Je Suis Charlie!
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the sunny, frigid, calm island of Nantucket! A pleasure being with you on this Thursday morning, the eighth day of January, 2015; a frozen day here on this little sand bar as noted by a winter image of one of our fast ferries, ‘the Grey Lady’, seen above speeding it’s passengers back to the mainland from the sparsely populated rock of Nantucket (this time of year), a lonely, isolated, cold place and separated by 30 miles of Nantucket Sound…
That physical separation of seeming civilization was perceived in another way yesterday, across another body of water, the Atlantic, where heavily armed (presumably Jihadis from either Al Qaida or ISIL, or acting out on behalf and per direction of said organizations), militia men (three), opened fire in Paris, France at the offices of the satirical newspaper–a popular and sometimes controversial periodical–“Charlie Hebdo”, a paper founded in the 60’s. Always on the cutting edge of that dangerous political/religious/social satirical line, crossed often offending many millions, none so much as the Muslim population upset recently of how the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon his name), has been depicted over the years, mocking the very core of the Islamic faith.
Paris officials have identified three men, all wearing black and heavily armed in video, ‘the Kouachi brothers’ along with an unidentified 18 year old man, and as of seven fifty a.m., eastern time, the suspects remain on the loose. The victims were many, as one man described the scene as one out of a horror movie, and in the end, 12 lie dead, among them beloved journalist and senior editor for the paper Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier, who, as one of the cartoonists, was well known by his enemies who had already marked him for death, famously stating after a fire bombing of the building in 2011, “…our job is not to defend freedom, but without freedom of speech, we are all dead. I prefer to die than live like a rat.”
Other victims include Cartoonists‘ Jean “Cabu” Cabut 76, Bernard “Tignous” Verlhae, 57, Georges Wolinski 80, Philippe Honore, 73 and economist/columnist, a French favorite, “Uncle Bernard” to his readers, along with four others attending the editorial meeting that fateful Wednesday high noon day, not forgetting the two policemen, one of whom was Charbonnier’s personal bodyguard.
The French people are observing a “Day of Mourning” today as this was France’s worst terrorist attack since 1961, during the height of a war with Algeria. Suffice to say, many in this country are on alert, but most admit this is not likely to happen in the U.S., not at this moment anyway. However, France and Europe in general do not have that luxury and remain on high alert as this has become somewhat of a trend, although not as crude as the lone ‘wolf’ attacks in Australia and Canada of late, but not holding the sophistication of a 9/11 type of barbarity, an act that packs more of a global punch, economically, socially, physically, etctera.
It goes without saying that “We are Charlie”–as the above headline reads in French–and freedom of speech is the most important freedom WE, as a world society, have and WE must defend it from savages who have no moral compass, lo, only a bloody machine gun with no soul. Or a maniacal soul that has been sold to the highest bidder to gun down innocents and those who rail against your radical agenda dictates. Whatever you choose to believe in, or not believe in matters not, for God, Allah, Jesus, Mohammed, all the greats, made it pretty clear how that greatness is shown. He is great in his mercy and kindness, not in his endless ‘revenge’ and blind blood lust.
Have a nice day everybody, keeping in mind that there is a greater chance of you being hit by lightening than you do of ever being inconvenienced by some deranged terrorist emanating from the sands of Syria, Yemen or Sudan. Our thoughts and prayers are with the French people today and with the families of those slain by these EVIL men. May your pens continue to flow with impunity and your periodical continue to flourish and make people laugh!
PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
