I am not Charlie, And neither are you.

In my posts for Thursday and Friday, I did not mention the events in Paris. They were shocking, the offices of a magazine attacked, tweleve killed, because of some satirical cartoons published a few years back. We all know the story now.

Soon after the full horror of the story came out, a hashtag started to trend on Twitter #Je suis Charlie. Charlie being the name of the magazine, Charlie Hebdo. THe meaning of which, I guess, was the express solidarity with the cartoonists killed. Only it didn't did it?

THe next day, the fearless lions of the British press also said Je suis Charlie a lot, but instead of reprinting the cartoons to be as fearless, they chose to print an image of one of the terrorists about to shoot a policeman. An execution in fact. The policeman happened to also be a muslim.

I have seen many people on Twitter and Facebook and Flickr also say that the are also Je suis Charlie: but very, very few have actually reprinted the cartoons. Which is what Charlie would have done, but there is really only one Charlie. Thing is, we live in a global age now, someone, somewhere will be offended by alsmost everything you print. Doesn't mean you have to change, doesn't mean we have to change. But we have.

In in changing, not wanting to cause offence, not wishing to provoke another attack, the terrorists won, even as they were killed in a shootout. Our freedoms will be eroded, in the name of freedom, oddly, our free speech will be restricted, we will change, and our values will be worth a little less.

I am not Charlie.

You are not Charlie.

And neither is our press.

Only Charlie is Charlie.