It was vile and offensive. While I think that the terrorists are wrong in their methods, where were the rest of us when these vile images were being peddled. Where are the parents in France? Where are the Christians? The non-violent Muslims we hear so much about? The Jews? And all citizens of France, regardless of faith--how did you ever consume this horrible tripe?
This publication should not have survived financially to be offensive to anyone. Who was buying this trash and how depraved were they? It speaks volumes about our society that our first statements after sincere sorrow for those who were killed and injured (espically the unarmed police officers who were expected to protect the French with...strong words? A stern expression? A wagging finger? All not very effective against any weapon--bat or knife or gun) were about freedom of speech.
Maybe we should substitute a statement about how vile and offensive the publication was. About how sad it is that people of good conscience had not spent time expressing disgust at the work of Charlie Hebdo. About how most of the Muslim and Christian world does not have our low brow, modern society concept of tolerating anything just to say we are cool! When in reality, it just tells the less developed world that we are so corrupt in the defense of our faith and core values that we will tolerate any affront without a single word.
And, finally we should hae a discussion about how there were other ways to stop the vileness, which may have stopped the violence. We as a society should speak out about what offends us, loudly and openly, including the actions of those who defile our beliefs.
We can condemn the killers without venerating the victims.
