Damn! I forgot to proofread and edit  Now, let's try that again shall we?

 

 

 

 

Recently I purchased the book Mandela �?the Authorised Portrait. Although I haven’t finished it, it has forced me to think long and hard about some very important ideals and issues. Yes! A good book does that. Forces us to think. Is it any wonder then that my children chose something called PlayStation over a good book at every opportunity?

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I am including here some jottings although some may see them as simply the ramblings of someone who tends to think too much and do too little. Please bear with me and read on. This is neither PlayStation nor a good book, but it may just allow you to consider a few things we all take for granted.

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FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Freedom of Speech is a basic human right bestowed upon us at birth �?before we even have the ability to speech. Before we have the ability to exercise this freedom we seem to be given a period of reflection in which we may be being asked to consider carefully what we might say throughout life. Freedom of Speech carries with it a great responsibility.

Freedom of conscience and Freedom of Spirit are essential pre-requisites if we are to exercise this great responsibility with any true sense of human dignity.

The world can be forever grateful for the gifts of such people as Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King �?men whose right to Freedom of Speech came at enormous cost �?but men who exercised their rights with tremendous courage and dignity. We must learn from the example of these men and aspire to the humanity which they passionately embraced.

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THE HARDEST LESSON

The hardest lesson to teach in life - is to teach our children the value of honesty. I mean, how can our children value such an ideal if their experience is that being honest can result in punishment? And isn’t it true that dishonesty is also punished?

A behavioural paradox. The classic no-win situation.

I guess the harsh reality is found in the concept of capital punishment. There are many innocent souls who have ended their days at the end of a hangman’s rope. A posthumous pardon is hardly adequate compensation when the truth is finally realized.

Beyond reasonable doubt? Hardly reasonable at all to the innocent. No Doubt or No Sanction. No other way.

Even in the game of cricket, a batsman is always given the benefit of the doubt in any appeal for goodness sake. Damn!!! That shoots me where I stand �?I was always a bowler!

Perhaps the best example I can put forth is to be found in C.S.Lewis classic children’s novel �?The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. There is a scene where Professor Digory asks Peter and Susan a probing question when the 2 eldest Pevensy children query Lucy’s sanity based on her claim that there is a magical world hidden in the back of the attic wardrobe. He asks them: ‘In your experience, who is it that you find the more truthful �?Edmund or Lucy?�?Lucy is of course the youngest and a goodie- goodie, while Edmund has a deceitful nature and can be quiet mean to his little sister.

We can all see the truth �?if we take the time and care to look �?and think.

Like Lucy, we need to look deeply, beyond the surface of things like wardrobes and indeed people if we are to see what is truly inside. Lucy knew this �?and so it would appear did the Professor.

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There! I have finished. Now back to your PlayStations the lot of ya�?/P>

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John