The Point of No Return
A Grain of Salt…
Column
By Patrick Tamayo/Opinion Editor
We’ve become an offended society. Everything offends us. It makes little difference what it is, but the one thing that is certain is that someone will be offended by it.
We’re setting ourselves up for failure as we continue to be outraged by whatever the mainstream news decides to shove down our throats this week.
It was just a few weeks ago when all the lions were saved after the kill- ing of a lion in Africa. Who cares that animals, not only lions, are killed every single day?
It makes little difference that illegal poaching is an epidemic, but one lion with a person’s name is killed and out of nowhere, suddenly everyone has time to put down their pumpkin lattes to be outraged by the killing.
No one is outraged when a kid is caught in the crossfire of gang bangers, but are quick to get up in arms in the death of an animal halfway across the world. With all the problems in Africa, this is the one we choose to be offended by.
We’ve reached the point of no return.
You could post a picture of a flowerbed and someone will be offended that you planted daffodils instead of sunflowers.
There is no turning back, we’ve become an offended world and thanks to the Internet we all now have a platform to prove how outraged we are.
Gay Marriage
Why we’re still debating gay marriage is beyond me.
The fact that two people of the same sex are still being hassled over wanting to be together forever is mind numbing.
It shows the archaic way of thinking that exists around us.
Feel however you want about gay marriage, but when the reasoning behind your feelings is that an invisible entity that lives in the sky says it’s wrong your argument is invalid.
Pointing out that a book with fictitious tales also says gay marriage is wrong does little to sway your argument.
As of press time, a county clerk in Kentucky is still in jail for contempt of court after refusing to sign off on gay marriage licenses.
Her reasoning, yeah you guessed it, her religious beliefs.
People were quick to be offended that the clerk was incarcerated for her point of view, but in hindsight she’s in jail for refusing to follow a court order, not because her God tells her same sex marriage is bad.
Who cares about the whole separation of church and state, but when a person’s beliefs, mythical or not, start to intrude on the lives of others, something definitely needs to be addressed.
On top of all of the jailed clerk’s rhetoric, she is now refusing to be incarcerated in an all-female prison in the event she is transferred due to the women’s prisons being “filled with clans of dangerous lesbians who engage in lesbian sex all day long.”
Surely, that doesn’t go on all day long.
It’s one thing to believe in whatever you want, but once it affects the lives of others is when things get sketchy.
Why Care Now?
Over the past week we’ve been bombarded by photographs of a child who allegedly drowned after a boat he was on capsized while fleeing war-torn Syria.
Of course, a dead child is an awful thing. But why does anyone care now? Why does the media choose this tragedy to report on?
If we’re now in the business of showing graphic photos of dead kids, why not show the photographs of the kids that are killed during friendly drone strikes?
The world is filled with war, and lives are being lost daily.
Hundreds of thousands are displaced worldwide because of war but we aren’t showing those pictures and they’re barely, if at all, reported on.
Have a mediocre entertainer say he’s running for president, though, and every news outlet will be reporting on it for weeks.
The dead child in question, however, just happens to coincide with the company line that Syria is bad and maybe, just maybe, they should be “liberated.”
In Conclusion
Believe what you want, that is our right, but when your beliefs impose on the lives of others be prepared to be called on your nonsense.
With all the misery, tragedy and despair around us don’t let the media determine what you get offended by.
In a culture that awards participation trophies, we will never have a shortage of things to be offended by.
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Patrick Tamayo | ptamayo@theguardsman.com
Calindra Revier | crevier@theguardsman.com
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