My good friend Dan Bell is stirring up some controversy over in England. With his characteristically elegant prose, he's attacking the way men are raised in the U.K.--whether or not you agree with his strong beliefs, I believe his essay deserves a response.
Interestingly enough, his essay helped me discover the Guardian's Comment Is Free section, a raging forum for writers around the world. It's a cross between the political soapbox and the blogosphere, and the comments section is loaded with some of the most intelligent, highly-opinionated readers in England.
"The official remembrance ceremony on Sunday for Private Harry Farr and Private James Swaine, two of more than 300 men executed after refusing to return to the trenches, once again revealed the gaping lacuna in the commentary over the WWI "pardons": No one has questioned the tacit assertion that had the young men in fact been deemed cowards, then they should have been shot."
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