I am happy that people are talking, I am asking people who I know who have friends or family in France if they are OK. I want to hear their opinion, I want the conversations to keep going, how can we solve this together. I have an ultra sensitive child that cries all the time, and deep down I feel that crying is OK, better than holding it in, or letting it out in an angry or violent way, here is a great article about crying,
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/tears-support-social-emotional-development-diana-rivera
My family came here from the Communist Soviet Union in 1980, we were Jews who were lucky to get permission to get out, many were not, called refusniks. We had to wait a year for that permission and right before we got it my father discovered something under his car, he did not know it was a bomb, luckily he rolled it out, started walking far enough away before it blew up. I hear American Jews played a big role and I also hear we were traded for grain. I am so grateful that this amazing country knew we were persecuted, and discriminated against, and took us in, now we thrive and give back. One of my French friends was saying that in Europe many communities do not blend in, specifically into the French culture, and I think it is fine to keep your own laws and traditions, as long as it does not violate any of the laws of the country that you live in, and nobody else is forced to abide by that law.
I just read an article that an attack was thwarted at a stadium in Germany,
Here are some of the victims in the Paris attacks, may their memory be a blessing,
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeednews/here-are-the-victims-of-the-paris-attacks#.ybOnpM1p0
Coach Yulia