As you may all know, we've been through some terrible events this week in France. Some people were shot because they were journalists, policemen were shot because they protected them and protected citizens, others were killed because they were in a kosher store.
Soon after, many in France and abroad gathered around this motto « Je suis Charlie », including me. Now hundreds of thousands people started a symbolic walk in Paris. I'll join them in a few minutes. One can find ironic to see some of the political leaders walking together in front of this march, considering we don't all put the same meaning in these words and in this action. That's right, we all have different reasons to say « I am Charlie ».
Charlie Hebdo was a rather small newspaper, struggling to find readers to survive. So why do we rally for such a small, most of the time unconsidered newspaper ? Because it was one of the strongest symbols of a very french tradition that we can laugh at everything as long as it's about defending freedom of mind and speech, fighting obscurantism and violence. Charlie Hebdo did it in the most radical way, with the subtitle « The irresponsible newspaper ». Most journalists and cartoonists working for Charlie Hebdo were renowned for the ideas they expressed, often published in main national media. One of them, Cabu, was already famous when i was a child for his poetic drawing lessons in a very popular children TV show.
Marching in Paris this afternoon and in so many other cities in the world, saying « I am Charlie », means much more than supporting this small newspaper. We pay tribute to all victims, not only journalists, also policemen and jewish victims. We know we're lucky to live in a free country and we don't have to really fight for this. We fight symbolically by showing our attachment to this freedom, whatever beliefs, religion, origins. There will be very different people, all for different reasons. One can be pessismistic after these gunshots, hearing some poor debates that followed and fearing the next terrorrist attack. I prefer to be optimistic, remember i'm lucky to be French and i can express publicly my ideas, sometimes in a not very responsible way like most do it here.
