It’s not often we write about world events in this space. As a twice-weekly newspaper serving readers in a small Alberta city, that is really not our place. Our job, as we see it, is to let you know what is happening in our community and to share the joys and successes, as well as the sorrows and troubles of those who live or work within St. Albert’s boundaries. With luck, we encourage debate of local issues and help keep an eye on the decisions and spending habits of our local councils and boards.
Sometimes, however, when world events create such big waves and affect so many people, we cannot remain silent. So it is with the cruel and well-planned slaughter of 12 people at Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine that poked fun at a wide spectrum of human activities including religion. These cold-blooded murders carried out by a violent malignancy that has infected the world of Islam, has cut to the core of our collective values.
The action of these deranged zealots tells us that because we do not believe what they believe, that we must die or live in mortal fear of offending their delicate sensibilities.
But what they fail to understand is that the very freedoms they are trying to suppress are the same ones that allow them to exist. Freedom of religion is another guise of the freedom of speech or the freedom of the press. The ironic truth is that while we do not have to accept or even respect what anyone else thinks, we must constantly endeavour to ensure they have the right to think it. And the same goes the other way. The cartoons in Charlie Hebdo may not have been to everyone’s taste and may have been deliberately provocative, but they had every right to be part of the human conversation.
That’s why, as people who live by the pen ourselves, we were heartened to see an outpouring of support springing up in cities around the world. As crowds held their pens high in tribute to the slain cartoonists, there appeared to be a heartening solidarity between writers and readers, we in the newspaper business seldom witness. These spontaneous demonstrations also appeared to mourn not only those who were mercilessly shot down, but also the crime committed to the freedom of the press. To those crowds we say thank you. It is nice to see people appreciate what any of us in this business do.
But sadly, we suspect these feelings will subside as they always do, and that the crowds mainly shed crocodile tears. It would nice to be proven wrong, but we must ask where these people were when so many major newspapers suffered in the past decade, when political leaders routinely brushed off reporters, or when journalists were jailed, or even executed in different parts of the world, for doing the things they are good at – simply telling stories and having opinions.
We’d like to be proven wrong, but we suspect the crowds will soon become as quiet as the Charlie Hebdo offices. And that’s too bad.
