we, to date, have gotten right.  But I think the majority of French and Germans and other Europeans realize this, which is why they opened their doors to refugees, who were fleeing this very retrograde world view and at the same time validating and embracing our approach, while we Americans argued about the best way to keep them out.

Yesterday, in France and around the world, was about the celebration of values that have become universally appreciated and embraced since 1789: liberty, equality, and fraternity.  In the best version of ourselves, we believe in a more open, tolerant society that allows for and respects our differences while promoting our freedom to make and enjoy those choices.  We want people of every color and creed to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor without fearing for their lives or their safety (and that of their children).  But we also recognize that we need to do this together.  It doesn’t work if there’s no fraternity.  Bastille Day is the celebration of these values.  And it should remain that way.[2]

Those who perpetrate these kinds of attacks are trying to drive a wedge through our society.  Trying to get us to cynically build walls and fences and barriers.  Let’s realize why we were attacked in the first place and continue to celebrate the victories we have achieved while pushing for the ones to come.  Keep the faith.  And remember that we’re the ones who are winning.

[1] A point that President Obama, among others, has done an excellent job of making.

[2] That and the storming of an empty prison, but that’s another matter entirely