Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Is the price too high?


Last March, scarcely a day after Geert Wilders's film Fitna was released on LiveLeak, LiveLeak pulled it, explaining:

Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers. This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else....

We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high.

LiveLeak restored the film shortly thereafter. Apparently they made security arrangements that made them think they could take the risk. But in their announcement, they enunciated a principle that could fittingly serve as the epitaph of the West: In the end the price was too high.

That is exactly the opposite of the great principles of those whom we remember today, who fought and died so that we could today live free.

It is the polar opposite of John Stark's "Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils."

It is the mortal enemy of Patrick Henry's "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Ελευθερια η Θανατος!

Libertad o muerte!

Today, we remember and honor those who made the supreme sacrifice for us. Let us not let them down by choosing the chains and slavery of dhimmitude because in the end the price -- the price they paid -- was too high.

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