First let me admit that I had never heard of Charlie Hebdo before yesterday. The only thing I know how to say in French (aside from now knowing what je suis means) is "Je m'appelle Michelle." So putting a "Je Suis Charlie" on my Facebook banner is a bit pretentious. However this event has caused me to take pause and rededicate myself to answering the "calling", as the late Joan Rivers referred to it as, of being a comedian. I have been under attack for what I have said on stage. I am just lucky that to date my detractors were armed with judgment and hidden agenda rather than AK-47s and misguided religious beliefs.
As I research what my forefathers had to say on the subject of free speech I quickly realized that I could fill this blog space with my favorite quotes on the subject. The jury is still out on how long a blog should be. I have read that longer posts garner better SEO or "Search engine optimization" (or in English - Google hits). But there is also research that states that the average surfer only reads 20%-28% of a given post. So short and sweet may be the way to go. #ADHD
At any rate I have decided to dedicate this post to the words of people smarter than me. I urge you to pick your favorites, find others out in the ether or maybe even in a real book made of paper and stuff, and post them on your social media pages if you too are outraged by the massacre of a dozen big, bad, anarchist, and dangerous CARTOONISTS. And if you want a "I am Charlie" Facebook banner you can do a Google image search. Go for it.
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
”A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.” - Ben Franklin
”If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the
slaughter.” - George Washington
“A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.” -
James Madison
“You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.” - John Adams
"There, I guess King George will be able to read that." - John Hancock
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to
hear.” - George Orwell
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." - Harry S. Truman
“Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost.” - Neil Gaiman, Author
“Hypocrites get offended by the truth.” - Jess C. Scott, Author
“Genuine bravery for a writer.... It is about calmly speaking the truth when everyone else is silenced, when the truth cannot be expressed. It is about speaking out with a different voice, risking the wrath of the state and offending everyone, for the sake of the truth, and the writer’s conscience.” - Murong Xuecun, pen name of writer Hao Qun
“The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible." - Salmon Rushdie
"The ink of a scholar is more sacred than the blood of a martyr." - the Prophet Mohammed