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| Charlie Hebdo web site today |
France is America’s oldest and quintessentially closest friend. France helped us win wars, they helped us become a nation. They gave us the Statue of Liberty. France helped us launch our first World’s Fair Exposition. They wrote our history books. They gave us the underpinnings for our market economy. And, they warned us about 9/11.
Look at a few of the American cities with French names: St. Louis, Louisville, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Des Moines, Des Plaines, Boise, Terre Haute, Charlotte, Versailles, Vincennes… merely a hint of our rich history with the French. What happens in France is important not only to us, but to the rest of the world.
On Wednesday, armed gunmen struck at the heart of liberty: freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. Terrorists virtually decapitated an insolent little magazine called Charlie Hebdo.
What is Charlie Hebdo? ‘Charlie Weekly’ is an in-your-face satirical magazine that lampoons extreme politicians and religionists of any stripe. Charlie often takes on Muslim terrorists who seem to have little knowledge or regard for fellow Muslims or Islam itself.
Why should you care about an irreverent, puerile, often offensive magazine, one that jabs at politicos, fundamentalists, and hypocrites? Even when rude and crude, issues and ideas have to be discussed. After an earlier bombing of Charlie Hebdo offices, editorial chief, Stéphane ‘Charb’ Charbonnier, said he’d rather die standing than live on his knees.
He died doing what he loved. Who can ask for more?
| a 3½ minute explanation of Charlie Hebdo |
Following is a sampling of the outpouring from illustrators, journalists and cartoonists around the world. Intellectual property rights belong to the individual artists.
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| © Rob Tornoe |
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| from Canada, © Ygreck, a brilliant cartoonist |
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| a pun, where ‘canard’ means both duck and newspaper: “Ducks always fly higher than guns.” |
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| from Middle East Monitor |
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| from India © Dhimant Vyas |
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| from al Jazeera |
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| Arabic News: “How we avenge the cartoonist’s deaths.” |
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| from an Alabama teenager “I become what I hope to be.” |
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| from South Africa © Brandan Reynolds |
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| from South Africa © the (in)famous Zapiro |
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| from India © Satish Acharya |
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| “A call to arms, Comrades” © Francisco J. Olea |
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| “I am Charlie” © Jean Jullien |
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| from Yemen © artist unknown |
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| from UK © Dave Brown The Independent via J.K.Rowling |
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| from amazing French/English illustrator © Lucille Clerc (not Banksy as originally attributed) |
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| “Oh no, not them!” |
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| from Australia © David Pope |
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| from Nederlands “Immortal” © Joep Bertrams |
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| © Fèlix Barrios |
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| A mean and malicious death… “Cabu? For once, you are early.” |
| © Matt Davies “Where’s the trigger?” |
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| coffin of Tignous, from our French friend Micheline |
Je suis Charlie.
Note: Illustrations © 2015 by their respective copyright holders.
