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Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Too High a Price

Today’s news was as always ~ wars, economics, brutality, global politics and yes, murders. There were ‘good news’ stories buried amid all of the debris that clutters our world. However, until this evening as I write my blog post, I did not understand the full impact of the today's murders of cartoonists, humorists and journalists at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo.

This blog that I post each evening is, in the grand scheme of writing and the writing world, miniscule. It is not even close to the world of journalism. But the very fact that I can, not only write my opinions, stories, poems, muses ~ anything I choose ~ and post my blog in a public forum is because of the freedom of speech inherent in our society. Until this evening, I had taken this liberty for granted. Sadly, although I could define ‘freedom of speech’ in a very limited way, I had not really even thought much about it. There is a time always for deeper understanding. When the price for that understanding is the brutal murders of so many others another world away, that price is far, far too much.

My heart goes out to all the family, friends and colleagues of the Charlie Hebdo organization. The magnitude of your loss is so much greater than what I can even imagine.

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent 
we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
~ George Washington

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