URBANNA —
Just how offended are we? Let me count the ways. How many times do we hear someone say… “I’m offended!”
Recent subjects that have offended people include: American flag, National Anthem, monuments ranging from Jesus Christ, Christopher Columbus, slave-owning presidents like Washington and Jefferson, Confederate generals, policeman, military, jokes about ethnicity, religion and gender, the use of any symbol or name of any Native American tribe.
Then there are those who are not so much offended by history but by present day behavior of mankind. We have many social woes to offend us: high crime rates, homeless conditions, hunger, drug and alcohol addiction, treatment of blacks and other minorities by the police and vise versa, foul language, disparate economic conditions, war, race profiling and quotas, masking toddlers and young children, nuclear weapons, pollution, late-term abortions … the list is unending.
But there’s no logic to offense. One man’s offense could be another man’s treasure. For example, a graduate of William and Mary, I was stunned when the “tribe” had to remove a mere feather from its traditional WM logo because someone was offended. The college was the first to serve Native Americans and is proud of its history but a simple feather was still labeled “offensive.” The college lost its feather but managed to hold onto its team nickname, “tribe,” because it’s a word used for all people as early as Biblical times.
The ironic part of William and Mary having to remove its feather is the fact no one seemed to be offended by the fact the college takes its name from an English king and queen. We fought England for our independence and then we name a college after British royalty?
Virginia has utilized the names of many English royals. Prince George, King George, King William, Princess Anne, the duke of this or the lord of that. Yet a feather offends?
The fact is anything can offend someone. Offended people have become so numerous that some universities have established “safe zones” where students can retire where they will be safe from any offense whatsoever.
I attended Randolph Macon Woman’s College (RMWC) in 1959 where I was exposed to an entirely new world. There were no safe zones where I could go to nurse any shock at culture change. I managed to survive. I believe experiencing discomfort from such exposure was good for me.
Offense challenges thinking, builds character, teaches tolerance and most important, educates. I doubt anyone who lives a life where they are never offended by ideas, actions and customs of their fellow man moves much in the fields of personal or intellectual development. Offense is the seed of future writers, if not all artists.
RMWC was named after two prominent Virginians that were former slave owners in colonial times. Yet the college removed a statue of the generous native that gave his land to establish a woman’s college in Lynchburg simply because he had served in the Confederate Army 40 years earlier. Who can understand that logic?
Offense sometimes is local. One day a reader said to me, “You have no right to offend me!” I laughed and reminded the lady how lucky we were that we lived in a free country so she wasn’t forced to read my column and I wasn’t forced to write only what she wanted to read.
New ideas really offend people. How offended were Jews when Christ challenged existing religious beliefs? Or Martin Luther when he nailed his 95 theses of reformation on the church door in Wittenberg?
How offended was King George III when he read Thomas Jefferson’s cheeky Declaration of Independence? Or was American society when Susan B. Anthony declared women should have the right to vote and then actually cast her vote in New York State? (After which she was promptly arrested.)
Or what about offense over Betty Friedan’s book, “The Feminine Mystique” or “I Have a Dream speech” of Dr. Martin Luther King? Or Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again?”
We all have our separate avenues of offense. Whether its words or behavior, we eventually have to come to grips with the fact we all have different opinions and ideas.
A totalitarian government might stamp out every offense known and unknown to mankind? But I fear in doing so we would lose all individual freedoms.
If we want to maintain personal freedom we will have to become tolerant of other people and what we consider “offensive” ideas and behavior.
I recall Father’s teaching me this jingle when I was a child …“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words (and monuments) will never hurt me.”
I can live with all that offends me … except maybe one thing. Could I please just once go into a restaurant and not have the staff greet me with, “HI GUYS”!
© 2021.
