Facebook Arrests Ignite Free-Speech Debate In India
Not our country, not our customs, not our problem? Something is VERY wrong with that kind of thinking. It is our problem. It is one thing to observe time-honored traditions held in high regard by a people group for the purposes of preserving peaceful relationships and creating a sense of community. It is quite another to observe traditions of manipulation and intimidation that force women to keep quite. Believe whatever you want about the sanctity of life, marriage, modesty, but if there are laws that deem those things sacred and yet allow the subjugation of women and violence toward them to exist, that is most definitely everyone’s problem.
This is a small post with a big message. We need to be paying attention to these events. Not to shout and curse and call people names and play the blame game. Our thinkers, our leaders, our speakers need to speak up. Speak up with focused passion. Speak up with a measure of reason. Speak up so we can hear something besides fear mongering bullshit.
The story that sparked this post: Facebook Arrests Ignite Free-Speech Debate In India
“For What It’s Worth”
Honie Briggs 
THIS, and all the following comments. That’s all.
Also: Song is SO fitting. Love this one!
Honie – this is a fantastic post. Concise, true, amazing.
I’ve lived most of my life surrounded by people who find comfort in small-town ignorance. I travel – write about said traveling to hopefully knock down these unwarranted stereotypes/dangerous traditions.
Articles like this just…well, infuriate me. We’re humans; we’re the same – a miracle in itself.
Thank you for this.
We just have to keep chipping away at it a little at a time, don’t we? Thanks for the compliment!
Indeed, Honie. Indeed.
There is a lot wrong with that picture. There’s a quote attributed to pastor Martin Niemoller, which he wrote in 1946 after WW2:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
We need to speak out. It’s not their problem. It’s OUR problem
I don’t know how I missed responding to your comment here.
Yes, absolutely this is an excellent quote you shared here.
There’s plenty wrong with the picture, but I think you summed up the key points perfectly.
Thanks Mark – I’m all about the the BiG picture.
Great and really important post Honie – this is not “their” issue. It’s humankind’s issue. If anyone thinks that this doesn’t happen here in the good ole USA they are kidding themselves. There are societies and movements that continue to marginalize and devalue women. It sickens me.
Exactly. This is a humans on the planet issue. When are we going to learn?
It’s only half the population of the planet that some would like to marginalize…
hear hear!!!
fear mongering bullshit….love that term. I agree.
I invented it, but feel free to use it any time. 😉
There is nothing small about this post, and I’m so thrilled I clicked on the song link – it is exactly the song I was hoping it would be. Truly.
A threat to one woman, is a threat to all woman. And I will tell you, Honie, it terrifies me. Because it is a very, very slippery slope. One day it is Malala Yousafzai, another it is these women. But it isn’t about “Them” and “There”… it is about US. It is about how we respond and react, and what we do.
When politics here focus on religious beliefs, when laws are discussed based on religious beliefs… it terrifies me. It really does. I respect that others have their beliefs, and that they guide THEIR lives, not the lives of anyone else. That is the slipperiest slope of all.
I’m sorry… this is such a hot-button topic for me, and I shouldn’t be soap-boxing in your blog. I understand if you delete or edit. Just know… you’ve written a great post. Thank you.
Inkspiller, you feel free to say whatever you want here without fear. Thank you for your remarks. Something guides us all. Fear, pride, greed or hope, courage, a belief that we are part of something larger than ourselves. I don’t use my voice for political or religious purposes. I do use my voice though and I believe Shaheen Dhada should not be intimidated into silencing hers.
Hate speech is a waste of breath and does harm to ourselves and others, but those of us who are able to speak against oppression without threat of arrest should do so loudly.