Dear Mother and Father,
I want to let you know that I am in Toulouse and not in Paris at the moment. I just found out about Charlie Hebdo and am very sorry to hear about the news. I have been in Toulouse looking for my magic box and sight seeing. My apartment is about a 19 minute car ride (7.7 km) away from the building, so there isn't too much to worry about. I live in the seventh arrondismont while the Charlie Hebdo building is in the eleventh arrondismont. Also my apartment is in the left bank while Charlie Hebdo is in the right bank. In these past few days 12 staff members of the magazine, Charlie Hebdo, were shot and killed. More of their staff were injured and all of France is mourning. I saw the Secretary of State, John Kerry, address the situation. I was surprised to see him speak in french to the people of France. Also I saw on the news recently that one of the extremists turned them selves into the police, and that the other three involved have been shot and killed. I feel that both side, the terrorists and Charlie Hebdo, are at fault in this situation. Freedom of expression is very important, but you need to balance that when it comes to religion. There is freedom of religion after all. If we let one side do whatever they want they can oppress the other. In this situation, once Charlie Hebdo had realized that they had angered some people they should have let the flames died down. The extremists on the other hand should not have reacted the way they did. They should have done something through court rather than killing people. Although this is a tragic incident, I feel that both sides could have taken different courses of action to prevent this.
Hope your well. I'm having a good time in France. I'm looking for my magic box.
Sincerely,
Stephen
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