Is anyone else as confused as I am about society’s general values and mores?
On the same day (that is to say, today) I heard an interview of Jason Collins, the NBA player who announced he’s gay, by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. Stephanopoulos’ tone during this interview was one I would imagine myself using if I was interviewing a blind man who had just come down from a solo ascent of Mt. Everest. I would call Stephanopoulos’ tone pretty close to reverence.
Fast forward an hour or two and I see that someone has formally complained to a Michigan school district that The Diary of Anne Frank is “pornographic.” The complaint is being made by the mother of a 7th grader whose daughter is uncomfortable reading – in an unedited version of the Diary – about Frank’s, well, frank descriptions of puberty.
Which is it going to be? Make up your minds! On the one hand, people seem to be heartily and publicly and very vocally embracing conduct, language, movies, television shows, etc. that would have been utterly scandalous just a very short few years ago. And then in the next breath, they’re mightily offended by something that by comparison is really insignificant and inconsequential.
I don’t get it. I really don’t.
