Cartoons - to publish or not to publish?

CBC Editor in Chief of CBC News, Tony Burman asks rhetorically, ""What if those cartoons had instead focused on Christianity? And on Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary engaged in unspeakably offensive acts?"

Answer: It's been going on for years on Saturday Night Live, in Mad Magazine, etc. as openly sacreligious skits and cartoons. Nobody has burned down NBC Studios or beheaded Lorne Michaels. If we don't like it, Tony, we change the channel, boycott the advertisers, write an indignant letter to the editor, or turn the page and move on.

The Crusades, the Inquisition, the Third Reich and the War on Terrorism were/are all the result of fanatical adherence to personal beliefs by one group or another AND (the key) THEIR insistence that the rest of the world fall into line. INTOLERANCE is the key in all of this.

Our North American (Canadian) belief in tolerance and personal freedom is just as strong (we've sacrificed hundreds of thousands of lives) as any fanatical insistence on rigid comformity, and when those two ideals clash, the result has historically been tragic.

When I see a group, ANY group, burning buildings, killing innocent people and proudly flaunting posters stating "Freedom Go To Hell", you'll have to excuse me for reacting in an extremely negative fashion. Whatever sympathy I might have held for their cause before has pretty much evaporated as a result of this week.

While I support the state-funded CBC for not publishing the cartoons (for what purpose?), I just as strongly support the right of that Danish newspaper, any privately-owned newspaper in the world, or any individual in the world to publish cartoons, editorials or anything they wish on any subject they wish as their right to express their personal beliefs.

As offensive as it might be to any group, or even to society as a whole, if you don't like what you are reading, TURN THE FRICKIN' PAGE and enjoy the rest of the day.

Those who are simply unable to accept any level of tolerance for any dissenting point of view to their own due to personal philosophy, anger management problems or religious faith, should not be surprised when those targets of their intolerance eventually strike back with everything they've got. Cartoons pose no physical threat to anyone. "Sticks and stones ..."

By contrast, burning private property, mob intimidation, murder and suicide bombings are not acceptable behaviour, and cannot be condoned by the CBC or any other group, no matter what their political leanings.

All this over a cartoon.

Incredible.