Writers are arrogant pretenders. We freely usurp identities, characteristics, ideas, thoughts, voices of people we imagine as characters in our books and stories. These are all part of our craft—our toolbox—of storytelling. We step over the boundary between reality and fiction when we decide we also have the right, indeed the obligation, to speak for […]
Independence Day 2018
Living in the greatest country ever invented by the human mind, a country that was never ruled by any royal personage (someone believing the country was theirs by divine decree – hereditary or by violence), a country designed to be governed by the people and for the people through elected representatives, embodying the rights that […]
Freedom of Speech & the Tyranny of Cyber Opinion
When I was a young writer, my mother gave me good advice: “Never put in writing what you don’t want people to read.” Now that I am employed in a law office, that advice is reinforced on a daily basis. Every word must be scrutinized with the matters of law and interpretation firmly in mind. […]
Writers & Freedom of Speech
“I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” François-Marie Arouet, (1694 – 1778) There can be no more important sentiment than Voltaire’s commitment to the freedom of speech. Once we have lost this, we have committed ourselves to imprisonment of mind, soul and […]