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2002-10-11 - 11:49 a.m.

Hmmm�point well taken.

I guess that there are a few things in this world that really push my buttons, and being censored is one of them. Perhaps I should not try to write when I am pissed�I tend to make a lot of noise but little sense. Hmm�How very Bear of me.

So lets see if I can try to explain myself in a more civilized fashion today.

Do not censor me. Ever.

To do so is certainly a good way to incite anger in this here fellah. But I think I have already made that point abundantly clear. So I shall move passed all the growling and sword rattling and try to explain to you why it upsets me.

I would like to consider myself a well-educated, informed, and aware person. I can make my own decisions. I can weigh options. I can decide things for myself. When I make good decisions�well good for me. I reap the benefits from that choice. When I make a bad decision or bad choice�well good for me again. I reap the benefits from that choice�as well as taking responsibility for all of the negative aspects and implications of that choice. A trait that many folks do not seem to posses.

By censoring me, by controlling what I can and cannot say, type, read, look at, or listen to, you are in effect taking away my ability to choose, to learn from my successes and mistakes, and allowing me to shrug off responsibility and accountability for my choices. All traits that I think are in short supply in today�s society.

Now there is a group of people that feel that it is their social responsibility to �protect� those around us who are unable to protect themselves. It is our duty to keep objectionable and harmful �things� from them. There is a group of people that have appointed themselves the intellectual and moral police in our society. But who are they? How did they get into this position in the first place? Did we appoint them? Who decided that they were right? I know I didn�t. Perhaps it was the folk who are too stupid to make their own decisions about what they look at or read or think�and if that is the case�then it is my belief that they are also too stupid to appoint a person for the intellectual/moral police.

Who are we really protecting by censoring the world we live in? Are we protecting the children? Are we protecting our teenagers, our middle-aged folk, and our elderly? Or are we protecting our own fragile selves. Have we decided that �X� is objectionable to me and therefore it should not be present in my world? What if I like �X� and I feel that it has some sort of redeeming quality? What gives you the right to tell me that I can�t do/see/read etc�it? What makes you and your beliefs better than mine? What makes you think that your moral compass points straighter than mine. What makes you and your beliefs superior to mine? That�s right�nothing. You are just different. What you believe in is different. How you think is different. What you like is different. What you dislike is different�so don�t you dare try to decide what is best for me. How can you claim to have my best interest in mind when you really don�t know what they are. You only know what your (and people like you) best interests are.

Sigh�now I am all off track. I have just finished 2 hours worth of teaching folks who were really not prepared for today�s lesson. Today was an advanced class�and my class was still trying to master the basics. I warned them that this class would be difficult. That they needed to have mastered the basics before they could understand what we were doing today. Sigh�if these folks only took their learning seriously. If I tell ya to practice something�I mean it. How can you expect to get better at something, to learn something if you don�t practice it on your own time? I just don�t get it�

Well I guess I will try to pick back up on this rant next week. It will give me a bit more time to get back on track and further refine my thoughts�

Till then. What Have You Learned Today?

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