Humor lives on

My phone buzzed on the way to work yesterday. I looked down and it was a message from one of the local TV reporters. She had a question for me. Well, I had no idea what she wanted so I turned the radio to the news.

And I promptly found my answer.

Terrorists had slaughtered 12 and wounded 20 at a French satirical publication in Paris, France. And among the 12 were four cartoonists. They had been murdered because the terrorists did not like what they drew. They had been slaughtered because they had dared to express their opinion.

Damn.

The reporter asked me if I was afraid. Good question, I guess. I mean, four cartoonists died. And Lord knows I’ve made enough people mad over the years. But then I thought, “no.” Because you can’t live life afraid. A resident of Belhaven was shot taking her trash to the curb yesterday. We can stumble across monsters at any time. But that doesn’t mean we run away. We can’t be locked in fear. We can’t live that way — at least for long. And people around the world agree. The outpouring by freedom-loving people yesterday was nothing short of inspiring.

As I was drawing, I thought about the slain cartoonists. And then I thought how police or soldiers must feel when one of their brethren dies. I felt mad, outraged and a little worried. “Would it be me?” Pretty normal emotions, actually.

Then the person at the front desk came to tell me, “Someone’s here to see you and they have a camera.”

I quipped, “At least it’s not a gun.”

I used humor to diffuse fear. That’s what humanity does. And that’s something terrorists will never be able to stop.

Je suis Charlie.