Tags
Australian traditional poetry, Australian traditional verse, Dennis N. O'Brien, Free Speech, poem, poetry
How sensitive now people are,
‘Tis easy to offend;
Free speech has gone a mite too far,
Those on the left contend.
They say no longer speak your mind,
(‘Less it agrees with theirs)
Make papers only print what’s kind,
Stop anyone who dares
To put contentious points of view
That question what’s accepted;
These sacred cows one can’t review,
All such critiques rejected.
The aim I think is crystal clear
As these fanatics preach,
Their goal a State that all should fear:
A State that bans free speech.
Copyright © Dennis N. O’Brien, 2012
dnobrienpoetry 
Too right!
Indeed
Good work – a great bit of poetry that leaves us nicely set up for debate. In my opinion it all comes down to what you identify as your ultimate political ambition. For example, if it’s free speech, then you should not tolerate any suppression whatsoever, but if it’s security, then you should. I don’t know where I stand to be honest.
Yes I spent 6 years in the regular army in some fairly sensitive areas and when I got out had to keep all to myself for 30 years as did many others, but what i am talking about here is the free expression of opinion even or particularly where it flies in the face of established “wisdom” – not Wiki leaks.
Great message, Dennis. I’m glad we’re still free enough to post such words online! (Knocking on wood….)
None of us can take it for granted Betty – not even in the good old USA.
That’s for sure, Dennis – I quite agree!!!!!
Bans free speech, except of course – theirs. Because their thoughts and their speech is so above the rest of us.
The recommendations of a media inquiry here in Australia have just been released and it’s pretty scary. Our left wing government wants to try to shut down criticism against it in some areas of the media. Almost unbelievable in a country like ours but just goes to show what can happen if the people become anesthetized. Luckily at this point they are headed for annihilation in next year’s election but I have everything crossed at the moment.
On another note – you mentioned 12 inches of rain in two days in a comment on my blog. Today, I saw a picture/story on the internet of thousands of spiders forced to the surface because of flooding. And they’d made so many webs that it looked like snow. Have you seen that? Close to you?
To the bard – We live on a hill (like you) near the Mary river which has just been in flood but a huge amount of rain has fallen on the east coast and further inland (lots of flooding going on) and I’m not sure where the spider incident occurred. We are used to floods – in 1999 when we were dairying on the Mary, of our 237 acres, 3 were out of water. Conversely we had a terrible drought from July 2000 to February 2003. I was brought up on a dairy farm at a place called Peachester near Chromhurst, Queensland which in 1893 recorded 6 feet of rain in 3 days, I think at that time a world record, so as you can see we have very variable weather.
Actually just googled the spider story and it is in New South Wales, the state to our south. NSW is copping some severe flooding inland. I didn’t know about the spiders as I have given up watching the TV news and just get my news from the net. Interesting, I’ve never seen it before.
Wow! 237 acres and only 3 out of water. Is that where you were standing? 🙂
Missed this one before. Really good, Dennis. Keep reminding people.