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Loyola University • New Orleans • Volume 94 • Issue 12
THE MAROON NOV. 20, 2015
YOU WILL NOT HAVE MY HATRED
Following the terrorist attacks on Paris, fear has become a weapon. In response, the Parisian people have vowed to not give in: Vous n’aurez pas ma haine. You will not have my hatred.
By Gabriel Garza jggarza@loyno.edu @GabeGarza13
It was a weekend trip to Paris. Leah Glenday had the whole trip planned from start to finish. But then gunshots rang through the City of Lights. “We realized that the gunmen were approaching us and coming closer, closer, and closer,” Glenday said. “No time for fear really, it was get yourself to safety and figure out what’s going on after.” Glenday, mass communication junior, is studying abroad at Florence University of the Arts in Italy. She and her friends had decided to go to Paris for a few days to visit. As she was exploring Paris by night, she stopped into a McDonalds to connect to the Internet when her phone rang with messages. “All of a sudden I had gotten messages asking if I was okay, if things were going wrong,” Glenday said. Glenday and her friends had heard that there were gunmen shooting up restaurants along the streets they were headed to. The group was safe from harm, but Glenday said she felt lucky and knew that if she did not receive a warning text, she may have been killed. “We heard right before midnight that the closest McDonalds to us had been bombed by a suicide bomber,” Glenday said. On Friday, Nov. 13, the world discovered that terrorists had attacked six locations within Paris with guns and suicide bombers.
he was in disbelief after learning of the atThe attack claimed the lives of 129 intacks. dividuals and injured over 300, some of “You don’t process something like this which are still in critical condition. quickly. It is troubling to me and to people The Islamic group referred to as ISIS who know and love Paris because it is such claimed responsibility for the attack. a very laid back city,” Petitfils said. At a press conference after the Paris atDebbie Danna, director for the center of tack, President Obama stated, “This is an international education, understands that attack not just on Paris, not just on the peoafter the Paris attacks, ple on France, but an students and parents are attack on all human- “When I saw scenes on the concerned about safety ity and the universal news, I felt involved, this is during study abroad. values we share.” “We were quickly able Tristan Le Bras, my city, this is my place, to verify that our students foreign exchange were safe through emails, student from Paris, these are my streets,” Facebook, and through said he was deeply — Tristan Le Bras returned study abroad shocked seeing vistudents who were friends olent attacks in the with those abroad,” Danna said. same place where he grew up. Alice Kornovichm, French professor at “I checked my Facebook and noticed Loyola, said she found the act of terrorism that my sister and father tried to call me in a city that she loves so dearly shocking several times. I skyped with my sister the and devastating. rest of the night. All the attacks took place “It was a horrifying act that I found, halfin our neighborhood,” Le Bras said. shock and half-heart break for those who Le Bras said it took an hour to find out if love the city,” Kornovich said. his mother, who was traveling home from Kornovich said she is confident that ParLondon, was safe. It also took him two is will bounce back from these events. hours to find out that all his friends were “Paris has a history of surviving terrible, safe from the attacks. tragic events,” Kornovich said. Le Bras said that at first he felt shock, folLe Bras said that he has heard that there lowed by relief and then guilt about being is a different mood in the city now. away from home while the attacks hap“I’ve heard a lot of people are taking pened in his own country. out there guitars and singing. There “All the attacks were in places that I used was a guy in front of the concert to see every day. When I saw scenes on the hall who took his piano and startnews, I felt involved, this is my city, this is ed to play ‘Imagine’ by John my place, these are my streets,” Le Bras Lennon,” Le Bras said. “They said. “You feel totally different when it is want peace inside and war happening. It’s an intrusion in your life.” outside. Push away the Malaika Lucien, economics junior, horror and go back to a was studying abroad in Paris at Ecole happy lifestyle.” Supérieure Du commerce extérieur and recalled what happened on Nov. 13. “At around 9 p.m., we realized that there Lester Duhe contributed was an attack going on,” Lucien said. to this article. The whole feel of the city changed within only 20 minutes. “We had no idea it was a planned and organized terrorist attack,” Lucien said. Lucien was safe, but she said that instead of people walking around the city, there were police everywhere. “The next day it was like the apocalypse,” Lucien said. “You can’t really grasp how scary a situation like that is when you hear about it versus living there it’s like your whole entire world turns upside down because you know you’re not safe anymore.” Dr. Brad Petitfils, co-director of the Paris study abroad program, said that