jane_and.the_dragon

The first amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” I get so tired of people trying to dictate their point of view to others, especially when the person they are picking on was just exercising their right to free speech. Everyone has an opinion and it does not matter if someone else likes your opinion or not, you have the right to say it. Providing that is all you do say what you think. Words are just words, and they only have as much power as people allow them to have.
If someone say something to me or puts up a sign I do not like , I just shake my head and think to myself, I do not need to do anything about that karma will handle it if it is bad. The only thing you achieve by confronting someone about something they say or about a sign they put up is drawing more attention to what they say. If you ignore things you do not like that others say or put on a sign you take the power away from the statement.
Evelyn Beatrice Hall in 1906, said it best with the statement ( I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. )
I do not know what has happened to our first amendment rights. Now a days people have the opinion that only what they say matters and anyone else's ideas should be shut up one way or another. It is like I told my sister one time when her daughters got into an argument and one of them hit the other one and drew blood. My sister tried to justify the actions of the one that caused the damage by saying the other one picks and does not shut up. I said did she hit her sister FIRST she said, no. I told her then it does not matter a bit what her sister SAID to her, it did not justify her hitting her sister and drawing blood.
People ESPECIALLY grown ups need to remember words can only hurt you if you allow them to. We have the ability to disregard any mean thing someone else says, as long as they only use their words.
Sorry I am a bit wound up myself by something I saw on yahoo. A shop keeper had a rather harsh sign in his store about transsexuals where he pointed out if they were born a man and they still have the part (a paraphrase) that makes them a man they are not a woman. I totally agree IF you think you were born wrong and you are a man that always thought he was a woman fine HAVE THE OPERATION to make it real. Once you have the sex change I will agree you are a woman, but like the store owner pointed out, you may IDENTIFY as a woman BUT if you still have the male sex organ you are NOT a woman yet. If you are a guy and you want to be a girl HAVE THE OPERATION or do not call yourself a woman.
I had a cousin who was a gay transvestite, and he even preformed as a woman. That was back in the late 1970's to early 1980's and he NEVER claimed he was a woman he was a man that wore woman's clothing. This thing of using the word TRANS to cover it all is silly.