Paris Tomorrow!

Yikes!!  I am off to Paris tomorrow.  Oh yes, you all know about the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, Notre Dame, etc., etc., etc.!!  But those and the many other icons of “The City of Light” are not the reasons that I am going to Paris tomorrow.  No, there is another reason and that is to demonstrate to myself and to any one else who cares to observe, that I for one, am not afraid of terrorists and I will not allow the threat of being murdered by a terrorist to stop me from visiting “my city” again.  You see, I am 77 years old and I am not sure how many more times in my life I will be able to visit Paris.  I call Paris “my city” because from my very first 3 day visit in the Spring of 1980 I fell in love with Paris, with France, with the French people and with the whole “Je ne sais quoi” or loosely translated “I don’t know what” but it is something that has infected me to the point that I cannot even remember how many times I have been to Paris but this time will be different.  Oh, I might spend some time at the Musee’ d’Orsay or the Centre’ Pompidou or the Musee’ Rodin but mainly I plan to visit Le Petit Cambodge and Le Carillon by the corner of rues Bichat and Alibert, A La Bonne Biere and La Casa Nostra on the rue de la Fontaine-au-Roi, La Belle Equipe on rue de Charrone, Comptoir Voltaire on the Blvd. Voltaire and of couse the Bataclan concert hall at 50 Blvd. Voltaire.  You may recognize some of those names as the places where innocent people from many parts of the world, out for a night of relaxation and fun, were murdered in a serie of vicious terrorist attacks this past November.  As the name implies “terrorist” is meant to instill terror, fear and to the degree that we the living give in to our fears and undermine everything that “Liberte’, Egalite’ and Fraternite ” stand for, then the lives of those lost innocents will have been lost to no good purpose but if we reaffirm our courage to promote and secure freedom, equality and brotherhood then the deaths of those innocents will not have been in vain.  And so my friends and family, that is why I will go to Paris tomorrow.  To show the world and myself that I will not let fear rule my life and perhaps, in some small way, I may inspire others to think and act in a similar way.  Tomorrow I will begin to share my thoughtsfeelings upon my return to Paris in the light of these past horrific events.  I hope that you will return to aroundtheworldwithdrron tomorrow.