JE SUIS CHARLIE

I keep rewriting this because my emotions are in a jumble. The Charlie Hebdo massacre (there really is nothing else to call this) has hit me as hard as 9/11 did. Though the scale is different, the feeling is just as devastating. Sorrow…followed by an increasing anger has become a common theme for so many of us. Something has got to change.

It is just too early in this new year for these bad events to continue to escalate in the way that they always seem to. It’s especially hard because so many of these bad happenings all have a common foundation: the increasing loss of our freedoms. Whether it is by corporations, governments, or religious groups (or some individual who just wants to crush anyone), a majority of people are losing themselves at the expense of a status quo’s belief systems. And that is why this particular moment is resounding within me (and so many others).

Any creative person who values freedom during the creation process will feel this personally. Any attack on our ability to freely create (while hopefully respecting multiple perspectives) is tantamount to attacking us personally. If you don’t respect our right to our own opinion, then who knows what else you’ll disrespect or how far you’ll go to stop us? And that is why this latest attack is just one more in a series that aims at taking away our freedoms, one at a time. Or worse, take away our very lives, which aren’t yours to take.

We have to change the way that we interact with one another. We have to learn to respect the idea that ours isn’t the only way to do, think, or act. We have to realize that the world will only feel smaller if we’re all fighting to take our own piece of it, while screwing everyone else.

Beliefs are  as abundant as they are diverse. There is no one right anything. Until each and every one of us truly understands this, we won’t have a different or better future.

Sorrow….followed by anger just isn’t any way to live.