SCRIBBLES...

Just a few words, and some random thoughts

RANDOM HOUSE publishers…On Friday, August 19, on a sunny, late summer morning, writers and readers stood in solidarity with Salman Rushdie and advocated for freedom of expression on the steps of The New York Public Library. Supporters of Rushdie and free speech alike gathered with signs and held up books as authors read from Rushdie’s body of work and shared personal memories of the author.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

I’ve always had a hard time trying to figure out what Free Speech really means in today’s world. And with all this Fake News going around, what exactly is free speech? My wife has sometimes been known to say, (by way of explaining anything I may have said that’s, oh…I don’t know, maybe a little off-colour, or simply inappropriate?) but saying all the same: “Just ignore what he says, he doesn’t really have a filter.” As my list of followers here is still relatively small, and most of the people here know me, or my wife, (or maybe both of us), they can well attest to the fact that I do, sometimes, tend to say the wrong thing, at the wrong time. In fact, just the other night a friend said to me, “You know, we think you should start a podcast.” “I’ve been thinking that might not be a bad idea,” I said. “I could read stuff online, and maybe build up a following—” “Oh no, dear, not to listen to you read your stories, but because sometimes the shit you say is funny. It’s unbelievable, I mean; I can’t believe you say half the shit you do say—but, well, I guess someone has to. It’s funny enough that I’d pay $5.00 for that.”

Willing to pay?

I’ve never really considered myself to be funny. I don’t have a pocket full of jokes I tell people. Don’t get me wrong, I have some old standards: “Did you hear the one about the dyslexic Catholic? He was always praying to Dog.” Not really funny, but it does manage to poke fun at Catholics and religion—one of my favourite things to poke fun at. (When it comes to religion, there are only two truths, the TRUTH, and the Gospel Truth.)

Which brings us back to political correctness and the criticism of Free Speech. It seems that you can say pretty much what you want to if you have a blog these days. People still frown at hate speech, and they can still ban you, or fine you, for it, and I don’t have a problem with that. (Who the fuck wants to read that shit anyway?) But a person has a right to say what he feels, doesn’t he? Not really. Oh, sure, if you’re at a Neo-Nazi rally, or a KKK gathering, go for it. In fact, if you don’t go along with what’s being said, you might stick out and draw attention to yourself; better to blend in than stand out, I say. It’s like being the guy who stands up at local council meeting and makes a comment that has nothing to do with the issue at hand—like a fish on a bicycle, he makes no sense. And so much of what’s being said these days makes no sense. Still, people are listening.

American politics has proven that.

I don’t think the Americans themselves get it half the time. The MAGA movement isn’t something new. It’s not the first time that political rallying cry has been used. Political candidates have been using that expression for years: Make America Great Again? Are you shocked to hear that FDR used it? Or maybe you’re just shocked to discover The Donald didn’t come up with that himself? I mean, didn’t he lay claim to that? Do you think he’s ever come up with a natural thought of his own that could become a national catchphrase? He’s more apt to say: “You gotta grab them by the pussy,” thinking it’s all well and good, because people agreed with that statement. Nobody spoke up against it. And isn’t that the problem? That people were not outraged simply boggles the mind. Here you have the perfect example of what Free Speech can do. It wasn’t hate speech, so no harm, no foul, right? But is that actually true? It’s a derogatory statement at its very worst and has NOTHING to do with cats!

At the very least, he should’ve lost his bid for the candidacy, right there. The old America of my childhood would’ve canceled him. So what happened? The man doing the interview loses his job. And we all said, “What?” (It’s a collective what, because, to be honest, it makes no sense, does it?) because the man making the statement goes on to become the President of the United States? THIS is the man they want as a representative of what it means to “Make America Great Agin?” (Yeah, I left that in on purpose. It’s not a typo.)

Which brings us back to Salman Rushdie and the attack on him last week. He wrote a book a long time ago, the kind of book people found offensive, and suddenly he was notorious. Infamous. They’re just words. But did you read them? I didn’t; I’ll confess it, right here and now. I tried, but it just wasn’t for me…so I closed the book. That’s right, I closed the book. You still have that choice. Turn off the TV, or your social media; turn off the radio. Turn the page.

I know, words have a power that can move you to tears, or leave you with an aching side from laughing so hard, but words make you think, and they should. But not to the point where you think, yeah, it’s probably a good idea to rush the stage and stab that man, because people need to know that sort of writing won’t be tolerated. What sort of writing? Show of hands here who doesn’t even think the attacker read the book either. So you gotta ask yourself, are you sure it didn’t have anything to do with the money? I mean, didn’t they offer a $3 million bounty on the man’s life thirty years ago? They didn’t take it down, did they? Not only that, I thought they’d withdrawn the Fatwa, and that was why Mr. Rushdie was able to move about again. Did someone not get the memo?

So I’m writing my own story involving certain religious icons. (To be honest, it’s already written it, I’m just putting up on this platform.) I’ve stated in advance that it’s a satire, but that just means they’re words of a different nature, and all the more reason that they shouldn’t be taken seriously. That’s what satire is, right? It’s a mirror you hold up to the world and says, Hey! Look at this! But people get offended. So I gathered a collection of characters that some people may recognize: Christ; Buddha/Siddhartha; Mohammed; the Devil’s representative, Beelzebub (call me Al), and these figures are discussing the Anti-Christ. In fact, they’re discussing the Anti-Christ with a candidate for the job—all the others declined (John Lennon, Gandhi, the dead Kennedys, the list is endless, really.) So I’m figuring out that I have to put out these stories a little at a time—because people don’t like long reads—but my question is, will I be upsetting all the basic religions, or will it just be one of them that’s offended? And offended by what? The fact that they swear? Or maybe because Christ smokes dope, much to the chagrin of the Devil’s rep. Do you find that offensive? And what’s the offensive part, exactly? Is it the fact that Christ is smoking dope, or that the Devil’s Rep is reprimanding him for smoking it in the first place?

I’m not a religious man. Although I am a baptized a Catholic, it means little, or nothing to me; not now. My father declared we’d no longer be attending services because the Church changed its liturgy from Latin, to English. He said that just wan’t right, and we stopped going. I was 7. I wasn’t complaining. It gave me more time to play on weekends. There are people out there willing to go to war over religion; always have been, and always will be. They seem to forget the one thing all religions share: Forgiveness. I don’t expect someone will be ordering a Fatwa against an obscure Canadian writer no one knows, so don’t lose any sleep worrying over me. The problem with this story has always been that no one would publish it. And why won’t they publish it? Is it that bad? I don’t think so, what do you think? Was it too long? That’s why I cut it the first time. I made it longer in order to put it up on this page. Maybe it has something to do with the content? The reason doesn’t matter though, does it?

Freedom of speech is a basic human right. You don’t have to love a book to protest an indignity done against it in the name of censorship. You have to ask yourself every time they ban a book, are they trying to protect me from something they feel is dangerous, or are they protecting society by preventing it from visiting its past?