021: Exiles, Outsiders, Runaways & Castaways: Part One

On writers, freedom of speech, and the corporatization of speech

I began to realize I had company. Writers are often exiles, outsiders, runaways and castaways. These writers were my friends. Every book was a message in a bottle. Open it.

Jeannette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Based on the events of last week, I could be forgiven for saying that the light of democracy, if not of humankind, appears to depend on whether or not we, as a nation, can figure out how to protect and nurture the freedom to speak and write.

Here’s a short list of what happened:

• Thousands of right wing protesters crossed the literal and metaphorical threshold between peaceful protest and violent mob

• Julian Assange was spared extradition to the US by a British judge because she didn’t believe our prison system could keep him from killing himself and not because the actions for which he has been held, without bail for almost two years, are protected by his right to free speech.

• Donald Trump got indefinitely banned from Twitter and Facebook

• Senator Josh Hawley lo…