Free the Pontypridd One
According to news reports, a 21 year old man from Pontypridd is being held at Swansea police station following offensive remarks made on Twitter after Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch yesterday afternoon.
Whilst I in no way condone what the young man said, I find it despicable that he has been arrested for it.
To quote Voltaire Evelyn Beatrice Hall*:
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.
R.I.P. Free Speech
Update: Quote attribution changed. Thank you to @WelshToy for point this out.
* It appears I may have been wrong all these years. According to Wikipedia:
In Evelyn Beatrice Hall’s biography of Voltaire, she coined the following phrase to illustrate Voltaire’s beliefs: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Yes, that is a quote that is often misattributed. If one takes a quick view at many of the popular quote sites, then one will see that they are full of misattributed quotes. For this reason i always check up quotes on Wikiquote, as those listed there very often have sources.
One category of commonly misattributed quotes is “ancient wisdom.” Sometimes these are attributed to entire cultures, like this one I ran across that was attributed to a “Native American Saying”: http://daisybrain.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/ancient-wisdom/
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