Bonum Certa Men Certa

GNU Turns 38 (Midday Today or 12:35:59 EST) and RMS Talks to Polish Medical Professionals This Evening

We're unable to find a link for a stream, if any exists at all, but there's this page

rms-poland-code-europe

Summary: Today GNU turns 38. Last week over 5,000 people watched the RMS talk in Ukraine using our WebM version of it; in a few hours RMS will speak in Poland and we'll try to find a stream if one becomes available (we shall update this page).

Speaking of updates:

RMS updates

Here is the full message reproduced here as well:

To: debian-devel-announce@lists.debian.org Subject: Re: General Resolution: Richard Stallman's readmission to the FSF board From: Salvo Tomaselli [redacted] Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2021 07:52:33 +0100

Hi,

I'm a disabled person and I think that calling rms an “ableist” for what he wrote about prenatal diagnosis is incorrect.

It shows that the author of the letter knows NOTHING about what goes on in groups for civil liberties of disabled people and their families.

In my country, Italy, it is the religious bigots who do not want prenatal diagnosis, because it might led to abortion, and they are against that. Catholics also see any suffering and pain as “good”, as a way to elevate the soul towards God.

So, in short, in the letter, rms is being accused for his pro-choice views.

In the haste to label him with whatever “woke” insult, the writers and signers of the letter ended up siding with the camp that wants to deny women's rights.

Many years ago, I read a letter from the father of a mentally disabled person that was described as a 2 year old inside the body of a 40 year old.

The parent said that he loved his son very much but he couldn't help to wonder what would happen to him after he died. Would he be taken care of? Would he be abused? So he was expressing his ideas that perhaps prenatal diagnosis can be good. Not because he didn't love his son but because he could not defend himself from the world after he had died.

It is of course a tragic thought and honestly I believe that while abortion must be a right, it is always a sad event. I believe that most abortions should not happen, because they happen either because the mother can't support a child or she is too young to do so, and in both cases that means that improvements to welfare and education are much needed. But still, it is a right that must not be denied.

Honestly I do not believe it is my place to morally judge if an abortion was performed for a good enough reason, and I believe it is not the place of anyone to place this moral judgment onto others.

rms has expressed his controversial opinion about a small part of this vast topic, and this is now being used against him by opportunists who want to replace him.

To be honest, I believe that the position on abortion has absolutely nothing to do with debian and free software in general, and people from both opinions should be welcome to partecipate.

To conclude, I must say that as a disabled person I'm getting a bit tired of people who self-diagnose themselves a mental illness and call “ableist” anyone they disagree with on social media. I think it is insulting towards real disabled people and it diminishes the struggle and makes the term “disabled” meaningless. I don't know if this is what's happening here, but it is a trend that I've noticed in general.

Best

-- Salvo Tomaselli

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