Charlie Hebdo anniversary

Last year I wrote about the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo killings, one of the far too many acts on infamy that have taken place in France in recent times.

At the time it was hard to imagine a worse series of events, with workers killed for upholding the right to speak without restraint, and that others fell protecting them.

Since then we have had other, darker, days and the Charlie Hebdo killings now seem to have been the opening act of a long-running tragedy that still has not ended.

But we remember that Charlie Hebdo has continued, and how those who wished it snuffed out failed utterly.

Presidents, politicians and worthies from around the world paid tribute to names that were perhaps only well known in the French counter culture, and an act that was intended to silence us resulted in voices raised like never before.

If we are not out of the darkness yet, the strange victory of Charlie Hebdo reminds us that we can show that darkness that it is us who hold the lights.