Responses

[Greg Rose]

Greetings from Hossein!

I confess to being a little startled at the tempest which Mr. Litchfield's
postings and mail have aroused.  It has been more than a few years since
I resided in Ansteorra, but I can't imagine that things have changed so
radically that a realm which has for many years prized the rights of its
subjects to free speech, even if that speech is, to the tastes of some,
crude and rude, should now endorse reprisals of any sort against the
honest expression of opinion.  I happen to think (from his postings -- I
don't think I've ever actually met Mr. Litchfield) that the gentleman in
question is something of an ass; but the notion that some would urge the
list to discipline him for his remarks, or take the matter to the Crown or
nobility for action, is repugnant to what I understand to be a fundamental
Ansteorran tradition of freedom.

Some are offended by Mr. Litchfield's invective and profanity.  That is
no ground for censorship of any kind.  The Board was offended as hell when
Claryce published the petition for impeachment of the Board in the Black
Star, but most Ansteorrans were united in outrage when the corporation
threatened to discipline her for it.  The simple point is that the free
exchange of ideas is in principle so valuable a good that we cannot allow
hurt feelings or offended sensibilities set standards which restrict that
exchange.  Mr. Litchfield is a small example of a fundamental principle
which Ansteorra's defense of Claryce's courage enshrined on a higher and
more noble level; but we are unlikely to have the one if we exclude the
other.  Fundamental principles are like that.

Hossein Ali Qomi
Baron, Lion of Ansteorra
(Gregory Rose)