Two minute silence

[ciphergoth]

At 12:00 BST today, London and many around the world observed a two minute silence for the 48 people who died in the terrorist attacks on London on 7 July.

During those two minutes, approximately 42 children worldwide died due to poverty.

We are not going to let terrorists cause us to lose perspective.

Comments

[simm42.livejournal.com]

Thats the attitude why I kept comments off.

I dont open my LJ space for online flame wars, but then I dont put opinions on there that I wont hold up in public.

I'm going to drop the matter there since I certainly dont want to get into the kind of flames on someone else's LJ that I avoid in mine.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

In that case perhaps you should consider deleting the entry altogether. I don't consider the sentiments you expressed laudible or well thought out, and if you're not prepared to stand by them yourself you should retract them.

[djm4]

You do not have the right not to be offended by what other people say. You have the right to think they're arseholes for saying it, but it's not up to you to arbitrate whether or not they get to say it.

(I don't have a problem, in this context, with 'perhaps you should consider deleting the entry altogether', but I think 'you should retract them' is going too far.)

[ajva.livejournal.com]

I think ciphergoth was just making a suggestion, and a good one at that. Still, I look forward to a future in which none of us believes they have a right not to be offended.

:o)

[djm4]

Yes, OK, sorry. It's a bit of a button issue for me.

[simm42.livejournal.com]

no one has the right to tell anyone what to think.....




In this case I haven't deleted the entry as that would be a denial, which is worse than a retraction, I've made it a private post - which is mostly what my LJ is, a private place for my thoughts

[ladytabitha.livejournal.com]

Ah, he has every right to be offended, he has no right to actively censor others' words.

[djm4]

True, but ciphergoth wasn't actively censoring anyone. I wasn't thinking straight when I read his post, and menatlly skipped right over the 'if' in:

'...if you're not prepared to stand by them yourself you should retract them.'

I too believe people should retract statements that they're not prepared to stand by, although it's a feeling of mine that they're at liberty to ignore. I also don't think that posting something with comments disabled is the same as making a post that you're not prepared to stand by, and I suspect that this is where ciphergoth and I have a bigger disagreement, but that's not itself an issue of censorship.

[simm42.livejournal.com]

The entry served its purpose - in making me think about my own life in response to my ideals, one of the reasons I keep a journal.

In hindsight the place where it is now is perhaps more appropriate given prevailing thoughts and emotions.

Since you obviously disagree with the content and context I apologise for linking your name in there wihtout permission.

[cavalorn.livejournal.com]

Making a post that is supposedly intended to 'make people think' and then refusing to engage in the articulation of said thinking (the subsequent discussion) is the equivalent of knocking on doors and running away.

[simm42.livejournal.com]

More to make me think about my life in the reflections of my own opinions, how one holds up against the other and do I manage to live to my own ideals.

[djm4]

I disagree. I think it's the equivalent of putting up a highly visible poster (and to me, that's a different thing from knocking on a door and running away).