As the nation is gathered in mourning, the motto of the city of Paris comes to our aid, showing us the path after the violence and absurdity of last Friday’s attacks.
The moment is difficult; the challenge of understanding the complexity of the events is compounded by the difficulty of dealing with the specter of contradictions.
In the face of horror that knows neither color nor religion, we must not yield an inch of our republican values and way of life, the legacy of our culture and centuries-old traditions.
The Islamist terrorist attack should not lead us to change our attitude. We live in a state of law and freedom; France (and with it, Europe) must remain an open country and society, not a fortress in which people live in fear.
We must fight mercilessly and relentlessly to vanquish these new barbarians. We must also avoid any confusion between Muslim and terrorist, and now, between migrant and terrorist.
We must unreservedly condemn the vultures who take advantage of the situation to pontificate with their empty chatter, intoxicate us with their excessive invectives, and bark behind a thick cloud of senseless theories.
To the barbed-wire thought of exclusion, we must oppose the choice to remain united in diversity.
France is the nation of the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.”
The first words, article number, are 1: “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.”
This historical legacy imposes the duty to always keep the eternal flame of these principles alive.
by Garibaldino
