They say that the greatest tools to use to fight for freedom are a pen and a paper.

But based on the recent events that happened in the city of France on the 7th of January, make you question if it’s even worth using them. I can’t sit here as a writer and say that it doesn’t scare me, because in all honesty, it does.

Read about the Paris shootings here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30710883

Most of us have the privilege of being able to use our freedom of speech. It is a powerful weapon and it has changed so much throughout the course of history. The trails of words leave such a great impact, that people are willing to follow what a piece of text is enunciating. Take the holy books for example, there aren’t much physical evidence regarding the stories that are on them. However, these manuscripts take a big part in the history of religion. But like all ideas, religion isn’t an exception when it comes to criticism, and as Salman Rushdie put it: “our fearless disrespect”. I am not going to start bashing since I am well aware that religion isn’t always parallel with ethics. As an atheist, I still have utmost respect for a lot of people who do not share the same belief system as I do.

12 lives were taken for sharing their viewpoints regarding facts that covered actual events. Remember, truth doesn’t demand conviction. If your belief system can falter by a comic, it isn’t much of a belief system to start with. And as Jim Clancy put it, “The cartoons NEVER mocked the Prophet. They mocked how the COWARDS tried to distort his word. Pay attention.”

I sometimes ask myself if it’s worth opening my big mouth to actually share what is contained in my little head. Has freedom of speech become a one-way ticket to perpetual silence?

The only question is: when are we ever going to put our differences aside and just focus on what we all have in common, our humanity? I look forward to the day when we all start to put our race, our religion, our political viewpoints, and our classification that is merely based on wealth, aside when trying to acknowledge another person’s individuality and perception. If I were to run a cause to fight for equality and acceptance, my cause’s ultimate goal would be to self-destruct. Some would say that these factors that lead to the division of humankind is inevitable. It does look like it sometimes, quite frankly. But we have got to start somewhere. This cannot go on.

These terrorists don’t understand that as soon as they fired the first bullet, they have started a congregation fighting for free speech. It takes one hell of a coward to bring a sword to a pen fight.