'Je Suis Charlie' hits home in Winter Park

An estimated 3.7 million people took to the streets of France this month sending a three-word phrase echoing across the city of love and the countryside surrounding it. Overnight it became one of the most popular news-related hashtags in Twitter’s eight-year existence with more than 5 million tweets ticking in. And last week, more than 100 people flocked to a Winter Park restaurant to solidify their solidarity with the words “Je Suis Charlie.”

“We are Charlie!” shouted Bernard Loddé, president of Alliance Française of Greater Orlando, in both French and English shooting his fist into the air and sending the words echoing through the wall-to-wall packed dining room of Hannibal’s on the Square, which erupted in a round of cheers.

His organization along with the French American Business Council of Orlando, Union des Français de l'Etranger – Floridé, and Orlando Consular Corps, organized the Jan. 15 event a week after terrorists stormed the office of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo killing 10 staff members and two police officers – the deadliest terrorist attack in the country in two decades.

According to witnesses, the two gunmen – identified as brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi – fired pointedly at the newspaper’s staffers as they were situated ready for a weekly editorial meeting, allegedly shouting, “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad!” and “God is Great!” in Arabic. The paper had drawn ire from Islamist groups for decades stemming from its controversial caricature depictions of Muhammad.

Black T-shirts and signs with matching stark-white lettering unified the crowd gathered in Winter Park, each one emblazoned with the simple phrase that sparked a movement out of the recent violence – translated in English to “I am Charlie.”

Vincent Gagliano, owner of Hannibal’s and its neighboring French restaurant Chez Vincent, said he’s shed many tears in light of the terror that struck his native country. He remembers as a 12-year-old boy in France reading Charlie Hebdo and chuckling at its cartoons, which he said made fun of everybody – using pen and paper to universally mock those of every gender, race and religion. Seeing the newspaper savagely attacked, he said, takes the fight for freedom of press and speech to the forefront of his mind.

“It’s great to see the enthusiasm that people are concerned about it,” Gagliano said looking out over his standing-room-only restaurant. “We need to stand up for freedom of speech … We need to agree to disagree.”

Event organizer Brigitte Dagot said there’s something unifying about the need for a free press and freedom of thought that’s bringing millions of people together in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack.

Dagot, an honorary consul for France, said her email box blew up in the days following the Jan. 7 shooting filled with words of condolence and concern over the bloodshed in Paris from both friends and strangers. This time in going up against the press, she said, the terrorists hit a nerve. People cherish their right to think whatever they want to think, she said.

“It’s not about that you agree with the guy next door to you, it’s about that I have the right to think whatever the heck I want,” Dagot said.

“It’s about freedom. People can be whatever they want to be … We have people of all faiths here tonight and that’s OK, that’s good.”

This month’s attack wasn’t Charlie Hebdo’s first brush with violence. In November 2011, the Charlie Hebdo offices were firebombed the week it was set to publish an issue mocking Islamic law.

"In France, we always have the right to write and draw. And if some people are not happy with this, they can sue us, and we can defend ourselves. That's democracy," Charlie Hebdo journalist Laurent Léger told CNN after the bombing. "You don't throw bombs; you discuss, you debate. But you don't act violently. We have to stand and resist pressure from extremism."

Léger was reportedly in the boardroom when gunfire broke out this month, killing 10 of his colleagues, and was one of the few in the room to survive uninjured.

An attendee at the Winter Park rally, British-American Justine Assal, recently honored by the Queen of England for her efforts to boost British-American tourism and business, said it’s important for the world to rally against attempts of free speech oppression.

“You have to show solidarity when people try to hinder freedom of speech no matter where it happens,” she said clutching her Je Suis Charlie sign. “It’s insulting to all of us. It’s terrible.”

Gagliano said the black-and-white Je Suis Charlie T-shirt given to him at the rally is slated to become a new staple in his wardrobe.

“We need to wear these T-shirts not just today or tomorrow or the next day, but forever,” he said. “We need to remember.”