You ever wish we didn’t have the First Amendment sometimes? I do. You know why? Message Boards. I wish that we lived in a totalitarian society where the VERY SECOND you posted, tweeted, etc. the folks representing ‘Big Brother’ came pounding on your front door like an episode of First 48. Seems a little extreme, I know. But how can we possibly say that the alternative (free speech) is working any better with regards to these clubhouses for gutless pigs? (message boards).
The epidemic currently sweeping the nation has nothing to do with bacteria or viruses of the medical kind. Rather, we are dealing with an even deadlier strain of crap that is perfectly incubated on a Message Board. I’m talking about ignorance. Supreme, unadulterated, uncut ignorance. There’s grown men threatening the lives of KIDS because they chose to play for a rival university. There’s the countless cyber-bullying instances that are hitting mainstream media because peoples lives are being ruined by someone they’ve never met, or in some rare cases their own best friends.
There’s a story about a middle school student with cancer being bullied online while going through chemotherapy only to find out that it was her BEST FRIEND doing the bullying. There’s documented cases of people committing suicide over pictures and statements designed to completely end lives and careers and for no other reason than, “I was bored” or “They started it first.”
Will somebody please revisit Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and tell me where this falls under survival of the fittest? Did he have the forethought to see that the Galapagos Turtles would CLEARLY need the internet to run off the Dodo Birds? Were the Iguanas asking for a Skype account so that they could continue their ongoing feud with the Albatrosses?
Case in point, there’s a discussion about having a gay or lesbian lead your son or daughter onto the playing fields and in the locker room. Anytime the labels “gay” or “lesbian” come into sports there’s usually an outflow of stupidity rivaled only by that of the Auburn-Alabama debates going on at the Shady Acres Trailer Park in Opelika. Often the person asking the question or making the statement is the stupidest person. Although the topic is an extremely valid one, and one that is actually very important to discuss, we’re faced with the ultimate task of keeping free speech from turning into hate speech. The dialogue never makes it much past “I don’t want him or her looking at my heterosexual child like a piece of meat.”
Really?!?!?! First of all Sir or Madam HOW DO YOU KNOW what your child’s sexual preferences are? Even if you ask a child do you like members of the same sex? I’d bet if you asked 50,000 kids that very question IN FRONT of their parents versus their peers your database would look more confused than Pacman Jones taking the FCAT. That’s all you’re concerned about?! Wow, that’s a mountain of pressure off my mind because with all of the teachers and students “hooking up”, as well as students selling drugs IN CLASSROOMS along with various other issues, man, I just can’t stand the thought of another human being tempted to look at another human being.
Has anybody ever seen the show “To Catch A Predator”? Why don’t you ask Chris Hansen how many of those perverts were homosexuals. Maybe one out of a hundred? Seems to me the heterosexuals of the world do a REALLY REALLY good job of screwing up without the help of enlisting bigots and yeah I said it, fake Christians. What’s worse? The person screaming from the mountaintop about Jesus saving those infected with the gay disease or finding out that very person lives secretly the life of Liberace?
I’ve been blessed to have met hundreds of thousands of people in my short existence on this planet. I’ve run across some pretty good people, some pretty scary people, some absolute morons, and folks that “get it.” I’ve met homosexuals that break EVERY stereotype we place on them such as they’re only members of certain organizations. I’ve met folks that talked politics, religion, race, and societal ills and thought, wow there’s the next great “Conservative” leader in this country. Only to see them get up and lock lips with a dude that looks like the starting TE for any NFL team.
Whatever. Here’s the crux. Finally. Remember Vince Vaughn getting his butt-kicked by Jennifer Anniston’s singing brother in The Breakup? We’ve got a lot of dudes that want to act big and tough behind a screename, but when the little fruitcake decides to show he’s more of a beefcake and someone’s feeling (or face) gets hurt, they go running to Culppeper & Kurland for some retribution. I’m not going to advocate going over and kicking the crap out of someone JUST because they called you a name. I’m advocating the curb-stomping whenever that person acts like the biggest coward on the planet and won’t even own up to it with his or her real name or has any basis for the accusation to begin with. And that goes for ANYONE calling someone else a derogatory name behind a pseudonym.
It’s not just the accuser that I have issue with either however. What about the accused? It’s all fun and games until YOU’RE the one that’s having your manhood called into question. You’ve probably even joked about people being “switch-hitters” and “playing with 2 balls” and so on around your buddies before. Why now? Why the call to action? Because it’s YOUR reputation and ego that’s affected. Nothing else.
Most of the locker rooms I’ve been in are not for the faint of heart and something tells me you’ve been called this before without ANY factual basis, yet you probably laughed it off. Just stay away from Mr. Spray Tan and the Courthouse and handle it like we would want other people to handle it. Besides, if you’re like me there’s no monetary value that can be placed on my dignity. Call me crazy, but my pride and soul are not for sale.
Our board does a fairly good job of policing itself. I say fairly good job because only a fraction of our posters actually know each other well enough to joke like that. It’s the blessing AND the curse of this forum. It’s their right to joke about it, but it’s also their obligation to be respectful if someone in the room is in fact a member of the gay/lesbian community. Keep in mind, ignoring someone can still be respectful. You don’t have to be best friends with that person if you don’t want to. I have very few friends and last I checked I was playing on Team Hetero so what’s the difference?
It may be awfully simplistic to end on this point, but I just have to ask this question. Why do we care so much in this day and age? We are struggling as a society to keep our kids out of jail, keep them free from harm, and keep them on the right track, yet we’re the first ones as adults to set the bar at being hypocritical in regards to what happens at home. Think about it. If you’re sitting at home with an ice cold beer in your hand with your hand down your pants watching Skin-a-max and the political police bust down your door, what are you going to argue? “What I do in my house is not for your approval and or concern.”
How do you think those that actually give a bigger damn about your child and their academic/athletic careers than you do feel when all they were doing was game planning and studying film at the same time YOU were taking a break with your suds and sin? Think about it. Gutless pigs need not answer to that. We already know what your thinking. Back away from the keyboard.