I'm Offended

   Lately it seems to be the in thing to be offended. Actually this has been going on for awhile, but it seems much more noticeable now.

   Many years ago my manager was a guy named Scott. Scott was a smart man in many ways and I enjoyed conversing with him when things were slow at work. One of the things he told me is that he did not see anything in the Bill of Rights about the right to not be offended. The United States has great cultural diversity. Since this is such a diverse culture there are a lot of opportunities for people to be offended by a range of things. 

  I will admit there are a lot of things that we should find offensive and work toward correcting. In a country as wealthy as ours we still have homeless and many of them are veterans who served our country.  We should be offended that there is not equal educational and employment opportunity for all. We should be offended by the fact that income determines what kind of health care one receives. We should be offended by the poor treatment that many mentally ill people receive. We should be offended that wealthy and powerful people seem to receive lighter sentences for crimes than those who are poor or are minorities. 

  Being offended because a company chose to re-brand a product to avoid being offensive to people of colour, in my opinion is not a good reason to be offended. Being offended by being asked to wear a mask inside a business to protect other customers and employees is not a good reason either. 

  Today I'm going to share a couple of things I find offensive and why.

   Two musical groups have chosen to change their names to avoid offense by certain groups of people. The first group is Lady Antebellum. They have decided to change their name to Lady A. There's just one problem. The name Lady A. belongs to another artist. An African American singer named Anita White, who has been using the name for two decades. The band has sued this singer and mentioned that the singer had asked for a payment of 10 million dollars. What the band wants in the lawsuit is the right to use the name. Honestly I find the band's action offensive. I think they could have found another name to use if they wanted to ditch the one they had. Other artists have done so.

  The group The Dixie Chicks have dropped the name Dixie from their name for the same reason. They are now calling themselves The Chicks. I find this offensive as the word "chick" is a derogatory word referring to women who are attractive. A chick is a juvenile bird. To me calling a woman a chick is essentially calling her an animal. I'm very disappointed in this group. ( I also wonder if the company that makes Dixie cups will also re-brand their product.)

  I'm offended by people who are angry that tearing down statues is "erasing history". In order to erase history one would have to develop a time machine, go back to the period of time where certain things occurred and do something to change it. Since this is not possible, history cannot be "erased". People do not learn history by looking at statues. I certainly did not learn any history by looking at the statue of Nathan Hale or Bishop John Ireland in St Paul. 

  I learned history in school and also through books I've read. We could and should do a better job of teaching history and doing so in a more even handed manner. That includes the realities of slavery and laws that oppressed minorities in the past and present.

   Statues were erected to honor certain people and groups of people. I can understand that to some monuments honoring Confederate soldiers are offensive. It would be like erecting monuments to the soldiers that guarded the Nazi concentration camps during World War II.  

  A good example is Union general William T. Sherman. To Northerners, he could be considered a hero. He won battles and helped the Union to win the Civil War. To someone from the south, he was an evil, barbaric man who attacked innocent civilians in order to gain victory and completely destroyed the infrastructure of the south. 

   Rather than destroying such memorials, it might be best to put them in a place where their actions can be put into the context of the times. It could be very educational which is much better than destroying them out of hand.

   While I'm on the subject on context I'd also like to share a few thoughts about our Founding Fathers. Many of them owned slaves., because of this there are people who believe that it is wrong to honor them or learn about them. I respectfully disagree. I don't feel that you can judge leaders from the 17 and 18 hundreds based on the values of today. At that time, African Americans were considered something of a lower species. It was wrong and still is, but that was the prevailing attitude at the times those leaders were living. 

  The solution to this challenge I believe is a more even handed approach to learning about these men. This country such as it is would not exist without the work they did and the risks they took. Instead of holding them up as minor deities, look at them as whole people. There are good things that they did and also something that are bad. This approach could be used with many historical figures. Learn both the good and the bad. 

  There's a lot of things that need to change was we continue our journey into the future. Instead of taking a self righteous stance of the constantly offended, let's roll up our sleeves, and use the energy we spend being offended to work at making things better for all.