Je Suis Charlie

by John Galt


Free speech was brutally attacked in Paris.  Terrorists killed 12 in an attack on the office of the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo.  Someone took offense at their satire and took lives.

Remember the childhood rhyme “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!”    My parents taught me to let the words roll off my back because sometime somewhere someone’s words will offend me or will be counter to my own thoughts.  Other than my feelings, when nothing else is hurt, get over it.  Why escalate a perceived slight into violence?  

We have warnings on movies and music CDs that warn us of the content.  If we don’t like a show on television, we can change the channel or turn it off.  If we don’t like what someone says, we can tune them out, walk away or avoid them.  We have choices.  People get offended, but it is their choice to be offended.  A long time ago, someone told me that no one can make me mad, I choose to be mad.  When you get right down to it, yeah, I could as easily chosen otherwise.

But when someone makes a choice to be offended, then escalate their discord to violence, that is so outside the bounds of social etiquette that it is barbaric.  What is even sadder is it seems this was done to vindicate a slight to their prophet, a prophet that was referred to in the Quran as a “mercy to the worlds”.  There is no honor there.

I don’t agree with all that is said; not by a mile.  When the Westboro Baptists protested soldier’s funerals, by no means did I agree.  But rather than hating them and escalating a response into violence, we rallied around the soldier’s families and shut them out.   I chose to get mad, but I reacted by voicing my disgust and joining the wave of honorable people that spoke out against them.  There are more of us than there are haters in that church and we too have a voice.  As the adage goes, fight fire with fire.  

We are involved in wars to give people the right to free speech.  We protest when our rights to free speech are challenged.  Today, we must rally around the world’s right to free speech, even if you don’t agree with the message.  Charlie Hebdo was quoted as saying, “I’d rather die standing than live on my knees."  Today, I am Charlie because I have the right to deliver a message.  And, as always, you have the right to tune me out or change the channel.  But today and every day, je suis Charlie.