Key Westers React To Paris Terror Attacks

By Terry Schmida

Former French President Charles De Gaulle once famously wondered aloud how anyone could unite his county, whose “246 varieties of cheese” stood as a testament to its disparate nature.

The answer is now clear.

Following last week’s terror attacks in Paris, people from all religions and walks of life converged on city squares to denounce the barbaric violence, and proclaim solidarity with French values – and each other.

In the Southernmost City too, residents with ties to France sounded off this week and their feelings about what is being described as the “French 9/11.”

“My uncle is an impresario in Paris, and was working at a show at the Palais de Congres the night of the attacks,” said Rawy Shediac, an Egyptian-born Christian with homes in both South Florida and France. “As the show was ending word came through about the attacks, and everyone was evacuated into the third basement as a precaution. The idea that this kind of thing can happen anywhere, at seven different locations, is really unnerving. And literally the day after our president said that ISIS had been contained.”

Former Key Wester Shediac, whose apartment in Neuilly is just outside the 17th Arrondissement, speculated on what form the fallout from the tragedy could take.

“Obviously the first people to pay the price are going to be other Muslims, as well as innocent immigrants and refugees. It’s hard to know how to deal with this kind of threat, because, how do you combat people who think they’re going to go to heaven if they blow themselves up? You can’t even threaten them with death.”

Another local who worries about the future of both France and the City of Light is Yolonde Findlay, the former owner of La Creperie.

“I have four sisters living in Paris right now, and my heart is always there,” said Findlay, who maintains a home in a small town in the Pyrenees, near the Spanish border. “But I was more worried about my nephew, because he always goes to watch the soccer games. Fortunately, on Friday, he stayed home to watch the match on TV. The attacks made me very sad.”

Findlay, who visits her native land with her husband Paul every year, said she has seen changes come to the French population, long before last week’s terror acts.

“The demographics in the neighborhood my sister lives in have been changing for a while,” she said. “But that’s happening everywhere. We have open borders all over the world. We have to be careful to know who the people are who are coming into our country, because many, like some of the refugees, don’t have passports or ID. But a lot of them are well-educated and wealthy and want to contribute, but they’ve had to flee because they have nothing left. It’s a tricky balance.”

Out on Flagler Avenue, Key Westers Tammie Murray and Scott Shores have lit their front fence in the red, white and blue of the French tricolor flag.

The couple has never been to France, nor do they have family living there. Nonetheless, the pair felt the desire to send a positive message about American’s oldest ally, to passersby on the street.

“I just think it’s really said,” Murray said. “It seems these days like France isn’t all that far away, and what happened there could happen anywhere. Underneath it all, people here, and people in France . . . we’re all the same.”

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