Yesterday Parisians held their heads high. Today I will try to do the same.
24 hours ago, the first of the six attacks began in Paris. It was an unprecedented, horrendous carnage inflicted upon the people of France.
We expected to wake up in Paris and find a city logged off. A city that was under the covers. A city that was taking some indefinite time out.
But do you know what they did?
They showed up.
They put on their game faces and they made their city — their country — proud. And now as I sit back in the comfort of my home far away — after fleeing their city in fear, I feel a little inadequate.
I also feel incredibly proud of the French people. I want to be French.
Today, in a place that was trying to come to terms with the senseless loss of more than 129 of their people, I witnessed incredible courage.
It was not the Parisians that were scared, it was the foreign tourists. It was us.
It was not the French that were panicking and trying to rush out of their country. It was us.
It was not the hoteliers, cafe operators and bus drivers that were hiding indoors in locked-down areas. It was us.
Do you want to know what the French did? They thrived. They helped.
They stayed calm and they calmed others down.
They changed bookings urgently and hired cars and booked transport.
They fed people and helped pack and carry the bags of the thousands of people trying to leave.
The police put on bullet proof vests and carried machine-guns and tried to make tourists feel safe.
Top Comments
As it was after 9/11, it is the safest time to travel after a terrorist attack. everyone is on high alert and they have not yet let their guards down.
Beautifully written thank you.
I am buoyed by reading the results of the Vox Pop in my local Sunday paper today where the overwhelming majority of people would not put off travel plans, to France or anywhere, for fear of terrorism. The sub 30 year olds were very open in their reasoning "Then the Terrorists have won, haven't they?"
And how will this attitude prevent them from getting killed? I bet the people in the cafes and concert hall thought they were being brave in the face of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. ISIS has one end goal. Convert everyone, including Muslims they consider to be not practising the religion correctly. France has 500,00 Jews. In the last two years 57,000 Jews have left to live in Israel because they consider Israel safer!!!!!
This tells the terrorists that they have not won and that people will not be frightened into staying indoors and away from the city, nor will people be cancelling their travel plans. The best thing that a city can do after something like this is hold their heads up high and get on with life. It stops no one from getting killed, but it sends a message that people will not be forced into cowering in fear.
I think the Jews are leaving because of the anti Semitism they experience from some parts of French society... Not because they fear an ISIS attack such as this one.
Because spreading hate and fear is helping terrorism. That is what feeds it.
Statistically, if people want to reduce their chances of being killed they should stay away from cars, men, and lose weight.