Weekend Column: Why We Care

Jan 11, 2015 by winjaw

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.” – Thomas Jefferson

Yesterday, on our Community Forum page, we ran a bunch of French words along with a slew of cartoons.

The headline across the top read: “Nous Sommes Charlie.” Translation is “We Are Charlie.”

Some of you may be scratching your head wondering who Charlie is. The majority, we hope, know that it does not refer to an individual, but rather a French magazine. Specifically, Charlie Hebdo. Translated as Weekly Charlie.

It is a strongly left-wing satirical magazine, meaning it uses humor to poke fun at just about everyone and everything. Catholics, Jews, the extreme political right, and yes, even Islam have all been targeted by the staff cartoonists’ pens and writers’ typewriters.

None of us have probably ever heard of it. I hadn’t. But that all changed earlier this week when at least two Islamic extremists broke into the magazine’s headquarters and executed at least 10 journalists and two police officers. Even more were injured.

The killings were in retaliation for a handful of cartoons the magazine published that depicted the prophet Muhammad in a rather unflattering light.

At least a dozen people were killed over a cartoon.

A freaking cartoon.

We published one of those cartoons on the Community Forum page Friday. To be honest, I wanted to publish more, but they had a lot of sexual organs showing and this is still a community newspaper.

Why publish? And why do we in Coweta County, and why does this newspaper for that matter, care about terroristic acts across the ocean? People are killed every day in every country.
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Because this is different.

These killings were bent on one thing and one thing only. To shut down the right of free speech. By doing so, these terrorists thought they could silence journalists with threats of death.

They failed. The millions of demonstrators across the world have proven them wrong.

One of the greatest gifts free people have is the right to express their views, say what they think and what they believe. That is what makes them free.

Compare the countries of Iran, North Korea, China or almost any Arab state to the United States, England or France. One group curtails freedom of speech to such an extent people are jailed or executed for expressing a view. In the other group, free speech is not only a privilege, but a right written into law.

These murders were an attempt by radical Muslims to destroy that right.

They failed.

Je suis Charlie.

The editorial page in question can be located here: http://www.times-herald.com/opinion/20150109-OPINION-LENIN-QUOTE