Friday night was a demoralizing hit. It took place in the young, hip, international part of town. People were gathered for dinner, or a California rock band, or a National soccer game against a rival.
That area was the first place I took my daughter on my own after seeing the L'Arc de Triomphe with local cousins, and all the playgrounds and carousels. I wanted to take my daughter to see everything, starting with the site of the French Revolutionary storming of the Bastille. From there you can walk up through the streets where the famous writers lived, see smaller jardins, stop in the Jesuit church. With a pre-schooler, I wasn't eating in trendy restaurants or going to heavy metal concerts, but we covered that area between the Bastille and Sacre Coeur, at the foot of which the famous Artists lived in that golden age before World War I.
The Paris Police never carried arms before Charlie Hebdo. The country had total gun control.
After Je Suis Charlie, the world could see that non-violence against terrorists is suicide. As a Catholic country, suicide is against the national religion.
Increased security measures were expected to deter terrorist attacks.
It was the last thing anyone expected. One suicide-bomber was turned away at the stadium door after his vest was detected in a pat-down. I can see why someone wouldn't want to arrest a man wearing a bomb-filled vest. The end result was that he blew himself up and nobody else. Yet he terrorized everyone from the President of France to Geraldo Rivera's daughter.
At least two terrorists entered the country as Syrian "refugees" through Greece. The plot was masterminded in a suburb of Brussels, Molenbeek, an old industrial town with a Bronze foundry that is now a museum. Muslim immigrants seem to settle in places where there is ore, which tend to have produced munitions. Brussels is another town I spent time visiting my former in-laws who worked there at the time I got married. Some of my bridal lace came from one of those little towns outside Brussels, a gift from Nana, RIP. Museums, gardens trimmed in Belgian fences, moules & frites...the radical terrorist 'burb was not on my map.
The country that valued peace to a fault, went to war reluctantly, avoided fighting and violence at all cost, and did so successfully, or at least got lucky, for so many years, got hit. In the center of Europe, after opening the door to those they thought were the persecuted Christians and non-radical Muslims, Paris got hit. The city of lights, the city everyone in the world wants to visit, the first city I ever visited in France with my Grandparents, the first trip with my former husband and father of my daughter, got hit. The city of so many dreams and memories for so many people, got hit.
The difference between a shooting and a mass-shooting is one sane person with a gun to disarm the terrorist. It is okay to protect the innocent. It is okay to keep terrorists out of your country. It is sad that no amount of crepes suzette will bring them to civility. They came from Syria and could have lived a life in Europe, instead chose a path of darkness and death.
A safe haven for Syrian refugees must be created somewhere while terrorism is sorted out. To risk such brutal, bloody massacre of innocent, unarmed people by letting possibly-radicalized terrorists into the United States would be suicide. The only "religion" that promotes suicide is radical-Islam. The "nation" that promotes suicide is ISIS. The USA is a country that protects and defends freedom, liberty and life.
It is encouraging that France struck back without hesitation with airstrikes on Syria and raids in Belgium. Vive la France!
