Well, I have just finished my own contribution to the Lars Vilks committee, the committee that was attacked by a terrorist one year ago.
These are my reflections.
First of all, you say, that the tree of the world is nourished by the sacrifices of the martyrs. That is, an ideology will flourish and be strengthened by sacrifice, by blood.
If we do not sacrifice anything or are not ready to sacrifice anything, we will die.
We have to understand this, the fight for our own civilisation will demand our sacrifices and, sometimes, that our heroes will give their life, so that we can go on living and be brave, like them.
There is another thing that I have, grudgingly and heartbroken, realised. I have realised, that the ideology that I put under the Vilks committee, that of freedom of speech, democracy and humanism, has a new hero.
It is as startling as that. The police, the bigots and hippocrates they are, suppressed the fact that the lone defender of the people that were under fire at Krudttønden were not really the police. No the police, especially the Danish police, were just as frightened and cowards as most other.
No, the one that did stop that terrorist, that well trained, machinepistol wielding, disgusting attacker was a guy called Finn. He is known for his love of film, and his sense of justice. He used to do yoga, film the existence at the bottom of our society and give them a voice. You could call him a gentleman Michael Moore. He wears thin spectacles and he was the one, that in face of danger sacrificed himself for all those people who were in the lobby. Many, many of them my personal friends.
He ran right, when everybody else ran left. He rushed the terrorists with his bare hands. Coming from the behind, toppling over the disgusting man, and then, because he was unarmed, he was shot point blank in his back.
He is that hero of democracy, free speech and just basic humanity that we have always missed. That one man, that had had enough, that was suffienctly disgusted by the terror attack at Charlie Hebdo. That was brave enough to run right against an armed man, with mostly only his frail spectacles as a weapon.
He died, so that we can live on. Both in practise, that is all my other friends, but also symbolically.
He died, so that we have one hero now, maybe a bit unsung, but still just one of those civil and brave men, that has the guts to stand up against oppression and tyranny. That has the heart to sacrifice himself for something more, for a noble ideal. That of sacrifice and justice.
That if you see something wrong, you do not just shut or keep on. No you stand up, with your back unbowed, with your eyes blazing out of those bespectalbled eyes. Those eyes of kindness, and sing with all your might, with every ounce of your entire being, that song of democracy and light. That tune of freedom.
Finn died so that we can retake our freedom, that the craven and the corrupt has taken away from us. He died, so that we may live in a free existence, where we should not be afraid of saying what is right.
He is that one man, that turned around when G-d asked Lot if there were anyone uncorrupted in the city of Sodoma. He is the one, that ran right, when everybody else, the finest crop of freedom fighters ran left.
He is the one, that we, from now on, should compare ourselves with, when we judge the cost of that beautiful fight for live and freedom.
Will we do what Finn did, when the bells ring, and justice is upon us? Would we run right instead of left?
Would you? Finn has asked ourselves that question, and we will have to find an answer, each of us. In the face of the bravery of a true, true hero.
G-d bless his mighty memory, the first hero of Socialdemocratism since the turn of the century.
