Wednesday, July 8, 2015

In the past few weeks, I've seen a bit here and there and everywhere about how people just need to stop being offended, how we're building mountain ranges from various molehills, and how we all just need to chill the fuck out and think about something else.
On my commute this morning, I found myself behind someone whose views differ from mine. This happens constantly (we're all unique snowflakes, after all, and, living where I do, I occasionally find myself a bluish snowflake in a sort of reddish snowbank [metaphors!]). It's fine/dandy, and I'm seldom aware of it. This particular fellow, however, was thoughtful enough to print his beliefs out in 72 pt. font, laminate them, and tape them to the gate of his pickup truck. These are the words he chose to represent himself to other motorists:
"AIDS * Ebola * Obama - Thanks a lot Africa!"
and
"Have you ever noticed how women using food stamps always seem to be pregnant?"
We are blessed to live in a country where freedom of speech is protected. I'm into it. Go USA. Go first amendment.
You are allowed to hate and/or fear black people, women, the poor -- whoever you like -- and you are allowed tell us all about it.
And -- here's the thing -- we are allowed to react to it. You are entitled to share your views, and I am entitled to weep, or dry-heave, or think you an asshole, or write an overlong Facebook treatise in response to those views, if that's what my body wants me to do.
Never feel bad for being offended by something that truly disgusts or threatens you.
In high school I proclaimed that I wasn't easily offended. More accurately, I just watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show a lot. And I let myself believe that people like the Staunch Racist and the Casual Sexist were relics, or at most, harmless caricatures with no influence. I was proud of the notion that I was so open-minded and unflappable. And I was wrong, as past versions of ourselves often are.
Spewing intolerance and ignorance, or -- to another point -- flying a flag that makes a large portion of the population feel uneasy or unwelcome (regardless of the flag-flyer's intent) is protected speech. And being offended is just as protected. It's wonderful.
Hate is offensive. Be offended. You owe it to yourself -- and to America -- to say what you feel and to feel your feelings thoroughly. Speech is power, and you can use it to shift the energy. Or, at the very least, you can use it to passive-aggressively shame a guy in a Ford pick-up whom you'll never see again, and who will never know how you feel.
I probably should have just flipped him off.
But I was afraid of offending him.
There's still a lot of work to do.

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