In my brief career as a writer and as an activist I have been 'advised' from time to time that my 'freedom of expression' has caused concern to some who would rather I expressed myself otherwise. Along the way there have even been others who have taken it upon themselves to attempt to coerce by enticement or threat my exercise of said freedoms moving from honey to vinegar with ease.
Over the duration I have lost friends, family members, as well as financial and other opportunities to situations others would rather not be highlighted or recorded and all i can say is that I knew this going in. Being for neither side in a place where you're either one or the other in everything leaves you exposed to attacks from both, and in a society made up of thinly disguised dictators who really do not like free speech when that free speech is used to expose something that they would prefer never see the light of day, you learn to deal with all sorts of personal attacks. Once again I find myself in such a place, and while I am nobody's martyr, I am committed as Gandhi advised, To be the change that I would like to see in the world.
Over the duration I have lost friends, family members, as well as financial and other opportunities to situations others would rather not be highlighted or recorded and all i can say is that I knew this going in. Being for neither side in a place where you're either one or the other in everything leaves you exposed to attacks from both, and in a society made up of thinly disguised dictators who really do not like free speech when that free speech is used to expose something that they would prefer never see the light of day, you learn to deal with all sorts of personal attacks. Once again I find myself in such a place, and while I am nobody's martyr, I am committed as Gandhi advised, To be the change that I would like to see in the world.
Of all the freedoms we as a people enjoy, none are as important as the freedom of speech.
The Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago recognizes the right to free expression and states quite clearly:
"It is hereby recognized and declared that in Trinidad and Tobago there have existed and shall continue to exist without discrimination by reason of race, origin, color, religion or sex, the following fundamental human rights and freedoms, namely (among others):- the right to join political parties and to express political views; freedom of conscience and religious belief and observance; freedom of thought and expression; freedom of association and assembly; and freedom of the press."
Without freedom of speech all the other freedoms collapse, or as Henry Steele Commager said: "The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion."
We need to jealously guard these rights and be willing to stand in their defense regardless of personal loss, or as Voltaire is believed to have so eloquently said when faced with derision by a peer: "My friend, I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it."
Indeed! The truth of the matter is as Alfred Whitney Griswold said: "Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas."
Do you think our Governments have ever really appreciate this? Taken further, David Ben-Gurion, The first Prime Minister of Israel is noted to have said: "The test of democracy is freedom of criticism."
That is concise as a truth should ever be and our maturity arrives the day our understanding of it does. We may be juvenile in our development but we do not have to remake the failed mistakes of others to learn or to grow. To those who would champion the death of the freedom expression I would guide them to look to their own past or even their recent history to see if, were it not for these same freedoms, would they be where they find themselves today? It is the elevation of man to his highest self that he sees criticism not as the cross on which he is to be hung, but the wings that lifts him into the sky. As always in matters like these my favorite quotation comes from Khalil Gibran who said in the Prophet: "You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?"
Indeed! The truth of the matter is as Alfred Whitney Griswold said: "Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas."
Do you think our Governments have ever really appreciate this? Taken further, David Ben-Gurion, The first Prime Minister of Israel is noted to have said: "The test of democracy is freedom of criticism."
That is concise as a truth should ever be and our maturity arrives the day our understanding of it does. We may be juvenile in our development but we do not have to remake the failed mistakes of others to learn or to grow. To those who would champion the death of the freedom expression I would guide them to look to their own past or even their recent history to see if, were it not for these same freedoms, would they be where they find themselves today? It is the elevation of man to his highest self that he sees criticism not as the cross on which he is to be hung, but the wings that lifts him into the sky. As always in matters like these my favorite quotation comes from Khalil Gibran who said in the Prophet: "You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?"
Only fools embark on struggles that continue to strive at efforts that have consistently failed every single time they were tried for all the history of man. Broaden your mind if you would see yourself a leader, dare to change the world and fight for all of the people's rights to always be free. Otherwise, what is really the point of you in the first place.
To thine own self be true. Works every time.
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