Our Freedom of Expression and Humanity

“The King has donkey’s ears!!”

The barber in the folklore unburdens himself, after much torment, to reveal his secret to a non-human being. Different versions of this story from ancient Greece, medieval Europe, Middle East, Korea, etc. have the barber tell the secret to an oak tree, bamboo forests, a hole he digs himself in the ground… all with the same result. An instrument made of that very tree, a bamboo from the very forest, or the wind…. they all reveal to the king that the barber could not contain the secret within himself. In some versions of this story, the king mercilessly beheads or otherwise kills the poor barber. In other versions, the king apologizes for his vanity and tyranny, and everyone lives happily ever after.

The existence of similar folklore from around the world about the barber revealing the secret at the risk of death is a testament to our universal desire to know the truth and to disseminate it. That’s what drives me, for example, to keep on writing and making music. And that is why the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, protecting our freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition, is so crucial to the wellness and the sustainability of the future of this country, and the world.

There are many reasons why the political division around the upcoming U.S. Presidential election feels especially emotional and volatile this time around. The social media and its algorithms make its users susceptible to sensationalism and misinformation. The rapid advancement of generative AI exacerbates disinformation. In addition, Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a blueprint for the second Trump administration should he win, threatens the rights of BIPOC female immigrants like myself by imposing certain religious values to be enforced as laws to govern all its citizens. It blurs the line that separates church and state, making social participation difficult for anyone outside of this belief system.

Beethoven’s Vienna suffered from censorship. One aspect of what made his music so popular was that much of what he wrote was instrumental music without lyrics, and escaped the scrutiny of the censors. His listeners projected their yearning for freedom of expression onto Beethoven’s music that reflected the passions and ethos of its frustrated listeners like no other art from was allowed to at the time.

The more we are oppressed, the more explosive our demand for our right to knowledge and freedom of expression becomes. The more freedom we enjoy, the more curious, honest, and energized we become. We are designed to communicate in order to collaborate, cohabitate and commiserate, to cooperate to build a better future for our off-spring and our fellow earthlings. So, let us unite with music.