NOUS SOMMES TOUS CHARLIE
Immediately after masked gunmen, armed with automatic weapons and shouting “Allahu Akbar!”, murdered two police officers and ten staff members of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, in Paris on Wednesday, the hashtag #jesuischarlie began spreading quickly around the world — a gesture of solidarity with the victims. The implication of declaring “I am Charlie” was that any one of us is in danger of being attacked for voicing our opinions, particularly for criticizing fundamentalists, tyrants and hate-mongers, and those who use fear and violence to silence their opponents. Regardless of the politics involved, the unsavory nature or unpopularity of the viewpoint, the cornerstone of a democratic society is the right to express any and all ideas without fear of retribution from governments or other powerful entities.
This was not the magazine’s first brush with violence or the ire of fundamentalist Islam. In 2011, the offices were firebombed in response…
View original post 1,004 more words
poetry, photos and musings oh my! 