A Genuine Platform of Free Expression
David Adams • 18 May, 2008
There aren't many, republican or otherwise, who can boast of bringing together Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter on such a regular basis as The Blanket. Maybe not often in perfect harmony, but then neither did we come together in terrible enmity either.
And The Blanket was, after all, a genuine platform of free expression. The very antithesis of the kind of"perfect harmony" that we have too often to endure on our airways and in our newspapers. The antithesis of the kind of harmony that many would like, and sometimes have tried, to force upon us all. Whatever coincidence in views there might have been amongst contributors to The Blanket came naturally. Or as result of open and honest discussion and debate - the only way that genuine agreement can ever be reached.
Though the real strength lay not in the finding of or even the searching for harmony, but in the agreeing to differ with good grace. Freedom of speech is a powerful, frightening thing. Invariably far more dangerous to those who make full use of it than to those who oppose it most. But it a necessary thing. Without it, freedom of any kind does not exist.
The Blanket's editors stood for and fearlessly upheld this most fundamental freedom during some very trying times for them personally. Courage was never in short supply.
The Blanket's finest hour, in my humble opinion, was during the Danish cartoons controversy. The old maxim "publish and be damned" never rang as true - well at least according to some faiths.
Of course, talk of The Blanket is all abstraction, when in reality I am really referring to my good friends Carrie and Anthony.
Everything The Blanket stood for and became was down to them.
A fearless writer, a power of critical analysis that left the rest of us in awe, and (very importantly) a good writer, Anthony has always led the charge upon the page. Carrie, also a good writer when she gets the time, was left to try to make sense of the rest of us and pull the whole thing together, while raising a young family as well.
Circumstances have changed, both for Anthony and Carrie personally and on the wider political front, and it is no longer feasible to devote the necessary time and energy to The Blanket. It will be sorely missed.
Thanks to both of them for The Blanket and, on a personal level, for much, much more.
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