I am Charlie.

There is a madness in men that has been allowed to surface periodically throughout history. It’s a genetically wired collective conscience that can be manipulated through either nationalism, xenophobia or religion. The most effective device is to combine all three.

That humans have always been capable of the most atrocious acts against other humans has been the history of our race. In search of racial purity, national supremacy or, most commonly, in the name of a god, cultures have committed atrocities against each other humans that defies reason, and always leads to violence, sometimes on a massive scale.

The list is long, and the victims many: Armenians, blacks, Christians, indigenous peoples, Jews, Muslims, Slavs, and on and on. What is most frightening is that in a matter of years or decades all is forgotten, and when the cycle repeats, it surprises, and is treated as an aberration. Good luck, humanity. It doesn’t bode well.

I am Charlie.

Peter Froehlich

Whitefield