Offense. Nonsense.

One nation. Under God. And offended. All the time. Aren’t we a big ole melting pot??! Don’t we welcome diversity? I thought that was the beauty of our country. A land of opportunity. Variety. And second chances. Our humanity should be about honor and respect. But somehow that’s gotten twisted into ignorance and political correctness; recognizing that there’s a difference between being respectful and politically correct. And quite frankly, the PC terms these days are out of hand. Like, OUT. OF. HAND. I can’t keep up with all the expressions that I’m supposed to use. And it stresses me out to think I’m expected to adhere to every new one that pops up like a dandelion on a hot summer day.

I don’t get offended that easily. If I did, I’m not quite sure I’d survive the daily grind. I’m a female. And a minority female, at that. So it’s just a part of life. And I’ve accepted that because if I didn’t, I’d be doing myself a terrible disservice by letting other people destroy me. Am I disgusted by rudeness and put off by ignorance? Absolutely. But if someone says something to me that isn’t politically correct by definition, I don’t let it ruin my day. I was recently given the chance to submit a piece for an online publication. But it came back to me with the request to change up some of my language – replace mankind with humankind, ladies and gentleman to all persons, etc. I stopped for a moment. I’m not a sexist person. I don’t assume someone is being exclusive to women if they use mankind, it’s just what came to mind. I understand there’s  individuals who may be struggling with gender identity but since this article wasn’t targeted to that audience, it really didn’t occur to me that I couldn’t shouldn’t use the reference ladies and gentleman. {Is that my own ignorance? Or is that legitimate?} When I change it up to all persons, it just sounds silly in the sentence format. Now I’m stuck rewriting something that hardly fits the context anymore and isn’t reflective of my style. So I’m fairly certain I will just forfeit this submission altogether and seek out other things that may be a better fit. But it got me thinking…how is every person expected to fit that mold?? A mold that changes. Constantly.

Society has become toxic and overwhelmed with people who offend people. It’s discouraging. Why is it so hard to accept differences among individuals and agree to disagree? If someone gets offended because I say Merry Christmas and not Happy Holidays, I just want to scream. To avoid confrontation, I will do my best to offer up Happy Holidays when I’m out and about. But sometimes the spirit of Christmas has me wishing others a Merry Christmas. It happens. Because that’s the holiday my family celebrates this time of year. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, that’s okay! It doesn’t offend me. It doesn’t make me want to stop and preach my religion. It doesn’t make me judge you. It just makes me realize we’re different in that regard. But since when was being different such a harsh reality?! If a Jewish person greeted me with Happy Hanukkah, I wouldn’t freak out on them. I would smile, thank them and just appreciate the fact that they greeted me at all. Isn’t this called kindness? Can’t this be the norm? Shouldn’t everyone feel safe enough to express themselves without fearing that they might offend someone and accidentally start a war of aggravation? I think so. I’m certain that politically correct terms and phrases were born out of an intolerance. So tell me how the expectation to constantly use them makes you correct?? It doesn’t.

Now you can’t be rude or derogatory and you need to leave the stupidity at home. Because ignorance is NOT bliss. And being PC does not automatically excuse ignorance. I’m making a point to separate the two and to encourage others to be less offended by things that really aren’t worth it. Embrace your diversity. Channel that energy elsewhere. Be mindful. And use common sense. Except for when it becomes non-sense.