Assume for a moment that I am a big and strong fellow who lifts heavy weights easily and is flexible and fit. If someone approached me to comment on what they saw as my unhealthiness and absence of strength would it affect me?

If the first assumption is true, that I am in fact big and strong, then it should not make a difference. In all likelihood, I will ignore the comments and move on. Assume that I am wealthy and have been for generations. Why would the remark from a stranger pitying the fact that I was poor or that I looked destitute upset me or anger me?

It was not a reflection of the truth, which was that I was in fact not only rich but had been so forever. The view that someone else holds of me will not affect me negatively if that view is not only wrong but the opposite of what I know to be reality. The remarks from others about me only bite when they are close to the truth and when I am insecure about the very things that their words carry.

The words of a young woman, a foreign reporter, have caused the mighty ministry of external affairs to lecture her, and the world at large, about the greatness of this nation. Lessons were given about our heritage and our culture and ancient traditions in response to an anodyne question about freedom.

Something about constitutional values and........

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