At first I was not going to write anything about the terrorist attack of the 7th of January 2015 in Paris. How could I ever express the profound disgust that I feel towards brainwashed men capable of killing for a religion they clearly know nothing about? I thought this topic had got nothing to do with my blog, I thought wouldn’t find the words but then I reflected that not finding the words was precisely what led these malleable men to accept the words of another as their own without questioning them.

I may not have a big voice, I may use awkward words, but I do have my own thoughts and I will express them, simply because I can and because I am free to do so. I do not want to comment further about the freedom of speech and the fact that in France and most democracies, nobody is so mighty or so powerful that they are above mocking. In this respect, seeing how the French responded made me proud.

What I find sad and worrying though, is that in France as well as in England, there is a pool of young men and women who are so uneducated that their adverts and games fueled brains is a soft target for the first coranically challenged Imam on the prowl for a gullible worshiper.

I firmly believe the only weapon we have to prevent terrorism as much as we can is to educate these people and get them to think for themselves. The task is herculean in a society that places appearance and consumerism above human values but it has been done before, especially in the 18th century when the Enlightenment, book by book, letter by letter, word by word, forced obscurantism to back up.

So there is a fight against terrorism going on, but let’s not forget the fight for education. My deepest sympathy goes to those who perished in the attack but my thoughts also go to those who do not have the skills, or the right to form their own opinions and who must be enlightened by the pen rather than the sword.