My degree is in newspaper journalism. Fresh out of college, I had an opportunity -- well, a potential opportunity, an offer to interview -- to actually work in the field, for actual money one presumes. I never found out, because I didn't pursue it. It would have meant a move to a city I didn't know, and I wasn't ready to do that. Little did I know it was the closest I would ever come to a career in journalism.
So, in what way is this about Daniel Pearl?
Because it illustrates a gulf that separates him from me. I wasn't willing to move across the state: He traveled to, and met his fate on, the other side of the planet, in a country that hates the religion he practiced.
Our world is diminished because he is no longer in it.
The killers of a storyteller deserve neither mercy nor negotiation. But in Pakistan, the murder of a Jew is not a capital crime. Some there would say it isn't a crime at all. And these are our allies...?
LATER: As is often the case, Natalija Radic at Libertarian Samizdata said it first and better.
LATER STILL: I'm beginning to regret having written this. Why? Because it's depressing to check my site meter and see how many people are searching for "Daniel Pearl videotape".
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