Bleeding Edge

#PortesOuvertes

Please share this hashtag, #PortesOuvertes in support of Paris, France, and our World today.

Please share because… #PortesOuvertes – means #opendoors, and symbolizes the open doors the usually jaded Parisians instinctively threw open in their abundant humanity, to offer safety and succor to strangers.

#PortesOuvertes lets people traumatized, wounded, or escaping, running away from explosions, scrambling, to find safety in the city’s homes, as the number of attacks on public venues increased, and the confusion multiplied.

#PortesOuvertes means not only open doors, but it also means an open country that allows and accepts people as they are.

We need Open Doors today more than ever because last night’s attacks in Paris’ heart are directed at the heart of our Open Doors policy. They show the same uncanny sense of symbolism as the January massacres, and many others before them. They simply want to change our way of Life…

They want to make us all fearful and hateful. That is why the hate mongers and the terror spreading attackers targeted Parisian neighborhoods where people are far more tolerant, open, liberal and progressive.

And they targeted the greatest monument to France’s multi-ethnic, egalitarian, and pluralistic success: the football grounds of the Stade de France. This soccer field is the Parisian Green Heart because here is where the local team won the World Cup back in the 90s.

The attackers, whomever they may be, and whatever their motives, went after the heart of progressive Open Paris.

They did not attack the more touristy Champs-Elysées or Notre Dame, or the more bourgeois and conservative left bank, where most of the government ministries are located. Instead they attacked the most progressive part of the City where the youth, the progressive, the open liberal culture resides.

The attacked our Open Doors policy and their message is reinforced by the site of the main attack, on the biggest public venue — the Stade de France. This particular city stadium is one of the few places where the promise of a more integrated France is realized.

This is where the famed all inclusive French soccer team, known as “Les Bleus,” is the paragon of the ‘black-blanc-beur’ ideal (black, white, arab). The national team of France is a true French meritocracy in action, and it works.

The Stade de France is where a French team led by the Algerian-Frenchman Zinedine Zidane won the greatest trophy in sports, the FIFA World Cup, in 1998. The best moment of Unity shown to the world. ( #black-blanc-beur = black, white, arab…)

#PortesOuvertes and #black-blanc-beur is what France and especially Paris has always been for me… and most of my people.

Now let’s hope that France’s leadership doesn’t overreact and close the borders of this great country to the world.

We need today #PortesOuvertes more than ever. We need #black-blanc-beur because if we turn an open democratic country into a closed borders country intolerant of the “others” — this surely will be the “Win” the radical islamists are looking for.

Let’s stay open, stay inclusive, stay Democratic in the face of danger, hurt, and fear. Let’s stay united and strong today — more than ever before, because that’s how we WIN on our principles.

Yours,

Pano

PS:

Le Stade de France Le Bataclan, Le Carillon, La Belle Equipe, Le Petit Cambodge — all places of unity in diversity…

We need to stay strong and be even more inclusive today — because that’s our best defense.

Unity amongst us. Strength in diversity.

So please share this too: #black-blanc-beur right up there with #PortesOuvertes

Let’s keep an Open Door and a more inclusive Policy going forward in Europe…

and the whole World will be safer for that.

We are the beacon of Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood for all.

Let’s act like it, and share it:  #black-blanc-beur

Must never forget that… because it is UNITY that we need more than anything else today.

Out of this horrible carnage let’s allow Liberty to rise in Victory — once again.

That’s the spirit of France…

That’s how we win.