Gratitude Monday: Unintended consequences

Capping off an absolute bastard of a week in Paris, today I am grateful for the response of people all over the world, in high places and low, as they flooded the streets of cities yesterday, clad in black as though attending a family funeral. In their tens and hundreds of thousands they witnessed for the 17 men and women murdered in attacks Wednesday and Friday: journalists, police officers and supermarket shoppers.

I mean, really—it was Everyman in the sights of those Kalashnikovs, and it was Everyman who gathered silently in Paris, London, New York, Cairo, Tokyo… They carried placards proclaiming “Je suis Charlie”, “Je suis Juif”, “Je suis Ahmed”, and they raised pens and pencils. It was stunning, and so heartening.

I’m not saying there wasn’t posturing or hypocrisy evident in these events, but today is Gratitude Monday, so I’m going to let that crap slide.

Because I’m hoping that demonstrations like these will lead to continuing resistance to thugs of any stripe who think it a glorious thing to gun down people armed only with newsprint and grocery lists in the name of any god.

One of my favorite images from yesterday’s gatherings is this one: the French tricolor is projected onto the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square, smack under the nose of Admiral Horatio Nelson.

Is this a jihadist’s worst nightmare? I fervently hope so.