"The Prints of Denmark"

To print, or not to print? That is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in these times to suffer
The slings and arrows of outraged Muslims,
Or halt all speech when it would bring us troubles,
And by appeasing, end them? To say: Free speech,
No more; Goodbye all speech that may offend,
The heart-ache when one questions or one mocks,
For this might scare you. 'Tis a situation
Devout folks may have wished. Goodbye, free speech,
Free speech, perchance your team. Ay, there's the rub,
For when free speech meets death, your turn may come,
When you are told your thoughts are now disloyal
And break the laws. Thus to protect
All folks from amity and hurtful strife,
We'd make to share a whit of scorn a crime,
To call someone wrong, or dare to presume he
Does not hold sacred truth you must obey.
The insolence of offering concerns
That someone's feelings might be a mistake,
And not a law that all the world should make
With a swift motion -- Who would hardly dare,
To draw and print things where debate is rife,
But for the dread of something worse than death:
The unexamined country would be born,
No worries or concerns raised on the Hill,
Instead we'd always bear those ills we have,
For speaking ill of them would be illegal.
Thus freedom must make fighters of us all,
And thus our native thirst for resolution
Must now be tempered with this pale cast of thought:
Though acquiescing seems good at the moment,
With precedent like this free speech will die,
And lose the name of freedom. Strong you now,
The fair Jyllands-Posten! Brave, in thy publishing;
Let free speech be remembered.

All work on this page is copyright Seth Brown, 2006. Please give attribution if forwarding. Please contact me before reprinting for profit.