I suffer without hatred. I borrow this formula from Antoine Leiris [whose wife, Hélène Muyal-Leiris, was killed in the Bataclan theatre massacre on November 13, 2015] whose immense wisdom in the face of pain I have admired so much that I read and re-read his lines a few months ago. It is a lesson in life that has made me grow so much that it protects me today.
When the first messages were published informing Parisians that a serious event was taking place on the Champs-Elysees and a policeman had lost his life, a small voice told me that it was you, and I recalled this generous and healing formula: “You will not have my hatred.”
This hatred, Xavier, I do not have because it does not resemble you, because it does not correspond to anything that made your heat beat, or what made you a gendarme, then a guardian of peace. Because the general interest, the service of others and the protection of all were part of your education and your convictions, and that tolerance, dialogue and temperance were your best weapons.
– Étienne Cardiles
April 25, 2017
April 25, 2017
Postscript: Sadly, not all gay French men value the qualities of "tolerance, dialogue and temperance" embodied and articulated by Xavier Jugelé and Étienne Cardiles. This BBC article, for instance, examines the rise in support within the French LGBT community for the far right Front National (FN) party led by Marine Le Pen. It's a political party known for its homophobia, racism and anti-semitism. And yet as the BBC article notes, of the 3,200 gay French men that the dating app Hornet surveyed, one in five said they would be giving Marine Le Pen their vote in this weekend's French presidential election.
See also the previous Wild Reed post:
• In the Wake of the Paris Attacks, Saying 'No' to War, Racism and Islamophobia
Such a powerful eulogy.
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