Outrage

Soon after placing yesterday's post, I noted that a large amount of outrage had been registered from all segments of our society and that Kathy Griffin had apologized for "going too far".  So I go back to Judeo-Christianity ........ two wrongs don't make a right.  This is, of course, true.  Look at the middle east.  6,000 years of:

- you did this to me, so I'm going to do this to you;
- oh but you did it first, so now I'm going to do it back to you again
- now I'm doing it to you again, slap back no tag backs

And on and on.  The story is as old as humanity.  In our country, the Hatfields and the McCoys.  I don't know about other cultures, but I suspect they have the same story.

I am not suggesting that Kathy Griffin's photo, that was released yesterday, is not a disturbing image; it is.  It fits into the human condition of responding to egregious behavior with similar behavior.  In this case, it is no more harmful than other behaviors I will list below.  In fact, some of what I will refer to will be more disturbing, and yet the level of outrage from some segments of our society will be almost non-existent when compared to what I have seen  in relation to Griffin's photo.   So, here we go.

“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever,”

We all recognize this comment and we all know who made it. And yet this person has not experienced a reaction that ruined his career.  All Kathy Griffin did was give us a visual representation of part of what trump said.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016:

"Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment.   By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks.  Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know."

Again, we all know who said this.  This is no less disturbing to me than the image that Kathy Griffin posted.  In fact, to me it was more disturbing.  To me it was a direct incitement to shoot someone.  The fact that it was Hillary Clinton does not make the comment any more or less disturbing.  I don't  know, maybe trump was doing a 'stand up routine'.  Maybe he's a comedian.  And yet ........ there was not enough outrage to prevent him from becoming the head admin of our country.  If my memory serves me well, there was backlash regarding this comment, but I don't remember a lot and I seem to recall that some segments of our society didn't seem have an issue with this comment.

October 8, 2016, one month prior to the election, again,  this "locker room talk" needs no introduction:

"I'm automatically attracted to beautiful [women]—I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything ... Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."

I don't see this as any less egregious than Kathy's photo.  It's easy enough to build the image in your mind of trump walking up to a woman and grabbing her pussy (and I don't mean her cat, I mean the same part of a woman's body that he did). 

May 26, 2017, I don't hear any large amount of outrage here.  Jeremy Joseph Christian did not allegedly stab three men, killing two, he just plain old did it.  You can throw the word 'allegedly right out the window.  Don't tell me you can't judge a book by its cover, see the photo of Christian below.  The men that were killed, spoke up to Christian on a train while he verbally abused two teenage girls who were Muslim, one wearing a head scarf.  I'm not hearing nearly the amount of outrage about this.  I hope no one is going to tell me that what Kathy Griffin did as a comedian warrants more outrage than this.

This morning eighty people were killed and over 300 injured in Kabul, Afghanistan.  I have not taken a read on world response yet, but I'm willing to bet that many of those that found Griffin's photo offensive will have nothing to say about this attack.  By the way, I am in no way saying that the lives of the victims in Manchester or Kabul are more or less valued than the other city's lost lives.  And because I see all lives as valuable as any life, then why will I not see the same level of outrage regarding a much larger bombing in Kabul than in Manchester.  You know, I hope I'm wrong, but I don't expect to be.

So .......... I will not be recanting my support for the photo Griffin posted.  I think it's funny.  As I explained yesterday, I have been bullied way too many times in my life to have anyone dictate to me what I find funny, just as i will not dictate to anyone what they find not funny.  

I will say a few things in closing.  He who is without sin, cast the first stone.  And like so many of those that are outraged by Griffin's behavior, but show no outrage regarding any of the incidents mentioned above like to say, 'get over yourselves and move on'!