Column: An ode to Dan Friesen

By Elizabeth Eberlin
April 18, 2008

When I faithfully read The Maneater on Tuesdays and Fridays, I try to avoid reading the columns of other columnists. My low self-esteem always causes me to imagine that their columns will be incomparably superior to mine, and I hate feeling jealous.

Therefore, I forgo the Forum section of the paper and read everything else. On Tuesdays, though, I make an exception. I always read Dan Friesen’s column.

Why? It’s not a matter of friendship. I’ve never once met the man whose picture stares at me from the pages of Tuesday’s paper, smiling widely with that cigarette/toothpick/straw/unidentifiable accessory hanging out of his mouth. I highly doubt we would be friends. We seem to have different interests and socialize with different groups of people and darn it, I’m just not that level of cool.

Nor do I read his column for entertainment.

While I think that he’s nearly always hilarious and controversial, if I wanted humor and controversy I could just turn on the TV and watch Jon Stewart.

Stewart’s in color, he has a nice suit and he offends me much less on a week-to-week basis.

But it is precisely because Friesen tends to offend me that I continue to read his musings every week. This man is a living example of the First Amendment. He writes about whatever the hell he wants, peppers his column with colorful curse words and doesn’t give a shit what the backlash is going to be when he writes about “Penis Monologues” or any other kind of ridiculous subject matter.

Why is this important? To be able to write or say what you want, when you want, how you want is a right that we have here in the U.S. that too many people take for granted.

We believe that we should be guaranteed the option of saying whatever we want, but we accuse all those who say things we don’t agree with of being ignorant or immoral. We don’t mind making horrible or offensive pronouncements when they mesh with our viewpoints, but when other people do it we wish they would be censored or made to shut up.

If being a columnist has taught me nothing else, it has taught me that some people only agree with freedom of speech when it’s their freedom of speech. If it’s yours, they’ll be happy to trample all over it in a minute.

There are places in the world today where speaking up and voicing your opinion is a dangerous proposition.

Outspoken people in Africa, the Middle East and China are being killed or jailed even as you read this for offending the status quo with their words and actions, and here in the U.S. we’re only a couple of ill-advised national security laws away from the same thing.

I’m not saying people should agree with everything an entertainer or writer says, whether it’s me, Dan Friesen or Jon Stewart. In fact, if you disagree, you should speak up and make it known. You have that right. But when you’re watching television or reading The Maneater and see something that offends you, remember to appreciate what you’re seeing, which is the greatest part of America at work: the right to say or write what you want, when you want, how you want. So shut up and read your Friesen. There are censored kids in Africa.

Share on Facebook

Column: An ode to Dan Friesen

More April 18, 2008 Forum Stories

Most recent Forum Stories