Free Speech Is Spoken Here and always will be.
The attack on Charlie Hebdo is one of the most chilling events of recent times and could have more ramifications than Nine Eleven.
Freedom of speech is at the very core of civilisation and a democratic world.
We have all been attacked.
There are thousands of men and women incarcerated in prisons and labour camps in countries that don't allow freedom of expression. We owe it to them and ourselves
to stand up for our rights.
Without the liberty to speak we will all spend our lives shackled and in fear.
Illustrators, cartoonists and social commentators from around the world have very quickly, simply and creatively responded in their own
wonderful way.
But our world will never be the same again...
Freedom of speech - Yes, but there is a responsibility in that. Don't we have a responsibility towards other people's sensitivities even if they seem daft to us? It's called cultural awareness. I love satirical cartoons and of course their nature is to push boundaries in society but there has to be sensitivity too.
ReplyDeleteYes you are right...
DeleteI do agree, pb, but this , unfortunately, is not yet a time of Cultural perception, let alone active awareness.
DeleteWe must just be pleased that there is a show of solidarity and a search for peaceful solutions among the peoples of the World.
We may be yet some distance from our ideals, but this raising of the pen for freedom is possibly as good as it can get in our Capitalist dominated World.
Small steps are all we can achieve, but so long as our vision remains clear, peace will come.
Jennybee
Keith, I totally agree.
ReplyDeleteThis is a wake-up call for us in the West.
New groupings of solidarity are sorely needed in the World today.
This raising of the pen as a passive weapon against the mindless use of explosives, is a positive movement.
Hopefully a tiny move towards Peace, though possibly not in our time.
Jennybee
Freedom of speech is essential to every human being - even to those who don't know it.
ReplyDeleteI wish that everybody - but especially the muslim/islamic these years - in the World would look in the mirror and ask themselves: Do I really wish my sons and daugthers to be murderers?
The World is bleeding. There must occur a change - another understanding where love and peace is fundamental for living. For survival f the human being.
I joined a New Year's levee today here in Aarhus, Denmark. As a start 100 people stood up without any sound but the flame of a candle to embrace the wish of peace in the World.
Thankyou for your courage to share this post with us, Keith
Of course I believe in freedom of speech and expression. Let's try to remember, however, that this newspaper was not writing philosophy or even a difference of opinion. The cartoons that were taken as being offensive - to every religious order there is - was pornography. I guess it doesn't make a difference when it comes to free speech, but I agree with pb above, that some sensitivity and awareness is important in this world.
ReplyDelete