Yes, this is late to the party. I started this 3 days after the killings in France of fellow artists. Much of what I originally wrote shall never see the light of day. Angry words from an angry heart have never solved anything at all, nor made anything better. Why, you might ask, is it even important to me? It took me some time to figure that out myself. I never personally met any of the cartoonists... nor their families, friends... anyone connected. I didn't grow up with them... they never lived next door nor went to school with me. But they might as well have been any of those things for they were... are... me. Perhaps I share with some of you here the path it took to reach this point in our lives. I grew up a lover of cartoons as a kid... then comic books as I grew older... and, finally, graphic art. I'm not extremely talented at the 'art' part of all this but I do draw decent cartoons.
I suspect that is how those at Charlie got their start as well. I can almost see them hunched over their notebooks, artbooks, or any writing material... pen or pencil in hand... little mini-me's. Now I understand why I felt so much pain and anger... not my usual faire. At first, I wrote angry and hateful... then poured my pain onto the pages... and now, finally... I can breathe again... so I write from a cleared mind and a healed heart.
Tomorrow I will wake up and continue my life without pause. Not because what happened wasn't important... or that it should be trivialized... or marginalized... but because they will not win. This 'war' that they wage against those who simply do not believe as they do... who simply do not desire to live as they want to... against those of us who who shall draw cartoons about that which they find funny, disgusting, stupid, inhuman. They will not win simply because they have failed in the greatest, yet simplest of things... the art of being human.
We are not colors... genders... beliefs... or countries. We are Human. All kin... blood tied and forever bonded to each other. All living in the same place... earth. All related to each other... dependent on each other. Forever entwined are our fates. Those that fail to know and understand that shall always lose. Lose their way... their family... their humanity... themselves. I/you/we are all human. One species... one people... one destiny. Our country is called Earth. It is all we have. We're alone, as best as we know, on a universal ocean so vast that, should we need help, there is nobody to call. We're on our own.
I feel a little sad for those that haven't yet figured this out... who feel some terrible need to attempt to kill off everyone else for such stupid reasons as skin colors, gender, beliefs, or the flag they find themselves under. Because there are far more of those of us that DO understand what it is to truly be 'human'... than there are of those who do not. It is a war they will not win.

Peace brothers and sisters.