We mourn the fallen, who bravely stood ground to protect a good joke. Our love cries for your families, their sadness and loss. We hope we can stop it from rising again. We know it will take more than hope too.
We know your belief in freedom and speaking and joking and laughter. We thank for expressing your mind. We promise to carry your ideals forward, as best we're able. We're forced to believe in bullets too, and yet you have shown us how weekly and feebly they tend to persuade.
Charlie Hebdo is soaring, now higher than an eagle. And just last month I'd never heard the name. This is the power of ideas. They eat bullets for breakfast, and fuel juggernaut growth, never seen possible before.
And this is a power we own and can offer. We give it to our kids, our friends and even enemies. We hold the shield out, to think what we will and to will what we think. No bullet can ever poke out the eye of our blogs. They can't stomp on our songs, can't shoot down our ideals. And this is why we read and write, we talk and walk onward.
I've never read Charlie Hebdo before, and can barely put two words together in French, but tonight after dinner, I'm going to give it a try.