Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
My daughter Kristin earned a masters degree in engineering at the University of Virginia and will be teaching at West Point in the fall … and our daughter Karen earned her Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee Knoxville … and will be teaching at the University of Louisville also in the fall. Congratulations, Ladies!
All this hard work makes me tired.
Dad
Read CalCoastNews analysis for their insightful look at the defense of free speech in the public interest!
My Previous Free Speech BLOG: “Without the ability to speak freely, we have nothing!”
My daughters do know how to ‘get to me’ at times! Karen was in New Orleans for the Reputation Institute annual Conference and she decided to ‘drop by’ the fine folks of Emeril’s Delmonico Restaurant in New Orleans! She definitely was ‘treated like a queen’ and then she did the most awful thing she could do… she sent me pictures of her meal!
Karen chose a wonderful selection. Karen wrote about her start: “My appetizer – a creole rice dish with pork – it was DIVINE!”
On the main course, Karen wrote: “The main course – pork chop with egg, bacon, and other delicious sides to make it one of the most enjoyable meals I have ever had!”
Ah, then comes dessert and Karen wrote: ” And the way to cap of the evening – a fabulous dessert! Corn bread pudding with honey ice cream, blackberries, and bacon (yes, I said bacon!) It was a true foodie heaven experience! :)”
Karen also noticed that they had a copy of the famous cookbook ‘the Epicurean’ , which was one of the turn-of the century cookbooks I gave my girls to start. After all, you never know when you will have to set a service for 24! 😉 Anyway, as Karen would say, ‘Dad did have ‘foodie envy!’ However, I am very happy that she had such a wonderful and fun experience!
“Bon Appetite” or as Emeril might say,”Bam! Bam ! Bam!”
Roger
Unless you have had your work or your existence censored or found yourself defending your free speech in a court of law, you probably take it for granted that you can have ‘an opinion.’ You might even think that having a popular opinion might protect you; however, this hasn’t worked in Syria, Iran or other places where the exercise of an opinion, no matter how innocent, is immune from persecution or death. I may seem a bit corny to remind others that many of those who signed the Declaration of Independence paid a great price for their exercise of free will. Free Speech is what democracies do…. it is what we are and without it we are like every other despotic system.
In the competitive market place of ideas, speaking freely allows us all to test our values and beliefs and redefine or reshape them, but this is heresy in many parts of the world. ‘Speech’ via ‘speech codes’ is also a central concept under attack in our academic environments. For those who would like to turn the direction of a new generation of our youth, they must manipulate our language to restrict the use of words, meanings and general expression. If you forbid some topics from being studied or discussed ( in some circles , these are referred to as ‘the undiscussables’) then the censors win and we lose and human progress is halted and frozen in time. Let me just add, that this is not a good thing.
Not every university is backward, the University of Virginia has earned the coveted ‘GREEN’ light designation from FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). Only a few universities have been so honored. I recommend that you take the time to see what FIRE does to support free expression on college campuses…. and do what you can to support them. They deserve all our support no matter your political orientation.
I have been named in a suit back in December for blogs related to an issue of great ‘public interest.’ CHECK CalCoastNews.Com and their archive for more.
Stay tuned for more.
Roger Freberg
It is quite a setting at the University of Virginia for this years 2011 graduation and interestingly enough it is not without a few wrinkles. Interestingly enough, the graduate students in engineering do not wear hoods if they are masters graduates. Personally, I like mine… both of them! However, this was my first time at the university and Kristin was kind enough to give me the grand tour. I particularly took interest on the many and varied restaurants surrounding the university, all worth a look! As a fan of President Jefferson, I found the history and atmosphere captivating. I was surprised at how ‘square’ Jefferson’s jaw was in his statues, but then maybe the artist took some liberties? 😉
Now we are waiting for family to arrive and it seems like this might be a busy weekend after all as I hear the airports are already stressed from the increased traffic! Many congratulations to all the graduates, everywhere!