We all are offended by something.  That is natural when you are a member of a large, culturally diverse society.  It is that diversity that gives us our strength and character.  

But the current trend of “political correctness” is getting far out of hand.  Just because an item offends one group of people does not mean that that item should be banned or removed.  Even more troubling is the current trend of labeling those who are not offended or who do not think the same way as they do as “bigots”.

The Constitution does NOT grant us the right not to be offended.  On the contrary, our right to Freedom of Expression essentially guarantees that someone else will be offended.  It is specifically offensive speech and expressions that the Constitution protects.  Non-offensive speech and expression, by its very nature, needs no protection.

The Confederate Flag means different things to different people.  Some see it as a symbol of racial discrimination.  Some see it as a symbol of Southern Pride.  Some see it as reminder of a dark past that should not be forgotten lest it be repeated.  Physically, it’s just a piece of cloth.  Its meaning is only how it is perceived in the heart and mind of each individual – nothing more and nothing less.

What I see as FAR MORE DANGEROUS is when people use tragic events such as the Church Shooting to incite a mob-mentality to impose their views onto the views of others.  When we ban or remove anything simply because it offends a portion of our population, we are chipping away at the very freedoms the Constitution provides. The banning of items that offend selected groups of people are the first steps towards tyranny.  We seem to forget that our rights end where others’ begin.  We don’t need the Constitution to protect the rights of the many.  It’s there to protect the rights of the few.  Or the one.  The Constitution protects the minority from the majority.  That’s why it takes a three-fourths vote to amend it.

Many in this country are offended when same-sex couples marry.  They claim it tarnishes and diminishes the institution of Marriage and should be banned.   When two same-sex people marry, it does not physically affect anybody else any more than when two opposite-sex people marry.  You may be offended by it, and it may go against your religion, but it doesn’t affect you outside of it simply existing within your purview.   Gay people are not getting married just to spite you.   They just want to express their love for each other and enjoy the same rights as the rest of us.  They are not demanding that we change our beliefs for them, just that we respect their rights to live their lives under the same freedoms and rights as we live ours.

The Confederate Flag issues boils down to the same thing.   Those who fly that flag do not do it to promote racism.  They fly it to celebrate their Southern Heritage.  They are not demanding that YOU fly it in YOUR yard.  They just want to fly it in theirs.  (Individual terrorists who pervert the use of the flag, cross, or any other symbol for their own misguided purposes do so just to create controversy. They do not represent any section of our civilized society, and are not part of this debate.)

On the other hand, while the Constitution grants individual people the rights of freedom of speech and expression, it does not grant that same right to the State.  Quite the opposite: the State is required to offer equal protection to all persons.

Today’s issue centered around South Carolina’s display of the Confederate Flag.  When the State sponsors something, that has an entirely different meaning than when an individual exercises his freedom of Expression.  Since the State represents all of its citizens, its actions should reflect the central beliefs and character of its population as a whole.  This flag clearly does not.   Take it down.   It should have never been there in the first place.  In this particular case, this flag was first raised over the State Capitol in the 1960’s – a hundred years AFTER the Civil War, and right in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement. I was not there sixty years ago when it was first raised, and was not privy to the reasons for it being raised at that exact point in time. But, considering the timing, a racial message was implied, if not clearly sent.

We ALL have the same rights under our Constitution.  My issues are just as important to me as yours are to you.  What offends you may not bother me in the least.  What I find offensive might be something you hold dear.  Throughout my school-years, it was drilled into us that the United States is the “Melting Pot”, where oppressed people from all over the World could come to live in a place where they would not be persecuted for their beliefs. It is this diversity that has allowed the U.S. to flourish for 200 years.  Let’s not let the “Politically Correct” mindset start to take away those rights.  

Isn’t it ironic that the people pushing the “Politically Correct” agenda do so believing it protects our rights, when, in fact, it is taking them away a little bit at a time?   They say that if you drop a frog into boiling water, he will jump out, but if you start out with cold water and raise the temperature a little bit at a time, the frog will sit there until it’s cooked.  Let’s not be that frog in the pot.  If we continually give up our rights a little at a time in the name of political correctness, we’ll wake up one day with no rights at all.

I find it not-so-amusing that many of the same people celebrating the rights of gays to marry no matter how many others that offends are the same ones clamoring to take away the rights of others to express their own heritage because it offends them.  And the ones shouting loudest about their right to waive the Confederate Flag were the same ones shouting the loudest to restrict the rights of gays to marry.   And THAT OFFENDS ME.