I Stand with Charlie Hebdo
Join Me
“To Hold a Pen is to be at War”
~ Voltaire ~
Voltaire’s words were the first, which I wrote on the That Is All For Now facebook page, when I began to design it. He was a Frenchman, with many opinions, who refused to be silenced, and was willing to pay the price his convictions placed upon him. Whether or not I agree with his views on religion, politics, or art, is of no importance, what matters is that he should have the right to freely express his opinions; as should we all.
On January 7, 2015, at approximately 11:20 A.M., during a staff meeting at Charlie Hebdo, a French publication, in Paris, two gunmen forced their way into the weekly magazines office, and began shooting, calling out the names of specific victims, as they fired.
The dead include four cartoonists Stéphane Charbonnier, the editor of Charlie Hebdo, Jean Cabut, Bernard Verlhac, and Georges Wolinski, economist Bernard Maris, former journalist Michel Renaud, who was in the office to visit Jean Cabut, police officers Franck Brinsolaro, killed in the magazines office, where he was assigned to protect Stéphane Charbonnier, and Ahmed Merabet, executed on the streets of Paris, shot in his face, as well as members of the staff. There are reports that another eleven individuals were injured, four critically.
They were killed to be silenced. The magazine, at which most of the victims worked, and at whom this violence was targeted, was satirical and without exception in who was lampooned, on its pages. It was founded to protest the censorship of a cartoon in Hara Kiri, another French magazine, in 1970.
The shock and outrage, felt around the world, by this massacre is palatable. One does not have to agree with the content published by Charlie Hebdo; but we must stand in solidarity with them, and support their right to write.
For any tyranny to succeed it must control the free flow of information and ideas. There is nothing more terrifying to a despot, bully, or terrorist than the truth, and today, we hold the power to speak and spread the truth. Do not be silenced; do not let this evil and insanity define you. If you are reading these words, then you hold the power of the pen, at your fingertips – use it! That is all for now.
“The pen is mightier than the sword.”
~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ~
Post Card Credit: Centenaire De La Statue De La Liberté 1886-1986, Dessin: A. Eskenazy
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30719057
http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-paris-victims-20150107-htmlstory.html
