G.F. Brandenburg has a short post on the horrific massacre of the staff at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Killing journalists and cartoonists because they offended your religious or political beliefs is a threat to free expression and democracy. In a democracy, we should combat words with words, not bullets. Unfortunately, not everyone knows that. It has been a very dangerous time for journalists around the world–in Syria, Russia, Mexico, now France.
Please see the cartoons that Brandenburg includes in his post. The first one shows the irreverent spirit of Charlie Hebedo.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Je suis Charlie.
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Me llamo Charlie.
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Nous Sommes Charlie
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If memory is correct more journalists have been killed recently than any time in the recent past. Certainly the journalistic society is vitally concerned about it, as they should be.
Journalism itself has suffered severely as anyone who follows it, as in the Columbia Journalism Review or other cogent reporting will know. Still, many great journalists carry on believing in the importance of seeking truth and in the ability to report it. Tragically in our own country journalism is under threat in so many ways.
We in education face the same kinds of threats.
Our politicians may decry fascism but we better be careful. When we stricture those seeking the truth and reporting it, we are in real danger.
I saw pictures of the profound devastation of Germany after WWII under the Brandenburg gate a few years ago. When people allow themselves, and Germany is the land of Beethoven, Goethe, Kant, innumerable lovers of liberty, to be led by propaganda without thinking through what is happening the results are devastating. Germans do NOT wish to forget this. In many ways in Berlin I saw how they keep those memories alive, the bombed out Kaiser Wilhelm cathedral, the “Stille Raum” under the Brandenburg gate where one can go to pray, meditate, or just be silent and reflect, the building with the statue and “We Remember sign: Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals etc etc. We best take note.
When “truth” is ordained from the top instead of sought for by the bottom up, by our best thinkers, we are in mortal danger.
I LOVE the principles upon which this country was founded but am deeply concerned about what is happening,, on so many fronts because of propagandizing by those with money and power.
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I hope readers of this blog will spend some time looking at the imagery being produced by artistis from around the world–all needing to speak of this tragedy. They are asserting that the priviledge of freedom to express ideas is not, in fact, free. It must be defended.
There are courageous teachers around the world who are casting aside their mandates, trainings, test agendas, and this manic preoccupation with merely academic learning to say, in effect, this is a teachable moment.
And there are “cartoonists” around the world who are hoping we are paying attention to what they have to say, with their means of expression–not entirely dependent on words.
We dare not ignore this issue, as tough as it is, especially in public schools where freedom expression is too rarely discussed and valued (warts and all) and “academic freedom” is being dismantled.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2901459/jesuisCharlie-world-s-cartoonists-react-Paris-massacre-poignant-drawings.html
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“Premier rempart et dernier bastion de la Démocratie, la presse libre est l’ennemie de l’obscurantisme et de la violence. ”
The first rampart and the final bastion of Democracy, the free press is the enemy of obscurantism and violence.
the French justice minister, Christiane Taubira
The free press of France has yet to be bought by the plutocracy. Would that it were true here.
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Well done. Thanks for sharing.
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A picture is worth a thousand words, these ones Guy featured are complete encyclopedias. I will be wearing one on a t shirt, to those offended, I am not hard to find.
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