Posts Tagged ‘courage’
“Silence is consent … I refuse to consent.”
The following just-published news story has a bearing on an episode of hypocrisy that caught my eye … and gave me more food for thought about one of our themes: What is it ‘right’ to do in the face of wrongdoing? Or put another way, How should we then live? Read on… Paul Haggis Renounces [...]
Ripples flow from this brave woman’s stand
There’s a good article on The Independent website about the Liskula Cohen/NYC model case, which I mentioned earlier. The more I read about this gutsy woman and what she’s standing up for the more I like. Having been victimised by someone lobbing slimeballs at her from behind a mask of anonymity, she pursued Google to [...]
Handling the truth… and a parable
Col. Jessep: You want answers? Kaffee: I think I’m entitled. Col. Jessep: You want answers? Kaffee: I want the truth! Col. Jessep: You can’t HANDLE the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls and those walls need to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? I have a [...]
Potshots from behind a mask of anonymity are, by definition, cheap
I wholeheartedly agree with the court decision to order Google to identify the blogger who [allegedly] defamed this NY model. My view: People need to be accountable for their public statements. Anonymous log-ins tend — in some — to breed a recklessness and nasty damaging discourtesy. And they shouldn’t get away with it. (I still [...]
A loss of moral authority
There is added moral authority when someone who hasn’t had to struggle sounds a call to help those less privileged. Beyond mere noblesse-oblige, Teddy Kennedy became a leading voice of ‘liberal’ ideology, with an emphasis on equality and innate justice best expressed in the civil rights movement of the 1960s — but applied far wider [...]
The power of an appeal to decency
A recent reference to a made-up threat of ‘Death Panels’ led me to recall a famous political showdown. Legend tells us this interchange sparked the beginning of the end for Senator Joseph McCarthy. While McCarthy was not without opponents to his paranoid demagoguery, lawyer Joseph Welch went down in history as a giant-slayer. Welch was [...]
Daring — if there was no risk it wouldn’t take guts
I like this image for two reasons: One – the graphic design speaks to me. Two – it kind of makes my point: ‘Many saw evil. They dared to stop it.’ I can’t tell you how many people will cheer from the safety of the sidelines, or grumble uselessly about something they perceive as not [...]
Moral courage — being willing to stand in scorn
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls [...]
Is there a ‘whistle blower’ personality type?
It’s emerged that the latest book by economist Gareth Morgan After the Panic is being recalled because there’s “a mistake that must be corrected” (see notice from the publishers here PDF) … a new edition is being readied to replace the first edition (now a collectors’ edition?) This self-styled “straight shooting” book was launched just last month [...]
