Freedom of Speech

[madderbat]

Dear Piglet
"I may not agree with what you say, but I would defend to the death your right to say it!" Said by someone very important a long time ago, but still relevant today in freedom of speech matters. (I believe it was Voltaire)
Keep on keeping on. (btw - does not imply that I disagree with you! )

[Don Vincenzo]

Voltaire very important?

Dear Piglet
"I may not agree with what you say, but I would defend to the death your right to say it!" Said by someone very important a long time ago, but still relevant today in freedom of speech matters. (I believe it was Voltaire)
Keep on keeping on. (btw - does not imply that I disagree with you! )

Hello Madderbat and happy new year to Everybody,
I fail to understand why Voltaire was a very important person, as far I can deduce from whatever is written on books etc that the most of the people who had the time and will to write philosophy etc.....to me means that they had the basic needs of life allready provided to them by various means so had the time to think and write. So far I came to conclusion in life that NOBODY is important, especially human beings. Empires and Religions were / are created and build only on thoughts by so called humans and compared to the infinity of life as we perceive it they only last seconds. There is a mistery in life and we will not know till we die but to me nobody is very important, lets enjoy freedom of speech and well done Piglet!!!
Don Vincenzo

[madderbat]

Hello Don Vincenzo and Happy New Year.
I stand and bow my head to your wisdom, you are of course right and I was careless in my use of language. I apologise.
I think sometimes 'importance' is placed inappropriately. The truly important things in life are: somewhere to live, someone to love and something to do. If you can add food, warmth and wanting what you have to that, you've got the lot.

[beefy]

For what it's worth I beleive that you should be allowed to do ,say ,act and beleive what you want as long as you dont offend anyone by doing , saying ,acting and beleiving.
Coming from where I do the only thing I will say about religion is it is entirely your own decision what you do on a Sunday (or any other day of the week)and noone has any right to tell you otherwise.
This is a forum where points of view are discussed and people are free to draw their own conclusions if the subject offends you dont look at it again .
Piglet - keep on keeping on!

[dexterdoglancashire]

PW, I thought it was a lovely thought. Unfortunately, too many of us forget the real meaning of Christmas, and I appreciated your post. Dexterdog

[Don Vincenzo]

Sharing

Hello Don Vincenzo and Happy New Year.
I stand and bow my head to your wisdom, you are of course right and I was careless in my use of language. I apologise.
I think sometimes 'importance' is placed inappropriately. The truly important things in life are: somewhere to live, someone to love and something to do. If you can add food, warmth and wanting what you have to that, you've got the lot.

Hello again Madderbat and everybody and I mean everybody!!
Beside your wisdom as you / we perceive it, I would add SHARING that could be love, knowledge, experience, pain and so on.... but the beauty is that spring won't be long and we (worldwhile) regardeless of our roots or creeds will participate in that beautiful cycle of the seasons and we will thank our Gods for it. Lets live in harmony and tolerance and any prayer is better tha none.
My best of love to everybody
Don Vincenzo

[madderbat]

I would add SHARING that could be love, knowledge, experience, pain and so on....

I concur. The joy of sharing is another form of grace, spirit/magic and something none of us should forget. Sharing our joy and enthusiasm for the gifts of earth is surely a valuable thing. Here's to the spring and another cycle.

[Alice]

Thank you Don. Well said. In my book there are no VIPs. Some people are more knowledgeable on some subjects than others, so that doesn't mean my opinion based on hot air is as good as theirs. But when it comes to matters of personal belief, then one persons beliefs are as valid as anybody elses. I think everybody on this site subscribed to that. Maybe one person disagreed. We don't know. I believe the post was deleted before anyone could read it. Whether that kind of censorship is justified in the name of the harmony of the site is another question. I don't know. I think the forum is too good to spoil, so maybe we should just let it rest.

[Lesley Jay]

Alice I did NOT delete that post. There was no censorship on my part. All I asked was that the thread was brought to a peaceful conclusion.

In my personal opinon the Christmas Prayer was beautiful, posted at the right time and in the right place.

The member who wrote the deleted post was the same person who deleted it over night.

[Alison]

So far I came to conclusion in life that NOBODY is important, especially human beings.

Sorry to disagree with the general consensus of this but I believe that EVERYBODY is important, maybe not in the way initially meant but we are all important to somebody, somewhere even if there are times when it does not seem so and I think it's very important to remember this.

[zebedee]

Nobody is more important than another - everybody is important to somebody. Furthermore, I re-iterate, what we need is TOLERANCE. I mean, real tolerance, not the sort that lets evil s.o.b's get away with murder, but tolerance of who, what and why people are. There is too much you're black, I hate you. You're white, I hate you. You're Christian, I hate you. You're Muslim, I hate you.
There are far more important things in life to care about, more things to cause us real concern. I make it a point to be polite to all, and if anyone is rude or ignorant back, that's their problem, not mine.
I am not going to blow any trumpets here, but as many know I work with teenagers, some of whom have had horrible things happen to them by people they should have been able to trust, and by tolerance of their anger, and respect for them as people, not yobs and sluts, and by expecting the best from them we succeed. Lets all try applying tolerance, respect and dignity to all, shall we? Deep breath, rant over! Has anybody tried Salsify yet?

[pigletwillie]

"In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher."


Salsify is only good for the compost bin,

[zebedee]

Piglet

On this point I do have to disagree! Though the salsify looked like a deformed, hairy parsnip (!!!!) it tasted luvverly in my o.h's homemade sooop. Any body else got any thoughts, I wonder?

[Alison]

But Geordie, you've failed to address the key issue here.................................... what do you think of salsify?