Emma called for no reason; she just wanted to talk. She usually asks for Mugga, but this time she was content to speak with Hop-Hop.
Emma is our five year old granddaughter.
During our conversation, she informed me that she was learning Spanish. She told me how to say ‘hello’ and ‘good-bye’. I then asked her how to say the magic words in Spanish. That stumped her… not because she doesn’t use good manners, but because she didn’t make the connection between ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and her Spanish lessons.
As I said, Emma is very polite and her parents have done a great job of teaching her to be courteous. Perhaps the idea of ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ being magic is as passe as having a child call you grandpa or grandma.
In truth, I believe our nation has changed greatly over the last several decades. In today’s society, if you really want to get something done your way, you simply tell someone in a position of authority that you are offended by the way things are.
Heaven forbid that someone might be offended!
While I was a student at Edinboro, I had a professor by the name of Dr. Joseph Francello. He taught Criminology, Sociology, and anthropology courses, but he’d often drop in a pearl of wisdom for his students to mull over.
“There are laws to punish the man who steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving family,” he would tell us, “but no law to stop a man from stealing the bakery.” Considering the things that have been happening with Wall Street money managers, those laws might eventually be changed and enforced.
While that thought is interesting, the phrase often used by Dr. Francello that I want to explore is simply, ‘The only right of a minority is to become the majority.”
Ever since the Civil Rights Act, Dr. Francello’s statement has lost some of its meaning. This is not to say the Civil Rights Act did not prove his point. In fact, it did exactly that.
When many white Americans came to agree with the Black Americans – that the blacks were not being treated equally – the minority became the majority and the laws were written to enforce the beliefs of the majority. The same can be said about the women’s right to vote.
That’s the way it’s supposed to work. The minority publicizes their beliefs and works to win over others, It may take years, decades, or even centuries, but if the minority can convince enough people to create a majority, they’ve accomplished their goal.
Unfortunately, it no longer requires all that effort. The minority begins by being offended by what the majority is doing and then threatens to sue. In many cases, that’s all it takes for someone in authority to cave into the demands.
For example, someone in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, told the man in charge of the college libraries that Christmas trees in the libraries were offensive to some people. Rather than suggest that the offended people not be so sensitive, he stopped the trees from being installed this year. Bravo! The minority wins again!
It seems we are constantly hearing of people being offended, or of persons in authority changing things because they fear someone might be offended.
Well, the people being offended are the minority. I still agree with Dr. Francello, the only right those people have is to become a majority. Let them try to convince the rest of us that we too should be offended; then – and only then – should we bow to their wishes.
We now have a group of atheists demanding that our newly elected President not have an opening prayer and that ‘So help me God’ be removed from the oath of office. Atheists represent about four percent of our population. They are filing a law suit hoping that some candy-backside judge will decide that others might be offended and rule in favor of the minority.
I’ll be perfectly honest – there are lots of things in life I find offensive. But I’ve been taught to be tolerant and to look the other way. I know how to change channels and I know where the on/off button is.
I’m sure many of the things I say and do offend others. That’s life. If it bothers you, it’s your problem.
Another lesson taught by Dr. Francello is that we Americans all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness… as long as what we are doing does not infringe on those same rights of others.
So, I can do lots of things in my own home, and I can do lots of things to my body or my vehicle. As long as my actions to not stop you from enjoying your rights, I’m living within the law.
Now, if I blast a stereo so loud in the middle of the night that it keeps you awake… I’m stepping over the boundaries. However, if my earrings, nose ring, tattoos, and purple and green polka dotted car offend you, you can be offended all you want.
Beyond that, begin a publicity campaign and try to get the majority of voters to agree that laws should be created to stop me. If you succeed, it will be my turn to be offended. I can then use the Bill of Rights and attempt to get your new law struck down as unconstitutional.
But you shouldn’t be able to interfere with what I’m doing simply because you are offended.
Didn’t the Civil Rights Act have something to do with tolerance? Atheists don’t bother me, so why must they be offended by my beliefs. I figure we’ll all meet in Heaven. We can work it out there.
In the meantime, we’ll continue to teach Emma to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. Above all, we’ll teach her to be tolerant. Maybe that’s the more important lesson – the one the offended people of our society failed to learn.
