6th May – Today In History
Born:
1856 Sigmund Freud (early writer on psycho – analysis)
Died:
1992 Marlene Dietrich (actress)
On This Day:
John Gorrie patents his “refrigerator machine”
Have a good Wednesday, 6th May!
Attack in Texas
I’ll start by saying that I am fully in support of free speech. Everyone, as far as I am concerned, has the right to have an opinion, and express that opinion. But with free speech comes responsibility, and it is all too easy for some to use this right to deliberately hurt others.
Having said that, I also believe that being offended is most certainly not an excuse to shoot someone! I loath what is going on in the world at the moment – thugs and criminals masquerading as holy men and using their own warped translations of religion to slaughter the innocent. Taking advantage of the faith of young men and women and turning these into unthinking killers. Sent to murder not only innocent people in the Middle East, but also in the countries of the West.
What I don’t understand is why the organisers of the cartoon of Muhammad event in Texas ever thought that this was appropriate. Have these people now openly declared war on Islam in their state? Was this event set up deliberately to incite an attack?
I don’t know the answers. But the way I see it is that there are a lot of peace loving Muslims who also loath the acts of fundamentalists pretending to represent them. Organising an event like this, surely with the full knowledge of how offensive to Muslims this is, is pretty irresponsible. Religious tolerance implies respect.
Let’s work to eliminate the extremists and killers, folks. Not drive wedges through society.
5th May – Today In History
Born:
1818 Karl Marx (philosopher and author if The Communist Manifesto & Das Kapital)
Died:
Napoleon Bonaparte (Emperor of France, dies on St Helena in exile)
On This Day:
1944 Ghandi is released from prison
Have a good Tuesday, 5th May!
4th May – On This Day In History
Born:
1929 Audrey Hepburn (actress)
Died:
1891 Sherlock Holmes (fictional detective) “dies” at the Reichenbach Falls
On This Day:
1494 Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica
Have a great Monday, 4th May!
Libertatis Sacra Fames (Oscar Wilde)
ALBEIT nurtured in democracy,
And liking best that state republican
Where every man is Kinglike and no man
Is crowned above his fellows, yet I see,
Spite of this modern fret for Liberty,
Better the rule of One, whom all obey,
Than to let clamorous demagogues betray
Our freedom with the kiss of anarchy.
Wherefore I love them not whose hands profane
Plant the red flag upon the piled-up street
For no right cause, beneath whose ignorant reign
Arts, Culture, Reverence, Honour, all things fade,
Save Treason and the dagger of her trade,
And Murder with his silent bloody feet.
– Oscar Wilde
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3rd May – Today In History
Born:
1903 Bing Crosby (actor and singer)
Died:
1994 Richard Scarry (author and illustrator of children’s books)
On This Day:
1963 “I have a dream” speech delivered by Martin Luther King
Have a good Sunday, 3rd May
Of Old Sat Freedom On The Heights
Of old sat Freedom on the heights,
The thunders breaking at her feet:
Above her shook the starry lights:
She heard the torrents meet.
There in her place she did rejoice,
Self-gather’d in her prophet-mind,
But fragments of her mighty voice
Came rolling on the wind.
Then stept she down thro’ town and field
To mingle with the human race,
And part by part to men reveal’d
The fulness of her face–
Grave mother of majestic works,
From her isle-altar gazing down,
Who, God-like, grasps the triple forks,
And, King-like, wears the crown:
Her open eyes desire the truth.
The wisdom of a thousand years
Is in them. May perpetual youth
Keep dry their light from tears;
That her fair form may stand and shine,
Make bright our days and light our dreams,
Turning to scorn with lips divine
The falsehood of extremes!
– Alfred Lord Tennyson
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I Prefer The Gorgeous Freedom
I prefer the gorgeous freedom,
And I fly to lands of grace,
Where in wide and clear meadows
All is good, as dreams, and blest.
Here they rice: the clover clear,
And corn-flower’s gentle lace,
And the rustle is always here:
“Ears are leaning… Take your ways!”
In this immense sea of fair,
Only one of blades reclines.
You don’t see in misty air,
I’d seen it!It will be mine!
– Alexandr Blok
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Today In History – 2nd May
Born:
1892 Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron)
Died:
1519 Leonardo da Vinci (artist, scientist and inventor)
On This Day:
1890 Territory of Oklahoma created
Have a good Saturday, 2nd May
Freedom – simple, powerful and very appropriate for a Friday!
Freedom
Freedom to give
Freedom to live
Freedom to question why
Freedom to walk
Freedom to talk
Freedom to live or to die
Freedom to sing
Freedom to swing
Freedom to just walk on by
Freedom to speak
Freedom to seek
Freedom to laugh or to cry
Freedom to work
Freedom to shirk
Freedom to spend or to buy
Freedom to please
Freedom to tease
Freedom to smile or to sigh
Freedom to be
Freedom to see
Freedom to aspire so high
Freedom to touch
Freedom to clutch
Freedom to grant or deny
Freedom that’s mine
Freedom divine
Freedom no money can buy
– Royston Allen
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