We the People...and This Here Person

[This is a piece I wrote that appeared on another Website back in 1999. It seemed befitting to reprint it here.]

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

I thought it might be well to mention that this site supports free speech.  Apparently this kind of statement upsets some folk.  I refer anyone upset by the idea that someone supports free speech to the quote at the beginning of this eruption.  It is the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and it may just be the most important few words in that document.

For anyone who drifts by here who does get upset when they read that this site supports freedom of speech and begins to conjure an assault upon their tender eyes from a sty of vile language, or perverted sexual images, or manic outlines for reaping violence against people, places and things, be assured one will not find such here. This site would be rated PG at worst.

I would say this site would not contain comments or words that are offensive to anyone except it is impossible for anyone to make that claim.  There is always someone, somewhere who is offended by the most innocuous statement or interprets a comment wrongly and takes offense.  I can’t prevent this from happening anymore than anyone else can, unless I were to say nothing at all and present blank pages to the world, and if that were to be happening, then we would know there is no more freedom of speech.

If I ever write something that offends, I hope you will take the time to examine why it offends you.  I can assure it wasn’t intended to offend.  Everything expressed on these pages is opinion, and you can agree, disagree or be indifferent to it, but you shouldn’t take it personally.  If something does offend, well frankly you have a right to be offended!  If you give up your right to be offended, then the rest of us must give up the right to speak freely, and once that happens the rest of our freedoms will also soon be surrendered.

Remember, when you open someone’s site and you read something that truly offends you...you don’t have to go back there anymore!  But you should at least consider what the person is saying, should form some ideas why it offended you, should form some ideas of why you disagree, should form some ideas about why you are right in your thinking and they are wrong.  And if you are concerned about the reaction of children to any content, for gosh sake discuss it with your children and make it clear to them what is wrong with it.

There use to be a quote: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.^” This was a paraphrase of a statement written by the Frenchman Voltaire to a M. le Riche: “Monsieur l’Abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.”  The truth is once we begin to decide we can put limitations on what can be said, we have destroyed freedom of speech.

I would also say, so what if someone writes a diatribe of invective against a people, a race or a religion?  Doesn’t that say more about that speaker then those spoken against?  The object must be to cut through the emotional reaction to words and cool them off with logical argument against such ideas.  If the ideas expressed are that of my enemy, I would still rather know this is my enemy and this is what she or he thinks, then to have my enemy banned from my view where they are busy planting verbal daggers in my back. 

Freedom of speech is our right by the Constitution.  It is the way we have to express ideas, good or bad, and place them in open debate.  It is the one weapon we all have to protect our other freedoms, and it is the power of such a freedom that makes many groups, and politicians, and others wish to limit speech and dictate what is proper to say.  You may hate what someone says, but when someone can speak against you, and you can speak against him or her, then you know for a while you are still free and safe.   When you must guard your expressions and avoid certain subjects is when you are in danger. 

There is reason to feel in danger today.

Dad

When I was a boy in my father's house,
still tender, and an only child of my mother,

he taught me and said,

"Lay hold of my words with all your heart;
keep my commands and you will live. Proverbs 4:3-4

Well, maybe not.

They only commands I can remember my dad ever telling me to lay hold of were these: "Don't get an 'F' and don't get a girl in trouble."

Perhaps not a lot of guidence, yet as I consider it, fairly good advice. Making an effort to never fail and avoiding the disasters of immoral sex are not that bad a credo for success in life, at least from a purely secular viewpoint.

Although relations between my father and I were strained when I was a child, I look at my father with a great deal of admiration today. He had his flaws, but in many ways he is a good role model and he always provided. Given his own tough start in life that is saying a lot.

He was born in 1918. We are celebrating his 91st birthday this weekend.

In the first picture in this post, my dad is the boy on the far left, the one with his mother's arm about him. His youngest brother, Francy, is the blond boy next to him. His other younger brother is on the right in front of their father, Benjamin

Franklin Meredith III. His father had about a half-dozen years left to live when this photo was taken. Everyone else in the photo is now deceased, except my dad.

My father left school after sixth grade. He had missed some schooling because they thought he had Tubercolousous as a child. They were wrong, he didn't. Then as he began in Jurior high, he decided he had enough of books and teachers and he quit. he became a poster boy for a bad example. He would wander down and loiter on a bridge near the school. One day a teacher pointed him out and told the class to "take a good look at a fellow who would never amount to anything".

My dad was cursed from the beginning. His grandfather owned a lot of property where they lived and several houses in the county seat of West Chester. he also had a farm and a general store. My father was named for his Grandfather, William Wilson Meredith. It didn't help. His grandparents hated him from day one.

My father's mother, Florence, worked for the family. She married his father in 1918. He was 19, she was 27. My father was already conceived at the time of the marriage. His grandparents resented Florence, claiming she seduced the boy, that she was a golddigger and they took their anger out on my dad, although a

newborn has no responsibility in the choices of those who created him.

When my father was 18, his own dad died of pneimonia, as did his maternal Grandfather and his Grand Uncle. All three died within a couple of weeks of each other. My dad went into the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in order to support his mother and two brothers. There was little support or encouragement coming from his paternal grandparents. His Grandmother tried to prevent him from doing this. "You aren't joining the CCC. That's for nobody but ne'er-do-wells and niggers." [I debated using that word, but I don't believe in hiding realities for the sake of sensibilities. This is a quote and reflects both the mean attitude of my dad's grandparents toward him and the prejudices of those times.]

My dad spent time in the CCC and worked on the Skyline Drive in Virginia. The money he made went back to his mother. She and his brothers lived in a home owned by his grandfather in Modina, Pennsylvania on a street then called Meredith Row. (Now called Meredith Court it is made no more upscale by the name change.)

My dad met my mother on a blind date to an amusement park. They obviously hit it off. My mother lived in Whitford with her parents. My dad would walk the ten miles from his home to hers to visit. he would often stay for supper and sometimes sleep on their porch overnight before hiking back to Modina.

I don't think they were a bad looking couple. (I once had a head of hair like that, too.)

My dad was 5 foot 11 and had a very muscular build in his youth. My mom was 5 foot 2, with eyes of blue and auburn red hair.

Between 1936 and 1938, David O. Selznick conducted a nationwide search for a "fresh face" to play Scarlett O'Hara in the film "Gone with the Wind". I imagine it was more a publicity stunt than a serious talent

search, but my mother was one of the hundreds of young women interviewed. My mother would have been 16 to 18 years old at the time. I don't have a phot of her at the time. I do have one at age 15.

My mom and dad married on her birthday in 1940. (I came a year and a week later.)