To The Defenders Of A Great Freedom

TigerBlog realizes that this is a Princeton Athletics blog, and as such, he always steers clear of politics.

If you've been reading what TB has to say for the last six or seven year and don't know him personally, you probably can't figure out his political leanings, which is how he likes it. Maybe he gave up on writing about himself, something he used to think he'd never do.

His political views though? At least he can stay true to a time when writing was supposed to be objective and the writer's political views weren't supposed to matter.

Still, TigerBlog feels an obligation to mention the following people:
    •    Frédéric Boisseau, 42, building maintenance worker for Sodexo, killed in the lobby
    •    Franck Brinsolaro, 49, Protection Service police officer assigned as a bodyguard for Charb. In 1996, Brinsolaro was one of those who evacuated 46 French citizens threatened by the Taliban in Afghanistan
    •    Cabu (Jean Cabut), 76, cartoonist
    •    Elsa Cayat, 54, psychoanalyst and columnist. The only woman killed in the shooting.[85]
    •    Charb (Stéphane Charbonnier), 47, cartoonist, columnist, and editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo
    •    Philippe Honoré, 74, cartoonist
    •    Bernard Maris, 68, economist, editor, and columnist
    •    Ahmed Merabet, 42, a Muslim police officer of Algerian descent, shot in the head as he lay wounded on the ground outside
    •    Mustapha Ourrad, 60, copy editor, an Algerian resident in France for 40 years
    •    Michel Renaud, 69, founder of Rendez-vous de Carnet de Voyage, a travel-themed art festival in Clermont-Ferrand, a guest at the meeting who was due to guest-edit an upcoming issue of Charlie Hebdo
    •    Tignous (Bernard Verlhac), 57, cartoonist
    •    Georges Wolinski, 80, cartoonist

These are the people who were murdered last week in Paris at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

TigerBlog mentions them for the unbelievable courage that they showed in defense of one of the cornerstones of French – and American. Freedom of speech. It's not something that is taken for granted in many, many parts of this world still.

Here? Every high school kid knows that freedom of speech is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. It's actually in the First Amendment.

It's one thing to sit here and acknowledge that. It's another thing to exercise that right in the form of the satire that Charlie Hebdo routinely did, understanding full well what it could - and, horrifically did -  lead to for those who exercised that right.

Would TigerBlog have had that courage? Would you? TB is pretty sure he wouldn't.

In the world today, it's easy to fall into the idea of trading a little bit of liberty for the hope of a little bit more security. This is a very, very dangerous path to go down.

Pete Carril, Princeton's Hall of Fame basketball coach, once said "when you lower your standards, they turn around and attack you." He's right, and it's even more true in the world today.

TigerBlog doesn't think everything that Charlie Hebdo did was funny. He doesn't think a lot of satirical things are funny. He, in fact, gets offended by some of what he sees and hears.

This doesn't mean he wants to silence those people. Quite the opposite. TigerBlog is a big believer in the idea that everyone has the right to be a jerk if that's what he or she wants.

And besides, who decides when the line is crossed? What offends you might not offend the person next to you. Who decides?

The old saying used to be "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Ever hear that one?

Words. Easy to say. Do you have the courage to back it up? 

The sports department at a newspaper, at least back when TigerBlog was in that business, was called "the toy department."

Here at Princeton Athletics it is somewhat similar. They both have a certain innocent charm to them, with sports as a diversion to life.

TigerBlog knows all about that. First-hand.

For much of his life, he's been able to find relief from any of his life's woes in the next game he attended. He remembers very vividly back in his own newspaper days when he was in the middle of a huge family issue that he had to interrupt to go cover a high school football game at Princeton Day School. He's pretty sure the opponent was Newark Academy.

This wasn't quite the biggest game ever played. For TB, it couldn't have come at a better time. He can remember right now, more than 30 years later, the feeling he had on the sidelines of that game, of just how grateful he was to have an outlet like that.

He's had that feeling over and over again during his time at Princeton. When he thinks back to the low points in his adult life, he was able to be helped through them by the next game.

When his mother died, for instance, TB can state definitively that Princeton men's basketball helped him through it.

That's what the toy department is supposed to offer.

These days, it's important to have that escape into the toy department. Or into the Academy Award nominations. Or into whatever it is you need to get through it.

But keep in mind that this is just an escape.

The real world is a treacherous place now. It calls for real courage sometimes, and the good guys don't always win.

The people who were murdered in Paris last week?

TigerBlog salutes their incredible courage.