The headlines in January seem to have been dominated by debate about the rights of free speech over the balance of respect of the rights and beliefs of others in society. I’m for balance. If I believe in something where expressing it might hurt others, I will try to shut up and not be deliberately rude. Sometimes what I say is taken the wrong way and I am seen as rude. For that I am sorry.
The skill, surely, is to phrase words and draw pictures so that you get the point over, without deliberately offending the other party or directly challenging their own value system. And this doesn’t have to be political correct blah-blah if done well enough.
I have spoken to many friends and relatives about this issue in the past month – and most agree with this line. Oh, and just as an aside, I noticed that JeSuis Charlie” has an uncanny resemblance to “Jesus Charlie”. Strange.
And to call someone “a bit of a Charlie”, apparently, used to be leveled at a person who did not speak the King’s English.
Although on YouTube, Charlie bit my finger – again (with 801m hits), is a baby who bites his brother’s finger:
Perhaps I need to understand the French culture better to understand this whole thing in context? At the moment it is beyond me.
Cartoon from the Independent
