Keven:
As much as it might offend you, supremewhirlpol is within his rights to be creeped out by anything that creeps him out. He is also within his rights to say that he's creeped out. Neither you nor I nor anyone else has any right to go through life un-offended, no matter how many people today seem to think they do. <br
Part of living in a free, diverse and pluralistic society is that some of its members will be at cross purposes from time to time. That's unavoidable. What is avoidable is getting one's knickers in a twist over it. You want to kiss another guy, that's none of anyone else's business, so long as the other guy is willing. If others want to be creeped out over it, that's none of yours, so long as they don't do anything that causes you physical harm. <br
Do I like seeing the sentiment that supremewhirlpol posted? No. But in the absence of any constraints on what one may post here - a situation from which you yourself benefit enormously, I must say - I defend the man's right to say it. <br
I don't usually look to movies as a source of genuine wisdom, but some years ago, Michael Douglas made a film called The American President, in which he played a POTUS speaking out against the narrow-mindedness of a political opponent. I think that fictional President's words sum up what this nation is all about better than most real Presidents' have ever done, and I think they're germane here <br
" America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms <br
Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free."