Saddened by Censorship

I am writing to explain the recent severe step of… censorship… taken in response to the latest contributor entry on this blog.

Let’s see… um… what would a public statement look like?

“The SCHMITT blog continues to support global aspirations for the ideals of free speech. However, with free speech comes personal responsibility, and the need for leadership… at times even censorship.”

Wait… wait… I’m sounding like a fascist. How would Corporate America, P.R. handle this?

Recently, I received an email from a major conference organizer located in Wisconsin that had included fuzzy handcuffs and sado-masochistic imagery in their branding conference invitation.

As we look forward to another exciting Brandworks University, registration is at a record level and many recipients of our mail invitation have called or emailed with comments such as “Congratulations on a clever and intriguing direct mail piece!” However, we have been saddened to hear concerns from a handful of people about our use of a dominatrix in the invitation.

I’m writing to personally express my regret if our invitation has given you or any of your colleagues pause. Our intent, of course [sic], was never to offend, but rather to create a “jump out of the clutter” direct mail piece, [and] a humorous metaphor …

I laughed at these fellows as uptight Midwesterners, when I got their email. But now, I share their feelings. I guess I’m just an uptight German!

I, too, have been saddened to hear from readers concerned about the recent post on [CENSORED]. I have been saddened as well, by my own step of censorship. I do welcome a diversity of future postings on topics other than [CENSORED], and hope we will not have to return to the subject of [CENSORED] again.