America Stands With France

Early on January 7th, 2015 in Paris, France there was a tragic and horrific shooting on a French satirical newspaper, killing twelve people. The newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, was attacked by masked, armed gunmen stormed the office and killed the twelve, whose names were later posted in Le Monde and Le Figaro newspapers.

The attack was directly related to a cartoon drawing poking fun at the Muslim prophet Muhammad. This link was most obviously shown due to the gunmen screaming "avenged Muhammad".

Among those killed were Stéphane Charbonnier, 47, who was known professionally as Charb; Jean Cabut, 76, who used the pen name Cabu; Georges Wolinski, 80; Philippe Honoré, 73; and Bernard Verlhac, 57, who wrote as Tignous, Bernard Maris, a columnist, Elsa Cayat, a psychoanalyst, Michel Renaud, Frédéric Boisseau, Franck Brinsolaro, and Ahmed Merabet.

There are no words for the true tragedy that takes place when an event like this rises through the news, as innocent lives are taken away. 

So, John Kerry's message on the incident rings truly in my ears when he told the French people that America stands with them. 

President Obama stated:

"The fact that this was an attack on journalists, attack on our free press, also underscores the degree to which these terrorists fear freedom of speech and freedom of the press [...] But the one thing that I'm very confident about is that the values that we share with the French people, a belief - a universal belief in the freedom of expression, is something that can't be silenced because of the senseless violence of the few,"

He couldn't be more correct in saying that we share the belief of freedom of expression, and we will always be willing to fight for that.

That's all I have for today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"I am not afraid of retaliation. I have no kids, no wife, no car, no credit. It perhaps sounds a bit pompous, but I prefer to die standing than to live on my knees." -Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier