a quote to think about...

"I'm sorry you take offence at my remarks. I shall be glad when we move on from what seems to me to be an era of offence taking. I have expressed my opinions robustly but, I hope, carefully and thoughtfully. Please disagree with them as robustly as you like. There are now six billion of us, and there are bound to be a lot of opinions and views out there we profoundly disagree with. I wish we could just accept that and have the arguments and think about them not be in such a rush to take offence the whole time. If you find my remarks to be dishonest, thoughtless, malicious or even stupid then I apologise for them wholeheartedly. If you merely find that you strongly disagree with them then please disagree back. But wherein lies the offence?"