Offence has no real validity,
Yet it is used to justify the taking of lives
Is there one, that the world does not offend
If so that person has not lived or felt,

Warlords, rapists, racists, murderers and those who are cancers on society walk among us daily
Those who profess to know the will of god and act on his behalf,
Perceiving  and executing unhelpful dogma that infects our reality  

The words respect and correctness have become harbingers for cowards,
As our muteness silently strips us of our freedom,
Apologies are offered gift wrapped in fear
Sticks and stones still break our bones but pictures and words now ****** us

The city of love was shuddered today
A proposal was rescheduled and a sweet gesture silenced
By a scattering of devils who advocate terror & violence
The Mona Lisa wept and the Metro bawled
‘Où est le courage?’
Il n’y avait pas courage
The cowardly men who fought guns against pens
Let them know after all their wrong
The Eiffel tower still remains tall and strong
For it is the liberal views that brought Paris such beauty and wonder
Freedom of speech will rage through the lightning and the thunder

Blood in winter snow:
dying sun at dusk, filling
the skies in sorrow.

Some sacred hoodlums
In the chains of religion
Disrupt the world's peace

The killers deserve no name

let's forget about them,

let's not talk about them,

any more,

let's find them and forget about them.

forget about them, they don't exist.

~

Let's remember the writers,

the people with lives,

with families,

with beauty and grace and elegance

in their minds that allowed them to speak

freely, freedom, free-thinking

ideals that helped us to laugh through the pain

of our sick, evil society.

~

Let's remember Charlie Hebdo,

their ability to help us to laugh at the

ludicrous, ignorant pain of the human condition,

did not deserve,

to end with a bullet,

a massacre,

a cowardly outrage.

Let's remember the writers,

the human beings whose lives represent

the fear, that we simply have to continue to ignore.

In case you all forget, let's remember the

real victims.

We must recognize

this is not our home,

yet, their home is ours as well.

We must realize

our world is inter-connected

their pain lays dead in our street,

We must remind

ourselves that our freedom

was just desecrated by the strong arm

of evil, it lurks, around us, anywhere it chooses.

We are asked

to understand

Charlie Hebdo is satire,

in violent terms their point is made,

yet we cannot laugh,

only mourn,

for those souls that lay dead on the tiles,

are us, are you, are me, are human beings.

Tonight, the sun has set on Paris,

people will not sleep,

people will worry, hold one another, walk in confusion.

Tonight across the globe,

we know again,

the pen wields a powerful angst,

yet,

we must also respect,

human lives could not ever deserve,

their legacy to be defined by a bullet.

Let's pick up our pens and continue

to fight, to maim, to expose

evil.

Let's mute that voice of evil

while we pray,

while we wrap our heads around,

the unnamed victims,

that tomorrow will be identified,

sisters, brothers, mother's fathers, friends, cousins,

people, human beings with a passion for laughter,

with a desire only,

to suggest that life deserves laughter.

Let's drown out evil,

with the memory of sweet humor.

Let's chuckle,

a positive, horrific, peace!