But the British court judgment, which is likely to be appealed, also delivers a body blow to freedom of speech.
My junior year high school English teacher liked to tell a story about Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson to illustrate the differences between America’s two great transcendentalist writers. Thoreau was jailed in 1846 for withholding taxes that paid for the invasion of Mexico and protected slave owners. Emerson came to speak to Thoreau through the bars of his cell. My teacher, with theatrical flair and stentorian voice, recounted the conversation:
‘Emerson: “What are you doing in there, Henry David?” Thoreau: “The question is, what are you doing out there, Ralph Waldo?”’
We might ask ourselves what we are doing out here while Julian Assange remains “in there” at Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison in London…
