Before this week, “Charlie” was just another name. Charlie Brown, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory … Now, everyone in the world is naming themselves Charlie in honor of the 12 Charlie Hebdo cartoonists killed by terrorists last Wednesday morning.
Overnight, Paris changed from a safe home where I walked along the river alone at night to a dangerous city where the sight of anybody running to catch a metro at two in the afternoon made me nervous.
People were advised to stay indoors and not take the metros. Le Marais, the Jewish district, closed for the night Friday in case of extremist attacks spawned from the very prevalent racism between Jews and Muslims here. At the kids’ school, parents and au pairs are no longer allowed to go inside to pick up the children – they are handed over individually, class by class, to the crowd of pushing women shouting their children’s names.
Yesterday, hostage situations and false alarm bomb threats racked the city — my friend was stuck on a crowded metro at night when it was halted by a bomb threat at Châtelet; at 3 p.m., 45 minutes before I left to get the kids at school, the police shut down Trocadero (right by the Eiffel Tower), just near my apartment and the school. Gaël left work to walk me and the kids home.
Friday night I went out to “The Swamp,” the gay neighborhood near the Jewish district. It seemed normal there – there were slightly fewer people roaming about, but nothing felt unnatural. Friends and family have been texting me to make sure I’m ok. The media always makes things seem even crazier than they are, and I’m sure from across the ocean it appears even scarier hearing about it. But, as with any bad situation, life goes on. Routines are just temporarily shaken for the moment, as are the jumpy people on the metro.
I’m a bit irked by the way people are reacting to the incident and with the whole “I am Charlie” movement around the world. It's understandable that here in Paris “Je suis Charlie” appeared overnight in spray paint all over the city, but I see people from around the world using the movement’s hashtag on Facebook and Twitter. I think it’s great the world is rallying in support of freedom of expression and honoring the death of these cartoonists. As a journalist, I especially respect the fact that people are suddenly conversing so much about freedom of the press and of speech. However, knowing I run the risk of sounding insensitive to anyone reading this, I’m going to say I find all of the media hype, protests and rallies a bit too much.
Yes, what happened is tragic. Yes, nobody should be killed for exercising their freedoms of expression. But here is the thing: Our freedom of expression is not being threatened. It was attacked by terrorists, but nobody is threatening to take away this freedom. It’s still there, and it’s not leaving. Terrorists can't take that away. Flooding the news with heated debates about the freedom of the press and speech is pointless. Taking to the streets is fruitless. What are you trying to change? We have those rights. Taking to the streets and constantly talking on the television and radio about the incident is striking fear into people and only providing fuel for the terrorists whose goal is to get a reaction out of their victims.
If we’re going to take to the streets and focus so heavily on one topic at the expense of reporting on other more tragic events happening in the world (for example, I bet you didn’t hear about the terrorist attack in Yemen that same day that killed 31 people, because who cares about Yemen, right?), why not focus on an issue that actually needs to change? Why not highlight a problem that needs solutions? The Syrian refugee crisis, war in the DRC, massacres in Nigeria, the failing euro … Not one of these receives half as much media crisis as this one incident.
However shocking and tragic the Charlie Hebdo incident was, it should come as no surprise - the cartoonists’ work knowingly and deliberately insulted many groups of people, and whatever your view on satire, it’s not arguable that the artists weren’t aware of the risks in poking fun at these people, especially since multiple terrorist attempts had been thwarted at the offices over the years. They died on the battlefield. This makes it no less tragic; however, again, where were all the hashtags for all of the innocent Yemeni children killed that same day?
I just find the reactions of the media and the people of the world to be irresponsible and futile. Rather than being stuck on an isolated incident of the past that we can not change, we should say our condolences, come together and move on to focusing on what the real problems are in the world and what we should and can change now.
The day I can’t avoid seeing a hashtag supporting the millions of innocent Syrian refugees being left to starve to death, the same way I now can’t avoid seeing #jesuischarlie in support of 12 instigating cartoonists, is the day I will have restored faith in the media and humanity.
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