It’s hard to express how I feel about the Paris events. Yet expressing opinions is always a difficult but necessary part of a free democratic society be it in magazines, newspapers or in social media.
As a younger man, for nine years I wore the uniform of my country, believing that if I had to go into conflict I could do so knowing my country wanted me to defend democracy and its pillars here or, more likely, abroad.
After that, for 12 years in this paper and others, I scribed hard-hitting columns upsetting powerful people, complacent, apathetic countrymen and wealthy advertisers, all the while knowing that my opinion was necessary to be heard, right or wrong at its nature.
Regardless, I do not see satire as worthy of murder. I do believe the radicalized people of any religion or country to be dangerous and jail worthy. Our human greed for power is at the base of all of it.
In closing, I urge any media person, before penning or approving for publication any well meaning but inconsequential Je Suis Charlie type of response, to ponder this: would your paper or magazine have approved for publication any of the cartoons in your own paper?
If not, then you are part of the crumbling of our democratic pillars. You are a poser, the same as anyone who wears a uniform but did not serve.
Jeff VircoeParksville