Center for Inquiry's International Blasphemy Rights Day
"The purpose of this event is to set a particular day as a day to support free speech, support the right to criticize and satirize religion, and to oppose any resolutions or laws, binding or otherwise, that discourage or inhibit free speech of any kind. The focus on 'blasphemy' is simply because it is such a salient issue, and one for which a lot of consciousness-raising is necessary."
Duty
Speaking freely is such a pain
when one is forc-ed to constrain
the words that print upon the page
to keep the crowd in temperate rage.
To type the words upon a screen,
so that, by others, they may be seen,
and think about a little thought
what every person ought be taught:
That your ideas may be your own,
but they should not be all alone
for fear of death or harm to you
from sticks and stones they throw or threw
when passions' riot doth take control,
of voice and pen and freedom stole!
The Holy Ghost, I'm not so sure,
would make Mohammed's caricature
a crime to punish via death,
yet blaspheme once, and brimstone's breath
will in your throat and nostrils fill
a taste so bad it might well kill!
Or so say Christians whose trinity
is three-in-one and one-in-three,
and that just makes no sense to me.
So blaspheme, me, this Holy Ghost,
as it's never seen on toast,
And surely that's the sign of fiction.
Now I can't be accused of dereliction!
-Rusty
-Rusty,
ReplyDeleteYour poems rock!
lol! Thanks, Dave!
ReplyDeleteDon't get the feeling that they're my gig, though. Wouldn't want to intrude too much on Digital Cuttlefish's turf. :-)
(And besides, I popped them here mostly to keep them safe from deletion on USAToday's site. Sometimes the mods there can be a bit picky if they're poked too hard by the wrong crowd.)
-Rusty