Gary's blog, My Village, has a wonderful little video regarding freedom of speech, of expression, of a transparent government, of a willingness to accept criticism and correct errors. The speech of JFK is accompanied by overlaid pictures and questions and statements. It ends with a statement from JFK that man was born to be free and independent and is followed by a quote from the UN regarding the right of people to free speech and access to media. It is well worth viewing.
It is frightening to think about it, but we, in the world and here in CV, have allowed our rights to be curtailed, inch by inch. We speak up less. We speak in lower volume. We question ourselves if it is worth the trouble. Well, this is wrong, oh so wrong.
We have allowed fear to close our eyes and mouths to the invasion of our lives by radical Islamists and their radical interpretation of religion. We have allowed them to tell us what we can and cannot write or picture, what we can ideate or not, in public and even in private. We are kept in their lines by threats and actual violence and even now, with the blood still staining the floors and streets of Paris, once again people are talking negatively about the new cover of Charlie Hebdo, shushing people up and whispering of the violence it will ignite. Well, too bad on those too delicate to hear what needs to be said and shown. The shameful, pulled out and exposed to the sun and air will die. Violence survives in secret and it is that secrecy we must combat.
Yet there are still questions to be asked and answers to be given and it would be one thing if the answers were honest and came from soul searching, but they will not. Where were the millions of people to march when a teacher and three students were shot down in a Jewish school in Toulouse? Where were the millions to march when Ilan Halimi was kidnapped and tortured for 24 godawful days. Where was the unity when Hollande told Netanyahu not to come. Really, when there were victims who died BECAUSE THEY WERE JEWISH and not because they were French. Netanyahu was there to represent his fellow family members, as the leader of a country that is the only Jewish country in the world, in the only country that will welcome all its family members, rich or poor, black or white or Asian, the only country that stands as a refuge for us. 70 years after the Holocaust and we are back to the future - again!
We, all the people of the world, must stand up to tyranny, to threats of violence, to attempts to wrest our rights from us, from all attempts to run a corrupt and inefficient government, from intimidation and opaqueness, from lies and incompetence, from planned threats, from anything and everything that can and will be thrown at us - all in the name of shutting down the opposition, anywhere and anytime.
Shakespeare often equated the natural world with the world of man. If there were violence in one it would be reflected in the other. (Makes one think a bit about today's world weather and world situations, huh?) But even more meaningful, we must also see that the corruptness, the violence, the threats, the secrecy, the incompetence and veniality that is so often the guiding principles of larger governments, are reflected in the smaller ones, such as our own UCO. We must fight this at all levels.
Be of courage and stand up to the fight. If we keep quiet, if we hide our heads in the sand, we will be left with nothing and no one to defend, to enjoy. George Orwell's Animal Farm does not exist here in the Village. No one is "more equal" than others and pigs do not rule here in CV, only in Orwell's farm - until the rest of the inhabitants rebelled. Think about it.
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