On 9 Jun 2009 at 14:08, Louise Pryor wrote: > Americans who hate their country, hate it with the naive ferocity of those > who have no idea how the rest of the world operates. Having lived in a > socialist monarchy, under a military dictatorship, in a tropical paradise, > and in a democracy, I have a different view of America. The hope my father > had, when he brought us here (legally) was of America as the land of > promise. "In America anyone can be anything they want to be" was his > understanding. He came here with $400 in his pocket and the promise of a > job. And because what he believed is true, he found what he was looking for. > > I grant that the American government is not perfect, and may be far from > what the founding fathers had in mind, but it still has a foundation of > freedom, whereby Nick can declare his "rights to personal property" - right > out loud - with very little actual threat that anyone will come in and take > it away from him - and plenty of recourse if anyone did. > > "Rights to personal property", and "individual rights", are not something > commonly recognized world wide. The rest of the world sees Americans, in > general, as greedy, spoiled children. > > "I have my rights, sir, and I'm telling you, I intend to go on doing just > what I do!" (the Onceler to the Lorax, Dr. Seuss) > > Lu
Well said, Lu. Unfortunately we see the socialist mind at work in the overt censorship of Nick whose presence here has been summarily taken away from him by fiat while those who blasphemed him as a "whack-job," "paranoid violent nutcase," and "time for your meds again" are given a free pass. Although I find ad hominem attacks a sign that the attacker has nothing of value to say, I would never attempt to take away his right to say it. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes expressed the essence of free speech as etched in the U.S. Constitution: "If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought--not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought we hate." It's clear that many Europeans and others around the world do not share this quintessential American value. Platt Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
