COCC prof weighs in on French terror attack impact

Charlie Hebdo is a newspaper known for its racy cartoons that target extremists of all kinds.

On Thursday, extremists targeted them with more than paper and pencil. They stormed into the paper’s office armed with heavy weapons and killed 12 people. By doing so, the terrorists threatened freedom of expression around the world.

“Even the playwright George Bernard Shaw said if you want to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh — or they’re going to want to kill you,” Jon Bouknight, speech and writing professor at Central Oregon Community College, said Thursday.

Shaw said that in the early 1900s. “That saying might be a little outdated for the 21st century,” Bouknight said.

But comedy has been used for centuries as a way to bring up sensitive issues.

“This is one area in communication where it’s been more safe to make jokes about touchy subjects,” Bouknight said.

Charlie Hebdo has stirred controversy in the past. The magazine recently targeted ISIS on Twiter, but a cartoonist who works for the organization says the terrorist said they were Al-Queda.

Reports say during the attack, the terrorists were shouting “God is great,” in Arabic. Leaders and others around the world are shouting back, saying we do not accept this.

Many are holding vigils around the world. The French president says the only way to win is to stand united. While this action is extreme, Bouknight says it’s nothing new.

“You can always get in trouble for speaking out,” Bouknight said. “It takes courage to exercise free speech, because people really care about free speech when what they’re hearing upsets them.”

He says it takes more courage to draw an idea than to draw a gun.