Being Sad Together

I was never Charlie. I support their right to stick out their tongue and blow raspberries; I do so from a safe distance with no thought of personal risk. My workplace does not have bullet holes in the wall, and I can’t draw.

It’s a nice expression of solidarity, but when the French said, “We are all Americans” after 9/11, you suspected the sentiment would die on their lips if Bush proposed conscription of all eligible males to fight a new war. Monsieur Chirac, names and addresses, if you don’t mind. Don’t worry, we’ll fly ’em here for training. The phrase meant, “We are sympathetic to your situation and can imagine how we’d feel if it happened to us, and we plan on crafting the proper response: gathering in a public space with candles and being sad together.”