I prefer to keep the blog light, but the Charlie Hebdo executions cannot go unmentioned.
The juxtaposition between this subject and the frivolity of things that surround it is absurd. You’ll mostly find any sociopolitical discussion here prompted by examination of a given piece of entertainment. Writers and editorial cartoonists being killed for doing their jobs, however, for provoking thought, for challenging doctrine and indoctrination, for calling bullshit on armed thugs whose perversions of spiritual belief are so counter to the better angels of human nature that they can only impose their points of view through physical intimidation, well, although I know that it’s not inherently more vile than other episodes of violence or injustice visited upon people around the world daily, be they splashed across the media or unconscionably overlooked, it simply hits so close to home that in this instance I can’t not stand up, virtually speaking.
I know too many people who could have been those at Charlie Hebdo who lost their lives today, and I hold freedom of expression too closely to my heart. Poking around online, I find conversations about the intense material that Charlie Hebdo published, which isn’t what one might want as a poster child but is probably what’s best to make the respect of free speech more than a sop. I support the inalienable right of people everywhere to speak their minds, to engage in conversation, to create art in myriad forms, in the press and the public square, building rather than striking down.
Related: Help • No Words • The Sixth, Lies, and Videotape
No comments:
Post a Comment