The Fable Of Hate Speech
There was an island far away with human type creatures that inhabited the land. The creatures were split into two different groups, the Lenches and the Ritters. The Lenches lived on one side of the island and the lenches lived on the other side. They all used to live together but there was a divide. The divide happened because they always used to eat scrambled eggs for lunch everyday until one day someone wanted to make something new and made a burger. Some of the creatures loved the new burgers for lunch and would not eat eggs anymore for lunch. That was fine for awhile and there was still peace among the community.
Until one day when the creatures started eating with only the same creatures that ate the same thing as they did. They started branching off into cliques. That was the beginning of things started to get bad in CraeCray land. That is also when they divided into the Lenches and the Ritters. The Lenches only ate hamburgers for lunch and the Ritters only age eggs. The Lenches accused the Ritters of not being progressive and the Ritters accused the Lenches of not sticking with traditional values handed down by generations of their ancestors plus the Ritters did not like the taste of meat.
Over the years some new creatures inhabited to the land, The Gorges, the Manifests and the Lollypop people from Oz came over. All these groups ate different foods for lunch. Some of these groups came and saw what Lenches and Ritters were eating for the lunch and also ate Hamburgers and Eggs. One day one of the Lenches decided that is was wrong for Ritters to continue to eat eggs. He said it was hateful, especially the book they read often that said eating a vegetarian life was the best way to keep the body healthy. The Ritters read this book to their children and taught their children the values of this book. The Ritters never hated the Lenches, they just were not going to adopt the lifestyle of the neighboring creatures and preferred to practice the ways of this book including eating a organic, vegetarian lifestyle. The Lenches didn't like the practices of the Ritters and even started to despise them. When the Ritters started up a school, that promoted a Vegetarian lifestyle the Lenches were outraged and thought this school is teaching "Hate Values". This was a voluntarily school and no one was forced to go to it but just thought of it made the Lenches want to throw up. The lenches thought, Why are the Ritters so backward, why can't they get with the current times? Infact, the Lenches were so progressive they have gave up burgers and started eating Ribs for lunch everyday and the head cook of their group is already working on a new lunch that be coming soon! Yet the Ritters are behind the times still eating their stale eggs!! Reading from that outdated book from their ancestors is so ridiculous! The Lenches started claiming that everything that did not line up with their ideas was considered "Hate Speech". Yet that did not move the Ritters they just kept on eating eggs. One of the head leaders of the Lenches now said it was disgusting to eat eggs and said it was morally wrong. He said, times are changing and if you can not adapt to "GROUPTHINK, you are a waste of a creature. This leader was named Egor and he was a mighty warrior and head leader of the Lenches. He said, As a progressive community, Values and Morals will be changing every couple years. As long as the majority of society agrees with it, that is what makes it acceptable. These values are not set in stone like the Ritters. Egor, said, our Values will always be changing to keep up with being current and Progressive. So what might have been in the "in" moral thing for year could change to being "Out" for the next year. That is why they will distribute their quartly magazine to all Lenches about what is "IN" or 'Out" for that year. Egor said, if anyone speaks out against what is in or out will be considered an "official" hater and be put in prison for hate speech or as a lesser crime lose their job.
None of the Lenches were ever put in prison or lost their job because they really were convinced with their heart about what Egor said. They were all in one accord and read the books and watched the shows put out that year about what was "in" or "out". They were very passionate about their beliefs and proud of their progressiveness. They were so proud that they couldn't believe the Ritters were still eating their nasty old eggs after all these years. They thought it was hateful to eat eggs or to distribute cooking books about eggs. The Ritters thought is was imoral to eat meat but they still treated the Lenches that ate meat with respect and did not hate the Lenches but did not approve of their practices.
Egor decided that each year their would be a word of the month for the citizens to meditate and practice on that year. Last year the Word of the year was "PORK". This year the word is 'TOLERENCE". Egor explained that tolerance, keeping up with changing times and exploring and adapting to new culture and foods. Always triyng new food and accepting it's taste. Every food you can imagine........... except, except, eggs. Oh and he forgot, and everything not the in list for they year. Everything else is considered TOLERANT. He said anyone not following the TOLERANT Law code, 333 will be heavily fined. He ended his speech on a good note.There would be a Grand food fair celebrating tolerance at the end of the year. We will explore all the different foods of the island and all the different type creatures will display all their exotic foods. The Lenches were so excited for this fair because they were told they will be able to experience son foreign food that never could imagine!
Finally the day of the big Fair came! You could hear the music in every corner of the island! One of Ritters wanted to hear were the sound was comming from so he followed the music and came to a big Entrance of the Fair. It had banners that said, TOLERANCE FOOD FAIR. The Ritter admitted to himself that all the food smelled very good. He saw creatures on stilts holding banners, that said, LOVE and TOLERENCE. The young Ritter did not know what the word "tolerence"meant. He wanted to go to inside the gates to find out. This particular Ritter was an avid chef and loved cooking. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw all the creatures on rides and the music and the smell of the food. He saw a sign for a Chef contest and to bring your prepared meal to station 4. He really wanted to be involved in this contest. It would be a way to really prove himself. This fair was not on the Lenches territory. It was a neutral landed shared by everyone. There were creatures from all over the island so he thought I should be welcomed here.
The young Ritter ran home as fast as he could an excitement, thinking this is a dream come true!! He was going to make something that will knock the socks off everyone!! As he was preparing the food, he was also excited to learn more about the world tolerance and what it meant. He loved to learn and was always reading. He was preparing what he called, "Cloud Eggs" they were wrapped in Kale. It was something himself came up with as was excited to showcase them to the world finally!
He ran back to the fair, careful not to topple over his fancy display of his Cloud eggs. He got to the entrance and The Lady creature asked for his ticket, he said he did not have one, that he was competing in the Chef contest. The lady said, Ok, wait. I have to call for the Supervisor of the contest to get you registered. A creature from LollyPop came towards the Ritter creature. He had A white chefs hat with a white apron and A long beard that twirled up. The lady said, This young creature wants to register in the Chef's contest. The Chef Supervisor named Mario said with a smile, Open the box son! Let me see! Let me see! The wide eyed Ritter slowly opened the box and a few bystanders saw what was is the box and OOOoohed and Awwwwed. "What is that said?" one of the manifest creatures? It something we have never seen before said one of the Lurches! Soo beautiful and fluffy said Mario! Everyone started crowding around in amazement! This response was much greater then what he imagined!! He was scared that with everyone gathering around his meal would be crushed. Let us taste! Let us taste! Chanted the fair goers. One fair goer yelled that has got to be be the most exotic meal I have ever seen! The Chef Mario said I will get you number to register but may I have to taste a small piece first. A security person started getting people in order and backed them away from the Ritter and his meal and promised the crowd a taste once the contest starts. So chef Mario with a big grin on his face and his mouth watering came back with a fork ready to take a taste of this rare exotic beauty. He took his fork and dug in..... "WOW" The best food I have ever tasted in my life!! The crowd heard Chef Mario say this and Cheered. Chef Mario's assistant said she wanted to try too. So she picked off a piece off the plate and her face looked delighted but then she looked confused, VERY confused and she said, Let me look at that better! Oh my Gosh! Oh my Gosh! She said!! She said, Those are EGGS!!!!!!!!! The crowd was in an outrage! She took the eggs and off the plate and threw them into The Ritter's face. Chef Mario, shouted to the guards, "GET HIM OUT". The crowd started shouting 'GET HIM OUT',GET HIM OUT!! Then they started, Chanting, "NO HATE ALLOWED, NO HATE ALLOWED!."
And that folks is all about the young Ritter that leaned about what the world "Tolerence" meant that day.
