ICI C'EST PARIS

Ici c'est Paris is the motto of the French football club Paris St. Germain. However, this phrase took on a much more ominous, almost questioning tone late last week after the coordinated attacks on the city. Ici c'est Paris?

Several teams of terrorists carried out multiple attacks on "soft" targets throughout the city. These included a restaurant, a concert hall, and the Stade de France national stadium where Les Bleus (The Blues), as the French national team is known, were playing Germany. More than 100 people were killed in these attacks, and several hundred people have been wounded. It was the single worst terrorist attack on French soil, and the French were still reeling today as I write this.

They were not alone in their sadness and outrage. We in America know the tragedy that terrorism brings, and we are not the only ones. There were bombs in Turkey and Lebanon, too. ISIS is on the march.

All of these events are even more tragic when one considers that there is no obvious solution to stamping out global terrorism. How do you convince disaffected youth to not blow themselves up? How do you prevent such tragedies without trampling on civil rights?

We will need some creative solutions, but I am afraid it is not possible to stop terrorism and to prevent these crises. Much can be done to thwart them and to minimize their impact, but it is folly to think that we can live in a world free of global terrorism.

What is in our control is how we live, how we treat others, and how we respond to such tragedies.

My family has a trip to Europe planned this year. We are still committed to going. We want to see this part of the world that gave birth to our country and our way of life. We will not be deterred. We will not be terrorized into changing our way of life.

More than ever it is so obvious that we are all connected. We, humankind, rise and fall as one. Today, and every day, je suis un Parisien (I am a Parisian)!