Charlie Hebdo
It's taken me quite awhile to comment on the massacre - credited to Al Qaeda - in Paris.
Partly because violence of that order is too upsetting to really consider, but also because it's so ridiculous on so many levels.
The Pakistani Muslims have issued a new death sentence for the staff after the new edition of the magazine was released just a week after the mass murder.
Here's why it's all so ridiculous.
1). Violence in the name of religion always has been and always will be a concept that is lost on me. I gain spirituality from my religion. It's supposed to be about love, right, stupid heads?
2). And I say 'stupid heads' because if it weren't so tragic it would seem to be an argument that third-graders might have. I know that Mohammad is not supposed to be shown in photos because he's a prophet and not a god. Allah is the only god. Mohammad being bandied about in photos is akin to taking some of the shine off of Allah, so the photos of the prophet are forbidden...
...do I have that right?
If so...why react when the photos are shown?
"Don't let them see you sweat," is a common phrase.
"If you don't act like it bothers you, they'll stop," My Mom used to tell me when the brothers and sisters were torturing me.
(That certainly didn't always work...and I never could keep my big mouth shut anyway).
The staff provoked the fanatics. The fanatics made good on evil...
...all in the name of love?
3rd grade.
3). I am very much against someone censoring books, magazines, movies...etc...but we all know that free speech doesn't mean free of consequences.
There may very well be consequences.
Yet, book burning and the such has always got my goat.
Why should books be banned because they offend a particular portion of society?
We will never all think the same.
Never.
I often tell the story of the elderly woman who showed me the copy of Desperation that she had brought to a book signing at Barnes & Noble.
She had yellow highlighted every single curse word.
"How do you feel selling such vile content?" she asked me.
I thought about explaining that the character I had created was supposed to represent pure evil in the story.
Pure evil doesn't say, "Golly gee, I'm thinking of having sexual contact with you without your consent."
The pure evil existed in the story to illuminate the untainted love of the main character.
It was necessary!
Yet, I said none of this to the elderly woman.
Instead, this was our exchange:
Her: How do you feel selling such vile content?
Me: Did you purchase that copy of the book?
Her: Yes, of course.
Me: Good. Now get the f^&% away from me.
True story.
It's hard enough to create.
I'm not for the F-word for the sake of just saying the F-word, but that lady angered me.
She hadn't even tried.
I certainly sympathize with the families of those murdered writers and editors.
It's beyond comprehension, of course...
...but it's certainly not a major surprise either.
I've been saying for a long time that the moral compass is gone.
Perhaps that elderly woman felt that my swearing as I write contributes to the decay...
...but they're only words.
Now I know why I took so long to comment on all of it.
It's utterly confusing, actually.
And it's more troubling than it is confusing.
"Every towel head on the face of the Earth needs to be killed!" one man said in a profanity-filled rant on one of the news shows.
The guy had no idea that he was guilty of the same thing as the people who pulled the triggers.
And that's the problem.
A whole lot of people don't know anymore.
And a whole lot of people don't care.
About the next guy.
Or his right to live.
Partly because violence of that order is too upsetting to really consider, but also because it's so ridiculous on so many levels.
The Pakistani Muslims have issued a new death sentence for the staff after the new edition of the magazine was released just a week after the mass murder.
Here's why it's all so ridiculous.
1). Violence in the name of religion always has been and always will be a concept that is lost on me. I gain spirituality from my religion. It's supposed to be about love, right, stupid heads?
2). And I say 'stupid heads' because if it weren't so tragic it would seem to be an argument that third-graders might have. I know that Mohammad is not supposed to be shown in photos because he's a prophet and not a god. Allah is the only god. Mohammad being bandied about in photos is akin to taking some of the shine off of Allah, so the photos of the prophet are forbidden...
...do I have that right?
If so...why react when the photos are shown?
"Don't let them see you sweat," is a common phrase.
"If you don't act like it bothers you, they'll stop," My Mom used to tell me when the brothers and sisters were torturing me.
(That certainly didn't always work...and I never could keep my big mouth shut anyway).
The staff provoked the fanatics. The fanatics made good on evil...
...all in the name of love?
3rd grade.
3). I am very much against someone censoring books, magazines, movies...etc...but we all know that free speech doesn't mean free of consequences.
There may very well be consequences.
Yet, book burning and the such has always got my goat.
Why should books be banned because they offend a particular portion of society?
We will never all think the same.
Never.
I often tell the story of the elderly woman who showed me the copy of Desperation that she had brought to a book signing at Barnes & Noble.
She had yellow highlighted every single curse word.
"How do you feel selling such vile content?" she asked me.
I thought about explaining that the character I had created was supposed to represent pure evil in the story.
Pure evil doesn't say, "Golly gee, I'm thinking of having sexual contact with you without your consent."
The pure evil existed in the story to illuminate the untainted love of the main character.
It was necessary!
Yet, I said none of this to the elderly woman.
Instead, this was our exchange:
Her: How do you feel selling such vile content?
Me: Did you purchase that copy of the book?
Her: Yes, of course.
Me: Good. Now get the f^&% away from me.
True story.
It's hard enough to create.
I'm not for the F-word for the sake of just saying the F-word, but that lady angered me.
She hadn't even tried.
I certainly sympathize with the families of those murdered writers and editors.
It's beyond comprehension, of course...
...but it's certainly not a major surprise either.
I've been saying for a long time that the moral compass is gone.
Perhaps that elderly woman felt that my swearing as I write contributes to the decay...
...but they're only words.
Now I know why I took so long to comment on all of it.
It's utterly confusing, actually.
And it's more troubling than it is confusing.
"Every towel head on the face of the Earth needs to be killed!" one man said in a profanity-filled rant on one of the news shows.
The guy had no idea that he was guilty of the same thing as the people who pulled the triggers.
And that's the problem.
A whole lot of people don't know anymore.
And a whole lot of people don't care.
About the next guy.
Or his right to live.
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