In Support of Free Speech

I think Valentine's Day is a ridiculous holiday. I don't need a day to celebrate my relationship with my partner: if we don't celebrate it enough on ordinary days, we have birthdays and anniversaries. I hate the crap that's sold for Valentine's Day: the CDs of bad music, the ugly soft toys and all the useless pink crap.

But if you think Valentine's Day is the most romantic day ever, I'll defend your right to celebrate it. Forgive me for rolling my eyes at you, but I'll have your back stand by you if the goons come for you.

I believe everyone should be able to walk down the streets holding hands with their beloved, without fear, on this day or any other day. I believe hugs and kisses are appropriate demonstrations of affection, and it only makes me happy to see more love in the world.

I stand against those that advocate censorship and suppression of speech or literature or art that offends them. I agree with Jai Arjun Singh here.

Here's what this is about.

Where the mind is without fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

~Rabindranath Tagore