Among the twelve French citizens murdered was an officer who was there to protect the editors and cartoonists from just such an attack. Eleven others were wounded. All of this from a difference of opinion.
It is one thing to have a piece of paper say that we are protected. That we can say and print whatever we want. That freedom of speech is a right that is granted to all citizens. And yes, France grants that right to all its citizens in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen just as the First Amendment of the Constitution protects our right to freedom of the press. But nowhere does it say that someone can take that right away from us. Not the government, not the people and certainly not masked gunmen.
I admit that I am not well versed on satire. But here is what I do understand.
Satire is using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose someone or criticize their weaknesses. Especially political or contemporary figures. Right? (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/satire)
Ok, well irony is the expression of one's meaning to signify the opposite for an emphatic effect. (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/irony#irony)
Granted, I'm not a language scholar, or even a master of the written word. But the terrorists (and that's what they are, I don't care how you slice it) may have been prompted to kill the people of Charlie Hebdo for drawing a picture of the prophet Mohamed as the editor-in-chief of their magazine. So, in a way, they killed their own prophet by killing the editors and the cartoonists who created him.
Therefore, Je Sui Charlie for all the cartoonists and writers of Charlie Hebdo. The whole world is standing with you.
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