What if none of us could say what we liked...

There are moments in time that I have taken this writing lark too seriously.   The fact I call myself a writer in any way is a sure sign of that and whilst I have written the outline of a book I am not sure I become a writer until I have published.  This blog I believe still counts, counts as hundreds of people see it on a weekly basis.

My blog is about recruitment.  It will remain about recruitment but every so often in life, in our worlds something bigger than that occurs.  It makes every moan I have made, every dig at authority pale into insignificance.  That something this week, this year, this decade maybe was the horrific shootings in Paris this Wednesday.

The attacks on innocent people in this way are an affront to the way we live our lives.   Whatever offense the Charlie Hebdo team may have caused abhorrent mass murder can never be the solution.  Charlie Hebdo is after all a satirical magazine, it attacks and mocks all of us in equal measure minorities and majorities alike, mainstream religion of all denominations and faiths.

It has treated Islam in the same way as other religions, clearly continuing to put their money where their mouth was after they were attacked by a firebomb.  I am not sure how many of us would continue to write, to draw to mock something that responds in such a violent way.

They were and remain committed to carry on in the name of free expression.   The journalists did not bring this attack upon themselves, they did not provoke their attackers they were standing up for what they believe.  They were standing up for all of us.  The response should have been in kind, send them an email, write them a letter, articulate what was wrong with what they said, engage in a debate.

Whilst we haven't suffered directly, we haven't lost our lives or seen our loved ones cut down in bullets, it was an attack on you and me.

It was an attack on our freedom.  It was an attack on our right to speak freely, to challenge, offend and create a debate in a civilized society.  This attack has repercussions on all of us.  Something has changed and the world will feel like a different place, even for little old me and the quiet corner of the Internet I occupy with this blog.

To coin a phrase, Je Suis Charlie.