Refreshingly, At Least Some On/Of the Left "Get" Why PEN Is Giving Charlie Hebdo an Award

Todd Gitlin, for instance. He writes:

On the face of it, the Goodale Award would seem the ideal honor for Charlie Hebdo.  

The idea is to reward virtue and convey respect. It not a Pulitzer, National Book Award, or PEN/Faulkner award for fine writing. It is an award for character. As PEN said: “Only a handful of people are willing to put themselves in peril to build a world in which we are all free to say what we believe.” Their statement does not endorse propositions, or styles, or theories of the wrongheadness of Islam or any other religion whose pronouncements and taboos Charlie Hebdo has, since its inception, chortled about as it casts enemies into outer darkness.

Maus 'toonist Art Spiegelman gets it, too.