Are you the kind of person who stands strong in the face of Facebook pap and social-media glurge? Your latest challenge is this video from Le Petit Journal, already viral in France and recently subtitled by Jerome Isaac Rousseau. In it, a reporter films a French father talking to his young son about the terror attacks.
“We have to be very careful because we have to change houses,” the kid says, to which his father responds, “Oh, no, don’t worry. We don’t need to move out. France is our home.” It continues:
Son: “But there’s bad guys, daddy.”
Dad: “Yes, but there’s bad guys everywhere.”
Son: “They have guns. They can shoot us because they’re really, really mean, daddy.”
Dad: “Yes, they might have guns, but we have flowers.”
Son: “But flowers don’t do anything. They’re for …”
Dad: “Of course they do. Look, everyone is putting flowers. It’s to fight against the guns.”
Son: “For protection?”
Dad: “Yes.”
Son: “And the candles, too?”
Dad: “To remember the people who departed yesterday.”
The kid turns to the reporter and says: “The flowers and the candles are here to protect us.” If you can scroll past it without needing a minute, you are harder-hearted than I am.