I am Charlie because my freedom of speech has been attacked, and my right to free speech has been challenged. Having been engaged in writing, for over 40 years, the blood and bullets, which were pervasive during the attacks in Paris, have greatly offended me. Islamic terrorists struck in the City of Light and their heinous acts darkened freedom of speech all over the world.
Being an absolutist, when freedom of speech and freedom of the press, are under attack, is abhorrent. This has been an ingrained belief since beginning writing as the editor of my high school and college newspapers.
Make no mistake, there is a global war being waged in too many nations to count. Europe, not surprisingly, is now in the eye of the storm for terrorism acts. Perhaps the lax immigration policies and laws have caused significant problems.
How will Europe and, indeed, the United States react to this escalation of the war of terrorism?
The power of the pen has been a cornerstone of democracy for centuries, through both the written word and cartoon drawings, to make statements on so many issues.
The Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz has written: “The threat of fear of violence should not become an excuse of retaliation for freedom of speech.” The assassinations at Charlie Hebro in Paris were simply a massacre of innocents who choose the pen to express freedom of thought and speech. This freedom must be retained by all free nations across the globe. It is a freedom worth fighting for and defending.
Political cartoons have existed and been prominent in the French Revolution, English political struggles and the American Revolution through cartoonists such as American Thomas Nast during the Robber Baron era. In the United States, the first amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and the press. The attack on Charlie Hebro proves the fact that the Islamic terrorists vividly demonstrate their lack of respect for free speech and thought.
The war against terrorism experienced a new height in Paris.
In addition to attacking military and government targets, the terrorists have struck at a basic freedom.
Will the print and electronic media now be targets of the Islamic terrorists in the United States? What new and enhanced plans will our government take to protect these soft targets and precious freedoms? This new dimension of the war on terrorism will further challenge the need to protect civil liberties yet be prepared for terrorist attacks. Islamic radicals will strike anywhere, any time that the opportunity avails itself in Europe, Africa, America, and other target rich nations. The zealots hate the West and Judeo Christian cultures. We remain infidels. We remain the enemy.
The attacks we are enduring today are really, in many cases, inspirational attacks. Inspiration born either in actual ISIS training camps or through the ingenious use of social media.
Terrorists successes have succeeded by changing tactics to effectively understand and implement the tools of social media utilized by the young disaffected, poverty-stricken, and those in need for attention, in many nations.
So, I am Charlie. All freedom-loving persons who believe vehemently in free speech are Charlie.
Let us not forget the slain journalists and police who gave their lives so that freedom of speech will never be defeated.
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Sharron Cassavant says
Voltaire had it right. ” I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Willard T. Engelskirchen says
Please consider this:
The “League of the South” has advocated secession of the South and armed paramilitary units. One Republican member of the Anne Arundel county council is a member of the organization.
Last summer in the Cliven Bundy standoff armed citizens pointed guns at federal agents from behind concrete barricades. After this 2 of them murdered a policeman in Las Vegas before they were killed. I thought pointing a weapon at someone was assault – a felony.
We now have Sovereign Citizens who do not pay taxes and have murdered police who were only doing their jobs.
World wide right wing racist and anti-Semitic groups are growing. In France, Hungary, Germany, Russia, Croatia, and the United States.
The man who murdered 3 outside a Jewish Center last year had been jailed for conspiracy to murder Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
These are all right wing, often “Christian” organizations. Most are home grown right here in the USA. We have our own issues and they are not all related to the left wing or Muslims.
Please check out the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center. There are bad actors most of us are not even aware of.