So, an acceptable response to the terrorism in France is for Charlie Hebdo to publish more offensive cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed? Rather than honouring the dead, that seems to me to dishonour. A more fitting remembrance and tribute might have been to produce an edition filled with the kind of satire that questions the world in which we live, (something this publication has done well in the past) where hate is fuelled by injustice and where the Western world floods news channels with terrorist attacks on the home front while ignoring huge scale massacre in Nigeria. In mounting such an impressive display of unity such as that seen in Paris last week, where world leaders linked arms and marched together, along with millions of others, we overlook the very real contribution of those powers in sowing the seeds of terrorism and in creating and funding regimes in which such evil can thrive.
Satire is not a tool to mock minorities but to challenge the powerful. None of us condones violence and evil on any scale but, sadly, we seem able to make some lives seem more valued than others.
Je suis Charlie? Not if being Charlie elevates the rights of some above others and ensures that some voices are heard while others continue to be silenced.
as a friend said last night, "if you know it's a bear, and you keep poking it, one of these days you can expect the bear to take a swing at you." I miss respect, civility.
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