Does This Offend You?

You don't have a right to not be offended. Period. That's okay. I don't either. No one does. And, in America, that's the law of the land:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." -First Amendment of US Constitution

If you had a right to not be offended, freedom of speech wouldn't be protected under the law, would immediately become nonexistent. But, thankfully, it clearly is protected. (This blog attests to this.) Black and white, plane and simple.

That's not to say someone has a right to verbally harass, intimidate or threaten you. Far from it. That wouldn't be in keeping in the "the pursuit of happiness" spirit. But you can be offended by someone else exercising their freedoms. Likewise, you have have every right to exercise your freedoms even if it offends someone who finds what you do repugnant. If we had the right to not be offended, that all ceases to exist.

Does that mean every utterance is morally covered by this constitutional guarantee? Absolutely not. Should we go out of our way to offend our fellow man for the sake of offending them? Not a chance.

I'd argue the people in Arizona hosting a "Draw Mohammed" rally are committing an immoral act. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Americans and well over a billion other Muslims globally find any physical depiction of the Prophet Mohammed idolatrous and blasphemous. In other words, billions find it deeply offensive.

I'm sure those two Muslim men who went to a Draw Mohammed rally in Texas to gun the artists and patrons down were also deeply offended. (Thankfully, they were mortally wounded before they could kill anyone.) But -- for all that is rational and good -- how does being offended justify attempting to take someone's life? There are seven or so b-b-b-billion people out there. We're never all going to agree on everything, but we're all pretty much in lock step that killing in cold blood is reprehensible.

You think Christians are fans of shows like South Park and Family Guy parading, openly flaunting their disgust and amusement at God and Christianity? You think they leap for joy at unflattering portrayals of their Lord and Savior? Not a chance. They too are deeply offended. Just as I'm sure those shows' creators finds aspects of Christianity and other religions offensive. Far more often than not, Christians don't kill over it just because others don't see life the same way. To be fair, most Muslim aren't driving around shooting up conventions either.

There's plenty of room for all of us.

The point is we all need to practice tolerance. No one is forcing anyone to like something they object to. Society is making you accept and tolerate it though -- so long as it doesn't take away from their legal, inalienable, self-evident rights.

You want to punish people for deeply offending you? Do it by taking the moral high road. Don't stoop to their level by being equally offensive or, worse yet, harming them, even if they are bigoted, racist thugs. Taking up arms against anyone, however driven by ignorance and hate, who took up the pen makes you the villain by default. Just strengthen the bonds of this global family and let bitter cartoonists doodle in obscurity while the rest of us enjoy our lives and each others company, even if we don't always like how the other lives.

I'm offended every day -- and I wouldn't want it any other way.