Freedom to offend is part of freedom of speech

We Just did the rehearsed reading of " Putting the fun back into school shootings" to a small audience and got some valuable feedback... which leads me to think that this could be a show which will work.

By coincidence I got home and find the babysitters are reading an article in today's Sunday Times about a school in Edinburgh who have produced a short "Matrix inspired" film which features kids and Teachers shooting each other.. I have no idea what they were trying to achieve other than that the Headmaster says it is an anti violence film and a project private to the school.. however it found its way onto U -Tube who promptly removed it!

Typically the journalist running the story asked people with emotional links to school shootings for their comments ( without showing them the film as far as I can tell so their reactions are therefore not those of someone who has seen the movie and can then make a rational comment.

Are we saying that nothing with emotional content can be shown these days? Artistic freedom surely means that people will be upset, but for U- Tube to just take down footage because people are upset by it??

Well, well.. our Soldiers are killing and being killed in glorious technicolor in Iraq and Afghanistan, but back home we have to be sensitive and pretend that nasty stuff doesn't happen in the world?

We need to see whats out there. We need to hear the alternative views.. we should listen to the Suicide Bomber, the "Terrorist" and even the Ppaedophile.. does shutting them down and not giving them a voice make us as a society any safer? I contend that it doesn't..

I remember when Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness had their faces blacked out on the BBC!! Now they are part of Government!

Censorship, whether by Government, Websites or even by distressed Parents.. does not prevent Atrocities from happening.. talk and honesty is more likely to bring about a good result.. not blanking out the faces of those we don't agree with, arresting "Lyrical Terrorist " Poets or censoring what is a "Suitable Subject" for School Film Projects.