Je Suis Charlie

Hey.

Maddy, Caroline's person here.

I want to be serious just for a moment.

Like I've alluded to before, I did aspire to be a journalist "once upon a time." I studied Public Relations and Media in college, with a minor in Sociology.

And I really did want to be the first reporter reporting live from the space shuttle someday. Or the moon. Or heck, Mars.....

But then Challenger happened and life happened and we still haven't gone to Mars and, truthfully, I think Wolf Blitzer or Anderson Cooper would be far more qualified than I to report live from either Mars or the moon.

But I do want to say one thing.

I believe in respecting others' beliefs. It doesn't matter whether or not you agree with them. We need to respect one another.

However....

No matter how much someone insults you or what you believe, no matter what they say - or write - or draw - they have the right to express their opinion. You, likewise, have the same right to express your opinion, to ignore them, to engage in a thoughtful discussion, or to call them an effing douchecanoe and question just how closely their parents were related. Not that I'm advocating the last option, but you do have it.

But nobody has the right to take another's life for it.

I may not agree with what others say, but I'll defend their right to say it to the ends of the earth.

I won't defend it to the death, though. Because words and pictures are not something anyone should ever have to die for.

Ever.