OPINION:
Thomas Jefferson, who lived in Paris for five years while serving as U.S. minister to France, reportedly wrote: “A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of life.”
As someone who also had the privilege of living in that city, I echo Jefferson’s words. Paris is a magical place filled with history and beauty. It provides special and even simple pleasures. There is nothing quite like a meandering walk through the streets and byways of the French capital.
Unfortunately, today Paris is being ravaged by anarchists, Islamists and angry members of immigrant communities engaged in a systematic campaign to destroy the foundation of French and Western societies. The violence and destruction are devastating not just to Paris but also to those of us who have a kind of love affair with the city.
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I spent my earliest years living just behind Place de la Republique, the large Paris plaza that has been the site of some of the most violent confrontations in this round of rioting. It is disconcerting to watch the area where I used to walk with my mother and brother every day after school become an urban battlefield, broken glass and graffiti everywhere.
The Paris of my youth — which was still recovering from the horrors of the German occupation during World War II — was far from a paradise, but it was relatively free of crime and violence. Culture and religion were still very important parts of Parisian life.
Family — the hierarchical family, with the father as the dominant force — was the glue that kept society on an even keel. A tough education system kept the young under strict control.
Life involved a great deal of social interaction. Shopping for food in the numerous small, specialized food stores was a daily activity that required direct contact with store owners. There were no supermarkets, and the lack of refrigerators meant making daily food purchases.
Transportation was mostly by metro and bus, requiring a great deal of interaction with the crowds on public transit. Politeness was a requirement. Everyone was “Monsieur” or “Madame,” and that formality was accompanied by proper dress.
Of course, political disputes have always been a staple of French life, and Paris has usually been at the center of those disputes. I recall the endless debates among family members about French historical events, old and new. The decades-old Dreyfus Affair remained a hot topic of argument as I was growing up.
Matters relating to the not-too-distant occupation were painful and contentious topics. The public arena was filled with dramatic political conflict and even occasional violence.
Today’s riots, however, are very different. A hatred of France permeates a political class on the left. That hatred is seeping into the young generation of immigrants who not only refuse to assimilate into traditional French society but also excoriate those who do. Though living in France and often French citizens, they appear to feel little love for France or Paris.
To be clear, I am hardly against immigration. My father was an immigrant from Eastern Europe to France in the 1930s, where he benefited from opportunities denied him in his native Poland. He served loyally in the French army and fought the Germans in 1940.
His disenchantment with France stemmed from the persecutions of the Vichy regime and its consequences, ultimately leading him to decide to move to the United States.
My mother’s family immigrated to Paris from Eastern France 100 years earlier. They were fully assimilated and fiercely patriotic. I was the recipient of their devotion to France, and even today, decades after my immediate family left France, I still feel shivers down my spine when I hear “La Marseillaise” being sung.
I am always happy to travel to France, whether for business or personal reasons.
The affection that I have for France — and for Paris in particular — makes it difficult to understand and accept the ongoing violence. There is no social benefit to be derived from the destruction of monuments and the looting of shops. There is no justification for random acts of violence or for those who wave Palestinian flags while allegedly seeking better educational conditions.
Maybe Jefferson was right when he juxtaposed the history and beauty which epitomize Paris with the point of life, which is complex, often painful and always enigmatic.
Life in Paris can be delightful, but it can also be difficult and unpleasant. The present is evoking the latter.
Hopefully, the French government has the will to solve these problems. Then the almost mystical and enchanting spell that Paris can cast on all who live in or pass through the city will be restored.
• Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington office of a national law firm. He is the author of “Lobbying for Equality: Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Civil Rights During the French Revolution,” published by HUC Press.
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