Censorship in Any Form is Still Censorship

I had the experience this morning of having one of my comments deleted on a discussion, and then the person who had started that discussion sent me an email about making personal attacks and keeping it friendly.

I would like to state for the record that I did not call anyone or any organization by name, but I did voice my opinion that I was sick and tired of people who act as if therapists who provide Swedish or relaxation massage are not valuable.

I went on to say that plenty of people need stress relief, and many people cannot take a deep tissue massage. I made a few other comments that the person running the discussion apparently found offensive, including my statement that you could call yourself the Pope and there will be 1% of people who still think massage is about sex.

My own clinic is mainly focused on medical massage, but we also have plenty of people who want nurturing, pampering, or whatever you want to call it, and none of the medical massage therapists who work there will refuse to give a relaxation massage if that's what the client wants.

My main blog, The Massage Pundit, which originates on the Massage Magazine website, is usually about the politics of massage. It is also on RSS feed on hundreds of other sites. I am known for being opinionated, and not mincing any words. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, and I print the comments I receive from every respondent, whether they agree with me or not. I would not dream of censoring yours or anyone's comments because they disagree with my opinion, or because of the way they state it.

If you'd really like for someone to kick your butt, go over to Bodhi Haraldsson's website on evidence-based massage, and let the scientists over there have at you. There are some real arguments going on there--and no censorship. I'd rather get ripped to shreds by one of them for my opinion than to be prevented from expressing it. They may think by my opinion that I'm a moron, but they still respect my right to express it.

I will go on further and say that the leadership at ABMP, which started this website, personally asked me to blog on here and assured me that I would not be censored. I will not hold them responsible for the fact that one individual deleted a comment, but I will say that censorship, in any form, is not what they had in mind when they started this forum. And that's my sermon for today.