![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Give Freedom of Expression a Chance
Dec. 8th, 2020 12:51 pmForty years ago today, John Lennon was shot outside his New York City apartment building. He died soon afterwards. Here's a news item from ABC, which will be televising a special on Sunday:
https://abc7ny.com/john-lennon-murder-eyewitness-news-the-dakota/8229799/
A decade or so earlier, he had prophetically sung "The way things are going, they're going to crucify me." Some radio stations bleeped out the word "Christ" because used in this way, it's a naughty word, don't you know?
Over the past few decades, we've increasingly moved towards a more secular society. It's a funny thing, though. Whereas in my young day, daily Bible readings and religious instruction were part of my school life regardless of our personal or family beliefs (this was in the "public" school board, i.e. not the Roman Catholic one, even though both were in fact publicly funded), nowadays we have Quebec's Bill 21 which forbids any outward sign that some people may not self-identify as part of the homogeneous secular crowd.
And then there's another Lennon/Ono classic. The Woman is the N-Word of the World? Doesn't have quite the same power when you put it that way, does it? Whatever happened to literary and artistic licence, anyway?
I wish I could truly believe that the pen was mightier than the sword - or the gun or the van - but I'm not sure that I do. There's still a lot of violence occurring in the world and we can go around holding memorials and saying "Lest we forget." But even if people remember us when we're gone, we mere mortals can't just rise up from the dead and save the world, at least in my belief system.
C-word, you know it ain't easy...
https://abc7ny.com/john-lennon-murder-eyewitness-news-the-dakota/8229799/
A decade or so earlier, he had prophetically sung "The way things are going, they're going to crucify me." Some radio stations bleeped out the word "Christ" because used in this way, it's a naughty word, don't you know?
Over the past few decades, we've increasingly moved towards a more secular society. It's a funny thing, though. Whereas in my young day, daily Bible readings and religious instruction were part of my school life regardless of our personal or family beliefs (this was in the "public" school board, i.e. not the Roman Catholic one, even though both were in fact publicly funded), nowadays we have Quebec's Bill 21 which forbids any outward sign that some people may not self-identify as part of the homogeneous secular crowd.
And then there's another Lennon/Ono classic. The Woman is the N-Word of the World? Doesn't have quite the same power when you put it that way, does it? Whatever happened to literary and artistic licence, anyway?
I wish I could truly believe that the pen was mightier than the sword - or the gun or the van - but I'm not sure that I do. There's still a lot of violence occurring in the world and we can go around holding memorials and saying "Lest we forget." But even if people remember us when we're gone, we mere mortals can't just rise up from the dead and save the world, at least in my belief system.
C-word, you know it ain't easy...
