[governance] Free Speech and Blogging

[Eric Dierker]

Wow I just had a "Chat" with a jailed and disbarred lawyer.  His arrest and disbarment came because he dared to represent bloggers who were charged with nefarious anti-government activity for promoting free speech.
 
(as some will understand the rest is in wink and nod speech so as not to ring any censorship bells)
 
This man does not oppose his government in any way.  He defends those charged with speaking illegally.  He does not wear his badge of honor of detention and loss of pursuit of his chosen work with pride.  He remains humble and even ashamed of being held to have violated anything against his beloved motherland.
 
I did not chat with him as a lawyer as I owe no allegiance to any restraint of trade Bar association.  I did not chat with him as a human rights protagonist for I am not worthy. I spoke to him as a minister. Not to guide him or even console him, but to examine his agnostic soul. To examine what it takes to risk real life and limb for freedom of speech.
 
He is born and bred and raised a socialist.  He does not act for individual rights. He acts for what he believes is the inalienable rights of society. Not what a man can do for himself but what his free speech can do for others.  And he does this with humility. A self worth that is only as valuable as what he can do for others. He is a true Communist, a man in league with the earliest and most noble causes of a free society. A communist that believes less governance is better, but that all should be done for community.
 
He is resigned to go back to jail. He will not leave or run from his homeland for what we would call freedom.  And now no one can repeat his words for fear of what it would do to him.
 
The only true role of Internet Governance is to protect the individual from the state and the state like mega corps that usurp our freedoms.  I urge all here not to determine who is to vote or who is to speak based upon the maintenance of the status quo, but upon the notion that to restrict is to hurt.
 
(some will know me well enough to know of what country and whom I speak  --  I ask you to keep that to yourself)
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20090825/f8302c9e/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance