Kalliyam

  Saturday, November 11, 2023   Aho’Rajanaka,   I hope this finds you well.   It’s sometimes hard to know what to say these days and many have good reason to keep their feelings and ideas to themselves.  There are the perils from family to the workplace.  I work in a place that is purported to be devoted to the American Experiment, and above all to contest of ideas brought into shared conversation without threat of violence.  “Free speech” doesn’t ever mean you get to say anything you want just because you want to.  In America it’s particularly hard to prove libel in a court of law, though apparently defaming a judge, casting aspersions, and perhaps inciting violence will be tolerated if you have enough power and a mob that will vote for you.  Meanwhile at the University this week there were demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, guidelines published by the administration regarding behavior, and palpable agitation, unease, and worry.  What to do?   I won’t take this further here in