Je Suis Charlie

As you have been able to see for yourself, the policy for Coach Jeff’s Blog is to try to avoid controversial topics.

I stay out of politics and, to the extent I can, I try not to offer topics that are polarizing in any way.

But this evening, I feel the need to step out of that box for just a moment. Maybe it was the brazen audacity of the attack at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris; perhaps it is because our family was just in Paris about 8 months ago or because Holly has spent so much time in France the last couple of years. 

For whatever reason, this particular terrorist attack hit close to home.

A generation ago, I enrolled in my first journalism class and from the first days of study in Journalism 101 (honestly, I think the course number was 2215 in those days), the notion of our right to free speech and free expression was imprinted into the hearts and minds of all J students. Freedom of the Press, for journalism majors, is just a given.

Later, when I was a member of the working press, it was one of the fundamental pillars of the foundation on which we operated.

So, the idea that someone might kill you because they don’t like what you write (or draw) is just utterly foreign to me. Imagine if a reader of Coach Jeff’s Blog showed up one day and said “I don’t like your philosophy about coaching youth baseball!” Boom.

It’s a stretch, I know, but you get the point.

Anyway, as I mentioned, we were just in Paris last May. When this awful news broke yesterday, I couldn’t help but think of our wonderful experience there and the warmth of the citizens with which we interacted. Our hotel wasn’t particularly close to the attack – about 20 minutes away – but certainly within the region. Close enough to get my attention. 

And many of the articles noted the proximity of the attacks to Notre Dame, a landmark we enjoyed visiting during our journey.

Last night, I wondered if, when we were atop the Eiffel Tower and gazed out onto the vastness of that venerable city, we might have been looking upon the street or neighborhood where the tragedy unfolded yesterday.

Holly noted the candlelight vigil was held at Place de la Republique, a location with which she was quite familiar. Many of the stand-up news reports featured such Paris icons as Arc de Triomph or Tour Eiffel as the backdrop. And the telltale sound of European sirens racing in the background was unmistakable. 

Members of the worldwide media have come together in a form of solidarity to show that freedom of the press will not be compromised. And whereas the debates about whether or not the paper’s satirical approach was appropriate may continue in some circles – it is not my purpose to raise that point here – there can be no misunderstanding about how a free press operates in our culture. Yesterday’s attempt to quash that freedom will not succeed. 

And if you needed any proof, all you had to do is conduct a Google search for the words <<Je Suis Charlie>> or add it as a hashtag on Twitter to see for yourself.

JG

Originally posted 1/8/2015