Je Suis Charlie

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it, or so said Voltaire, a French philosopher and writer who mainly espoused freedom of expression. These may have been the last words in the minds of brothers Said and Charif Kouachi when they decided to try and silence forever the editors, cartoonists and other staff members of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine, for publishing “offensive” caricatures about their religion. After the carnage, 12 people lay dead—and the brothers, who had since been acknowledged as religious extremists, went on other shooting sprees involving French security forces until both were finally gunned down on Jan. 9.

It is sad to note that religions preach love, understanding and tolerance but extremists turn these teachings on their head and use them to commit atrocities, barbarism and murder on their fellow human beings.

The attack on the French satirical magazine is not a simple terrorist act, it is more of an assault against free speech and freedom of expression. It is also an alarming sign that extremists and terrorists are not going to take any prisoners when it comes to calling them out for their callous and barbaric acts.

It is of no surprise then that journalists and newspapers around the world rallied to support the embattled and decimated Charlie Hebdo. As it is, it is now the symbol for the journalists’ struggle against violence perpetrated against those whose primordial objective is to inform the people of all the happenings and issues around them.

Though irreverent and quite offensive at times, Charlie Hebdo graphically depicts what is really happening in the world. And in doing so, the people behind the magazine paid with their lives simply because some people cannot accept what they have done and what they continue to do.

And in a world that is creeping towards hatred, we should all pause and rethink on what we have done and what we are doing to continually push it further to extremism, violence and wholesale murder.

Tolerance has been pushed so far away that people would now think of minor slights as major insults. Some would even believe that telling them what they are actually doing in their faces is a sign of monumental disrespect. Then, there are those who are quite trigger-happy that showcasing what they are doing as fundamentally wrong would earn those who do so with unequivocal mayhem.

Here in Ilocos Norte alone, at least two murders have been recorded in the New Year’s first two weeks. A very inauspicious start to 2015 but something that can be corrected soon enough if all involved in law enforcement would buckle down to work and solve these crimes. In the process, if they can show how fast and efficient they are in solving these, they may prevent future repeats.

We are all in the same planet and as such we should all try to be more tolerable in understanding other people’s beliefs, ideas and actions. Otherwise, we may all end up wanting—and unbelievably trying—to kill one another.s