Let 100 flowers bloom

This is my 100th blog post so contemplative of expression a colleague uses, "let a hundred flowers bloom."

A newspaper editor recently misquoted it as "thousand flowers" in explaining commitment to allowing online comments to news stories .... knowing many more angry and insensitive readers than positive readers comment ... but known value other readers may find to both post and comments. The threat of angry or insensitive elevated my initial concern that writing a blog might be huge mistake ... in fact, the first 2 weeks didn't use my full name or more than cartoon picture of myself ... wondering if some huge retribution ahead for being among the eight million blooming bloggers.

"Let a hundred flowers bloom, let the hundred schools of thought contend," is specific to brief time in China's history (late fifties) when government said it encouraged public expression, comments, intellectual discourse and proposed solutions ... even if against the political system. But [certain historians believe] when dissidents provided thought, concerns mounted .... and they were exposed, repressed, and apparently a few even executed.

So what happens when associations say to let a hundred flowers bloom?