Free speech, first amendment, unalienable human rights. These are the topics that have bounced from mouth to mouth of politicians, speech to speech of Hollywood’s award season and tweet to tweet of a world that has united to mourn those who died in the Charlie Hebdo attack.

More than just mourning the lives of Elsa Cayat, Stéphane Charbonnier and Jean Cabut, among others, people have been caught up in mourning the right to free press, free speech and satirical journalism. Those on the other side of the broadsheet are outraged at what they think will be the end of punny headlines, offensive cartoons and editorials that push the envelope.

These people do not understand how media works. These people do not understand that journalists, as some of the most notoriously gutsy people on the planet, will not be scared into a corner and will not be bullied into changing what words are formed on a page.

Right or wrong, no amount of repercussions will change the ultimate endgame of these daring publications.

Not a single victim of the Charlie Hebdo attack, nor any other pen-slinging journalist, spent a lick of time being concerned about what people think. However wrong this may seem, it is the prerogative of the publication to place empathy on the other side of the bottom line.

This attack was depressing, uncalled for and unsurprising. Far from a loving, fair and truthful publication, Charlie Hebdo was not a beacon of journalistic integrity. However, no person ever deserves to die for something they have written or drawn.

We are a reactionary species. The attackers on Charlie Hebdo reacted to a series of cartoons and words, climaxing in what will define those men for the rest of their lives. Now, it is our turn. How we, as a business, react will speak volumes more about us than it will about the radical gunslingers that sent a shiver down the spine of editors everywhere.

This is not a battle to be fought with guns and soldiers. This is not an act of war. This is an incident that will be put to rest as the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo, screenwriters at Saturday Night Live and reporters at every newspaper across the world put the pen to the page and continue on in one of the oldest professions on Earth.

Here is where we stand together, support our brothers and recognize that satire is not a criminal offense, even when it’s offensive.

Photo courtesy Dominic Alves, Creative Commons.