Of the freedom to speak.

I never fully appreciated the first amendment until someone tried to take it away from me. Don't get me wrong, I always knew it was there and understood what it meant in a clinical sense. Now I know what it means in my heart.

This site, however long it lasts, is my attempt at asserting my rights under the first amendment. While I realize the initial gripe that started this site may not seem like too much to you, the reader, it is a big deal to me. I'll elaborate on that in another thread, one which is more pertinent to that subject. This topic is on the second reason why this site exists, which interestingly is a circular argument.

As I said this site came into existence over a gripe, now it's much more than that. The lawyers for Farmers have tried to encumber my first amendment rights with the threats of a lawsuit. This is not fair, nor is it right. Now I know the world is not fair, never was, and never will be; I "get it". What I don't get is why Farmers (or at least their lawyers) don't see the marketing potential in a site like this.

There are plenty of other companies with gripe sites about them: UPS, United airlines, Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Wallmart, the list goes on and on and on. What many of these companies have in common is that they interact with the sites' owners and visitors in such a way as to attempt to maximize the amount of silver lining in that cloud of gray. If Farmers had approached me in a less combative manor and taken the stance that they weren't thrilled about my site, but recognize my free speech I would have been far more likely to be amicable to requests that were reasonable. For example, had they approached me about my initial use of the Farmers Mark (without the slash through it) , and stated that, while possibly protected it may also cause confusion and requested I remove or significantly alter it I would have likely complied with a smile. Instead they threaten all sorts of legal action (none of it enforceable by what I can tell), causing me to e-mail a ton of attorneys and getting their opinions about the site, resulting in the slash mark now in use.

At this time I would ask all of you who read this and support me and my freedom to speak to leave a comment if you wouldn't mind. If I yield under a simple threat such as I received, then it doesn't matter how many rights we all have in the constitution. Any person or company with a big enough legal staff can subjugate those rights into oblivion.

Thanks,
-admin

FarCry - Mollio