I have never known so many people who are so offended by the actions and words of so many others. Sometimes the actions that so offend are completely inadvertent by the “offenders”. I understand that on college campuses there exists an entire vocabulary of verbal “triggers” that should be avoided for fear of offending “someone”.
Am I the only person alive today who remembers the childhood taunt “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”? (Please note the perfect grammatical construction of this quote, use of the word “may” implying possibility rather than use of the word “can” implying permission.)
Never have so many people been so offended so often by so much trivia to twist Winston Churchill’s wartime message.
We have teachers upset and demanding an apology because Christie said teacher’s unions deserve a punch. My goodness people, the man is from New Jersey! This was a very mild censure from a guy from New Jersey. Just watch “Jersey Boys” if you don’t believe me.
We have women in fainting spells taking offense because Jeb Bush thinks 1/2 billion dollars is too much for exclusively female health issues. I think that is too much money for anyone’s health issues, but at my age I know not much will be spent on my needs, so what do I know?
We have teachers suspending a child because he chewed his sandwich into the shape of a gun!! Horrors!!!! Just think, he could have chewed it into the shape of a grenade and they would have to have called the bomb squad!!!
Everyone is demanding an apology and guess what? When they get the apology they don’t think it is sincere. Really?? Remember the governor’s aide who used a perfectly good word “niggardly” in a perfectly correct application (that amount of money is so much less than is reasonable under the circumstances.) You see, one good word takes the place of fourteen. He was forced to apologize because a large number of people didn’t understand the word, couldn’t be bothered to look it up in the dictionary, and would not have recognized the difference in the old Norse root of “niggardly” as opposed to the Latin root of the “n” word to which all those who were offended thought he was referencing.
I don’t think his apology was very sincere, but I think we should forgive him because he was forced to apologize for other people’s ignorance.
Now we have a man who has for years worked in the political arena as a political commentator who is “made queasy” by Trump’s insult to Megyn Kelly. I think Trump’s comments were in poor taste, but really, queasy? from a man who referred to Chief Justice Souter as a “(expletive deleted) child molester” and Michelle Obama as a “Marxist harpy”? I would suggest to Mr. Erickson that if he is made queasy by Trump’s comments (made about someone else by the way, not about him) that he is definitely in the wrong career field!!
Members of the LGBT community were “offended” because someone didn’t want to bake them a wedding cake. So their “offended feelings” took the form of a lawsuit that netted them $135,000.00 in damages. Wow, was it that hard to find another baker? I live in a very small town in a rural community and I can find at lease nine bakeries or individuals who bake wedding cakes within a twenty- minute drive.
This was not a lawsuit based on the couple being “offended” by a disappointment over a wedding cake, this was a member of a minority group trying to harm a legitimate business because they did not endorse their lifestyle.
Businesses are in the business of making money. Any business owner who refuses to do business with a potential customer is by that refusal losing money. If they refuse to serve enough people, they will soon be out of business. Surely this is their decision alone.
Remember when the LGBT community (a small minority of our society as a whole) tried to organize a boycott of Chick-Fil-A? That didn’t last very long because the public (as in a large majority of our society as a whole) said NO in very large letters and endorsed Chick-fil-a and made them more profit in a single month than every before. So what message did the LGBT community take from this response to their boycott? Don’t go after big businesses with a large public following, single out the small businessman or woman who can’t afford to defend against such actions.
I have no feelings against members of the LGBT community although I must admit I don’t know any Bs or Ts (at least I don’t know any to the best of my knowledge). However, when I was in college my roommate was gay (and that was a long time ago, and long before anyone publicly acknowledged their homosexuality.) I subsequently had a number of acquaintances who professed to be so and I have had no problems in doing business or attending social events with any of them.
I do object to anyone using bullying tactics to intimidate or force someone to take an action that they find difficult or morally wrong. We live in the land of the free. What everyone needs to remember is that your “rights” end where someone else’s “rights” begin. Having the “right” to be LGBT means you have the right to live your life and to love as you see fit without fear of harassment or threat.
However, it also means someone else has the “right” to not approve of that decision. So long as that lack of approval is expressed in legal and non-threatening ways (such as declining to bake a wedding cake) that is their right.
Freedom of speech means I am free to express my opinion freely and without constraint. You have the right to be offended if you so wish.
If you are offended, give some careful thought to why you feel offended and then respond in kind if you wish. However, your right to feel offended does not circumvent my right to offend!
B
linesfromlinden 