Important Note:
Opinions are fun. My friends tell me I am someone with lots of opinions and that's fine since I don't get mad at others when they disagree with me. In this same spirit I am interested in hearing yours views as long as you are able to share your views without boiling over. I look forward to hearing from you. I tend to write in the form of short essays most of the time, but contributions do not need to be in this same format or size. Some of the content here will date itself pretty quickly, other content may be virtually timeless, this is for the reader to judge.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1
Not being so silent anymore
Posted at: Aug/07/2023 : Posted by: Mel
Related Category: Society, Watching America,
Okay, I would like to be very contemporary with my social consciousness, but I think I have reached my limit. If you want to call me homophobic, racist, transphobic, go ahead. I don’t personally believe I am any of those, but I have had enough with the notion of wokeness. While I would like to believe I am special, in truth I know I am not anything more than a member of the “Silent Majority.” But maybe the Silent Majority is getting tired of being silent. When a man who claims he wants to be a woman is printed on a special run of cans for America’s former best-selling beer, regular Joes across the country stopped buying Bud Light. They’ve lost over $30 billion in sales and have been replaced as the country's top beer. When Target decided to partner with an artist for satanic images on children’s clothes in the pride-promoting displays they lost over $15.7 billion in sales. Disney, a brand that has for years focused on basic family values has lost over $890 million on their last 6 movies along with the trust of many parents while trying to promote woke social agenda. The Silent Majority may not appear on social media much, but they know how to speak, and do it very loudly with their wallets. I’m not condemning being Gay or Trans, but I think that many people are like myself and tired of being told how to think. I don’t really want to treat anyone more special because of how I am supposed to identify them. Movie makers, department stores, school districts and politician are all starting to grapple with this. Just because the Silent Majority doesn’t get on a soap box, doesn’t mean they don’t have a voice. On the other hand, when Jim Caviezel produced a movie about a hero who rescued children from trafficking, the “Sound of Freedom” became a 2023 summer hit with more than $125 million in revenue. That means it outperformed movies with mega budgets like “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” When country music singer Jason Aldean pulled no punches in his newly released single, "Try That In A Small Town," it quickly shot to the No. 1 song on iTunes despite a number of woke activist slamming it for supposedly promoting violence (most of which was actual news footage). The Silent Majority is not a group of ultra conservative men and women spouting ideals from a bygone era as some would have you believe. They are for the most part, men and women who are just trying to do the right things in life, get by from one bill to the next, and treat others respectfully. There may be nothing more un-American than telling someone how to think, and that is when you will hear from them with the only voice they have. I am not anti-Gay, anti-Trans, anti-Black, or any other anti. I try to treat everyone with respect and as long as you do the same to me, we’re good. When I turn on my TV or walk in a store, I don’t want to be accosted by some of the more extreme images or inappropriate messages that some want to spout. When Lia Thomas was allowed to compete in high level women’s sports I was really confused. I can respect that William Thomas was uncomfortable in his original skin and transitioned to being Lia. But having transitioned after puberty testosterone had done it magic and she had substantially more muscle mass than nearly every other female competitor. Riley Gaines stood up for herself to complain about this because literally no one else would – not her school, not the NCAA. I respect that Lia Thomas wants to be a competitive swimmer, but good competition is also about fairness. For anyone raising daughters with athletic goals, they may be seeing all that erased because of attempt to show “woke inclusivity.” Interestingly, 50 years ago some of the East German female weightlifters got banned from Olympic competition because they had taken testosterone drugs that made them “too masculine.” There will always be winners and losers, but competition is supposed to be fair. If we are not going to erase all the benefits of Title-IX, maybe Tran’s athletes will need a unique category for competition. Further, when parents see men and boys allowed in women’s locker rooms and restrooms, they see the safety of their daughters compromised. Think about the sexual assault in Loudon County, Virginia, where a boy assaulted a teenage girl in the girls’ bathroom. He was allowed in because he identified as a girl. This is not a unique case, but many sports leagues and such are scared to speak up for fear of being branded "transphobic.” There has been a push to teach many aspects of gender identity and sexual orientation to students as young as second grade. This is very concerning to me because young children are very strongly influenced to join the ideas of adults, they look up to including teachers. I found years ago that I could tell a team of 8-year-old boys on a soccer team that if they ate broccoli on Friday night, they would have their best game on Saturday. I would then get parents calling me about their children all of a sudden wanting broccoli. Clearly, at elementary age most children don’t really know their own mind, but are easily influenced, especially by their teachers and coaches. Gender and sexual conversations of any flavor do not belong at that young an age where they are so easily influenced to follow almost any concept. Speaking up at school board meetings in some parts of the country is getting parents put on “watch lists.” The California Legislature is attempting to pass a bill (SB-596) that would turn almost any comment at a School Board Meeting that “annoys or harasses…” a board member into a misdemeanor. It was not that long ago that a parent could be held criminally responsible for the window their child broke. Have we absolved parents of all responsibility and oversight for their children? This sounds like a Twilight Zone episode where children are taken from their parents to be indoctrinated by an education system they are not allowed to question. I will not patronize any establishment that advocates for gender transition surgeries for minors. It isn’t uncommon for children to experience periods of doubt, confusion, or unhappiness. The term “growing pains” exists because everyone experiences them. Irreversible surgeries should not be encouraged for anyone at that stage of life. There is an age where sexual identity starts to matter and drug, or surgical options should be available. Then there is the challenge of race and ethnicity in college admission. The last U.S. census found that black or African Americans were 12.6% of the population, Asian at 5.6% and White (Non-Hispanic) at 59.3%. I believe very strongly that our universities need to accept our brightest candidates to create a future that gives all of us the best chance for success. If students of Asian descent test well, it is not racial…it is cultural. They are coming out of a high percentage of two parent households who strongly encourage an academic work ethic from a young age including doing homework after dinner. It is not racial…it is cultural. We need our best and brightest to compete in a global economy. The home environment for K-12 grade students is where you develop those who are most likely to excel at college. Then there is our National Anthem. In the last decade this has become a common way to display activism. At major sporting events players kneel or don’t even leave the locker room. At their opening match for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup the U.S. just stood quietly during the anthem. Nearly every other country had their players proudly singing. There is no doubt that our country has a lot of things we need to do better, but most of these players would not have had the same opportunities in most of the rest of the world. Don’t protest … make change. Does saying any of this make me an intolerant bigot? Hmmmm, I could go from being a hard working nobody to a canceled hard working nobody. I don’t believe I should treat anyone special because of their race or ethnicity. I have been told there is “systemic racism” in America, if that is true, I am not part of perpetuating it. Way back in Sunday school I learned I should treat everyone as I would like to be treated and that notion is color-blind. Wokeness is a problem and everyone knows it. It’s hard to talk to anybody today – and not risk being accused of being some flavor bigot, homophobic, transphobic, racist, or other category I did not know I could be put in. If we are regulating thought and speech, we will truly lose the foundation of being a free society. A May 2021 Pew poll showed that 57% of Americans believe that “people today are too easily offended by what others say” while just 40% agreed that “people should be careful what they say to avoid offending others.” But all things have their limit. The Silent Majority has been silent for a long time, but that seems to be changing. Whether using their wallet to choose the beer they buy or the store they shop at, money is a powerful tool. Even showing up at school board meetings implies that a limit of patience has been reached. Thinking and saying any of this does not me an intolerant bigot. Despite what some may think I am not worth the effort to cancel. When a friend read an early draft of this essay, he said I was coming out of the closet. What I am is a member of that club called the Silent Majority, and maybe I am coming out. I am tolerant of being pushed around a little, but I absolutely do not want to be told how to think. Just because you haven’t heard me doesn’t mean I don’t have a voice.
Comments (0) [Add Comment]
