Leave personal attacks out of disagreements

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.

Not true!

The names that we call people and the words that we use can be hurtful and devastating. Words can leave a very negative impact when used improperly, especially in this day and age of 24-hour news, YouTube, internet blogs, Twitter, and the like.

I refer, of course, to the recent comments made by conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. He was wrong on so many levels with his comments about Sandra Fluke. It was both disgusting and disturbing to hear what he said, and I feel he deserved every ounce of the firestorm that was created by those comments.

I am not sure why he chose the words he did, even if he meant them in a funny or mocking way.

But then again, that is the world we seem to live in these days. If you do not agree with someone or their views, you do not only denounce them as wrong, you set out to destroy them in any way possible, including personally. I mean, people with opposing viewpoints need to be silenced, right?

Rush has since apologized, a few times at that. But the issue will not go away. Why? Because those who were offended by his comments or have a political agenda are now out to destroy him. Again, just the way we roll these days as a country. Had he not apologized, the same thing would have happened.

Free speech? Only if I am not offended by it or agree with it. Interesting values we have.

I am in no way supporting his out-of-line comments, now or ever. At the same time, we all contribute to the hate when we say it is okay for this side to say it, but not the other. What’s wrong is wrong in my book, regardless of who is saying it.

Sadly, most of these comments are driven and fueled by politics and the media. The left seems to be able to degrade conservative women in the same way Rush did with Fluke, and that is acceptable. But the minute the right does it, a national disaster is declared. I guess I do not see why it is acceptable for one group and not the other, when neither side should get a pass on this issue.

Radio talk show host Thaddeus Mitchell degraded a black congressional candidate, Charlotte Bergmann, who happens to be a Republican, on his show, for which she was a guest. In addition to calling her a sell-out and a token Negro, he refused to shake her hand when she left during his tirade, saying that he didn’t want her “whiteness to rub off on him.” Do you remember hearing about this on the news? Chances are you didn’t because the media did not cover this all that much. Now, if Rush had acted this way, you can bet it would be all over the news.

Aren’t we beyond this kind of nonsense? By now, people should know better what is acceptable and what isn’t.

Comedian Bill Maher has long attacked anyone he does not agree with, but mainly women on the right. Maher has called Sarah Palin some pretty harsh words, words that I feel are equally disturbing to what Rush said. I get it, Maher doesn’t like Palin. I am not a fan of her, either, but I don’t think that gives me the right to tear her apart as a human being in that way. You see, it is fine for Maher to degrade women because he is a master of comedy (really?), he is an outspoken liberal, and that little thing we call free speech.

And to top that, he recently wrote a check for one million dollars to the Obama Super Pac for his reelection campaign, which they gladly accepted. This is funny considering how the President reacted to this recent situation regarding the treatment of women and relating it to his own daughters.

Maher actually tweeted that, while he hated to defend Rush, Rush had apologized, and the liberals looked bad by not accepting it. But you can’t fight the fight if you accept someone’s apology. You can’t make it a campaign issue if you let it go and move on. Maher never apologized for his comments about women, mind you.

To me, this kind of behavior is what fuels the anger and hatred that so many have for each other. It seems to me that the politicians, media, and everyone for that matter, need to look a little deeper within themselves and how they act and what they say before they criticize others.

Disagree with me all you want, but leave the hurtful personal attacks out of it. They are not needed. If you can’t defend your feelings or beliefs without throwing out personal attacks, you probably need to find something else to do with your time.