“An Attack on the Civilized World,” said President Barack Obama as he described the tragic number of events that unfolded in Paris on Friday, Nov. 13. These tragic events only lead to more fear, paranoia and this horrible sense of feeling unsafe in a place no one ever thought would be attacked.
On Friday Nov. 13, an explosion went off around 9:20 p.m at Gate D of a Paris football stadium where Germany and France were having an exhibition match. The frightening thing about this entire situation is that many people didn’t figure out that an explosion had gone off until around 10:50 PM towards the end of the match. The coaches of the two teams had decided to withhold the information about the terrorist plot to keep the game going, and the fans of the games were unaware until the last possible second when the news became clear. Only one person was killed during the explosion, as the authorities came to the decision that it was a suicide bombing with the victim being killed as a result of it.
Spectators as they were fleeing the stadium
(Photo taken from thestar.com)
Five minutes had passed since the first explosion, when two shootings occurred at Le Carillon and Le Petit Cambodge (a bar and restaurant in Paris). Gunmen got out of the backseats of a black car and opened fire with assault rifles on people sitting outside of the bar and restaurant. Fifteen people were killed and ten others were critically wounded. Another bombing took place shortly after this.
Aftermath of the shooting outside one of the restaurants in Paris.
(Photo Taken from The New York Times)
The biggest attack took place at Le Batclan (a concert/music hall in Paris) where three men arrived with AK-47 assault rifles and started shooting at the audience. People were in such a hurry to escape the hall, they were attempting to escape through windows and emergency exits. The terrorist then decided to round up hostages with a standoff lasting several hours until police had raided the concert hall and the three attackers died while the standoff took place.
Outside of the concert hall as people were lining up the streets and escaping the hall from the emergency exists and fire escapes.
(Photo Taken from The New York Times)
At the moment, the current death toll is 129 and 352 people injured. Many people are comparing the Paris attack to a variety of places around world, saying that the Paris attack shouldn’t be as focused on as other countries live through these same situations each and every day. In my opinion, that is highly insensitive to the people of Paris. They had their own 9/11 equivalent, and many people don’t compare that to the many tragedies around the world. Read my next statement carefully:
TRAGIC EVENTS SHOULD NOT BE COMPARED TO ONE ANOTHER.
Paris is a country that never thought this kind of situation would happen to them, and has never experienced something nearly as bad as this in quite a long time. The country had to enact a mandatory curfew, something that hasn’t been done since World War II. Not only that, but the country is living in fear each and every day and their whole world is going to be thrown outside as people now have to be worried about staying alive as they enjoy their favorite leisure activity. If you get shot by a gun, would you be very happy with someone responding “Well people got shot every day, you shouldn’t feel bad?”
Now, I’m not saying that other countries don’t deserve our sympathy, attention, and activism. But we shouldn’t throw Paris under the bus as people lost friends, family members, and citizens of their own country because of a terrorist organization that thrives off the pain of others. It hasn’t been a week since the attack has happened, so please, allow Paris to grieve and don’t shun the citizens or people for showing emotion towards a tragic event. We need to stand together, and not allow this event to be the catalyst of an even bigger split between people in the world. Different countries around the world have been supporting Paris since the event - so why shouldn't we?
The Sydney Opera House being lit up in honor of Paris.
(Photo taken from wsj.com)
