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March 2, 2006
Allow myself to introduce... myself.
Last week, Richard telephoned asking permission to post an email and a photograph I had sent him detailing my visit to the Royal Danish Consulate in Boston. I had been inspired by the call on HyScience and Freedomszone to show �Sammenhold� with the people of Denmark in their hour of struggle for the right to print � cartoons. (History, thankfully, makes no demands for gravitas and if my fellow Bostonians can begin their fight for freedom by dressing up in feathers and dumping dried leaves into the ocean, so surely can the Danes strike their first blow in defense of their liberties by printing squiggly line drawings.)
Following on our conversations, Richard has extended an invitation for me to blog with the HyScience team. I was honored by his offer and at the same time daunted by the prospect of writing before an audience. But Richard has assured me that I can�t possibly make any mistake that he himself has not already made. (The instigator in me, however, looks upon that statement as a challenge.)
With that in mind, I want to begin my blogging here with just a short list of topics that I find interesting� ideas that I hope to flesh out more in future posts.
Cross-posted by HyScience.
For instance, you may be aware that Boston currently has a very lively street and subway performance scene � from musicians of all stripes (jazz, classical, folk, country, blues, world music) to poets, puppeteers, story-tellers and magicians. This is a continuance of the City�s long tradition of free expression in the public square. In fact, the political and democratic sensibilities of founding fathers such as Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin were informed by their experiences in the boisterous, argumentative, satirical and lyrical streets of Colonial Boston.
Today, Boston is the setting for numerous confrontations, negotiations, and legal actions that will help determine the shape of freedom of speech and public discourse in the modern age. I have been fortunate to have been befriended by a number of people involved in these events and plan to provide more news, information, and background to HyScience/Freedomszone readers in times to come.
As a Jew, a second area that interests me is the history and legacy of anti-Semitism in Europe, how it may be combated and what measures should be taken to curtail its invidious influence. For instance, when I told a friend of mine that I had demonstrated in support of the Danish Cartoonists and courageous European newspapermen, he asked me how that stood with respect to my support for the suppression of Nazi propaganda and holocaust denial in Austria. He also asked me where I come down in the national debate over the appropriate balance between civil liberties and security here in the United States. I hope to contribute to the dialog on those topics in future posts as well.
Finally, my thoughts have been stimulated by current events that speak of the clash of cultures between the West and the East, between Christendom and Islam, between the Modern Age and the Medieval. What are the comparative strengths and weaknesses of these opposing movements? What can history teach us? What warnings must we heed and what fears must we overcome?
As the saying goes, we live in interesting times. Once again, I thank Richard and the HyScience team for their demonstration of faith and I hope my contributions to the blog will add to the quality of our discourse.
-- Dave
Posted by Dave at March 2, 2006 10:03 PM
