Big, Fat, Mouth

Big, Fat, Mouth

Just recently, I had expressed my opinion to my friend about herself. This was overheard by another person, he carried the news over, and it was plain disaster for my friend. I apologized, of course, it hadn’t even been a slip of a tongue, there was an over hearer, and then there was plain chaos.

There ARE times like that. You say something, and it is wrongly understood or made into a much bigger deal by an outsider and it is publicized… yaaa…. THAT makes you feel guilty, for sure. The biggest punishment (on top of the guilt) is probably only a day of angry silence between you and your friend.

Oh yes, I said ONLY.

Imagine: - you live in a kingdom ruled by a cruel tyrant. You express your opinion about the king, all honestly, of course. Your opinions might not have been outright positive (the word CRUEL is mentioned above), and your punishment isn’t an angry silence, your punishment is banishment, or death. Ahh…That’s no biggie…

And there’s a funeral going on, and the question bubbles up, how did this poor chap die? Well, we personally know the answer, don’t we? The poor chap SPOKE. A big fat mouth he had there!

That’s probably NOT the best way to die. And luckily, most kingdoms were in olden times, so no need to worry on expressing views. But freedom of speech is one of the best rights we get as a democracy. WE are the ones. WE are the ones who chose our leader; WE are the ones who give celebrities their fans; so WE have every right to judge our leaders, or celebrities.

In times of unjust rulers, fear reigned, more than humans. Why? There is a wicked king, with a powerful army by his side, under his very command. He has the power, so he decides what’s acceptable. He decides what’s right, and no disagreeing. And one of the most common things a ruler hated was criticism against him. (Hint for survival of the day: might wanna keep your big fat mouth shut in front of big angry royal men…)

So he would kill the person, or ban the source that held all such “lies”.

Now, however, it’s different. WE are the ones who chose our leaders. If someone wants to represent us, he better allow criticism, he should make the changes, so we DO chose him as a representative. He should be worthy of being a representative.

It doesn’t matter to me if the most powerful person in the world liked orange better than blue, I would always like blue more. I would say it too. THAT is the freedom of speech. Saying and expressing your views, freely.

We should watch our words, opinions shouldn’t become insults. If something is thought very bad about somebody, so better kept to yourself. Otherwise, the whole cycle of misunderstanding could start again.

I have the freedom of speech, but sometimes, I’d better keep my big, fat, mouth shut!!!