so i think we as a society get offended too easily. i think its a little out of control. people that aren't even offended just say they are because its the 'in' thing or they think they are supposed to be offended so they pretend they are. i know this isnt always the case, but people cant be offended nearly as often as they say they are, right?
so the other night the angels won their division and clinched a playoff birth. we were actually fortunate enough to go to the game. it was pretty awesome to see it. anyways, after the game, in typical pro-sports fashion, the angels celebrated by dumping champagne and beer on each other in the locker room. a little premature since they are going to lose to the red sox in a couple weeks anyways. but why not enjoy the moment right?
anyways, i think most people remember that earlier this season, one of the angel players, nick adenhart was killed by a drunk driver after a game. he was a promising young prospect and he had actually pitched a solid outing the night he died. really tragic. well, during the celebration, some of the angel players grabbed nick's jersey and held it as they celebrated. later on in the evening, the team even went out to the outfield wall to touch the memorial that was set up for him. but i guess the celebration has caused some heated discussion around these parts. some people think its wrong and are offended by the celebration because the players were dumping champagne and other alcoholic beverages on the jersey of the player that was killed by a drunk driver.
so i have some thoughts on people that are even offended by it. lame. go home.
second. i have to agree with jim rome on the subject of people being offended. he was talking about this story and mentioned that you cant tell someone that they arent offended or that something isnt offensive (even though i just did, but its justified later). and i do more or less agree with that statement. if you think something is offensive but i dont, doesnt mean that it isnt offensive or that you cant be offended by it. he used the example of the washington redskins. their mascot has been a topic of controversy and discussion for a long time. many people, most of them native americans, are offended by the mascot. other people say that its not offensive and that its just part of the history and part of the team. i have a problem with using the argument that its not offensive. it just doesnt work. you can say its part of the history, but you cant say its not offensive because it clearly is to some people.
so im fine with people being offended and i feel that you cant say to someone that something is or isnt offensive to them. but i also feel that people have to have 'standing' to be offended. in law, someone has to have standing to bring their case to court. basically, if someone wants to challenge a law, they have to prove that they are the ones being injured by the law and thus should be the ones to challenge it. no need to dive too much into legal stuff, but i sort of feel like it should be the same way with people being offended. you have to have some grounds to be offended. i realize this isnt always the case. if you are standing around with a bunch of white people and someone uses a derogatory word to describe an an african american, just because no one in the circle is african american doesnt mean they cant be offended by the language.
but take this incident with the angels celebration. who is offended and upset by this? is it nick adenhart's parents or family? if so, great. be offended. its your son and his tragic accident that they are supposedly mocking or treading lightly. i think you are completely misinterpreting the situation, but whatever, you CAN be offended. everyone else, quit being offended just because you think you should be. it doesnt concern or affect you, you just want to stir the pot and cause some controversy and discussion.
im probably taking this too far, but i do think that all of the speculation about being offended has just left us as a society in a bad situation. no one knows what to say or how to act sometimes and a lot of it is due to people that have no reason or standing to be offended, acting like they are offended by someone's words or actions. people that should be offended probably arent, but we assume they are because some loser assumed he should be offended and so he acted like it. thus, everyone is as confused as they are reading that last sentence and paragraph.
this is going on too long. not sure if anyone is even still reading. i just had to put in my two cents.
briefly, on the angel's playoff hopes: there are none. im as big a fan as most, but i see no reason why this year will be any different than any other year. we can win, but if we lose one of the first two games at home to the red sox we wont win the series. we are incapable of winning at fenway in the postseason. its a fact. red sox are banged up, but they do have better starting pitching than we do. however, our hitting is better than before. something that could decide the series: jason varitek. he's old and teams are stealing bases on him like crazy. he cant throw anyone out for the life of him. if we get on base, you know we are running all series long.
still though, i hate to be negative, but they have better starting pitching, which always wins in the postseason. they have the postseason experience. they dont have the mindset like we do. they have papelbon, we have fuentes. i hate papelbon more than any other player but id rather have him in the 9th over fuentes. in the last four times we have faced them in the post season we have won 1 game, they have won 12. i hope they win. i cant stand the sox. i hope they prove me wrong that this season isnt like all the others. seeing is believing.
2 comments:
I'm offended. I'm offended at how little faith you have in the Angels organization. Have the last several years been hard losing to the Red Sox each time? Of course they have, but we're nowhere near the level of past Red Sox fans or Cubs fans where they have decades of coming up short behind them. We still have our own memories of 2002 and how awesome and improbable that was.
The thing is, you just never know what's going to happen in the playoffs. You never know. The Yankees are highly favored to win their series, but when has that NOT been the case, and when was the last time they won the world series? Not even this deacde, right?
A 5-game series can go any which way. There's just no telling what can happen. I am more comfortable with our starting rotation than I've ever been, and that includes 2002. Our offense is more productive than it's ever been, and the way they've been playing the last few days, I think it's all coming at just the right time. Our bullpen...well our bullpen is very questionable, but you just never know.
And beyond that, the Red Sox look more vulnerable than they have since 2004 when they started kicking the crap out of us, although Victor Martinez was a HUGE pickup for them. In any case, they're still leaning on guys like the always-creaky JD Drew and Mike Lowell, and David Ortiz is much better now than at the beginning of the year, but he's definitely not the same player he used to be.
With all of that said, we have 7 guys with more than 10 home runs, the highest team batting average in all of baseball, and everyone is as healthy as they have been at any point in the season.
None of this means we're in any kind of position to be boastful, but we can at least be hopeful.
With regards to the other stuff, you make a valid point. If it doesn't directly concern you, then why bother wasting your energy letting yourself getting upset? As a society we are overly sensitized to the wrong things, i.e. taking offense when none was intended in the first place.
A lot of words there. But well said.
ps -- I read somewhere that the underlying theme in The Invention of Lying is religion. Mr. Gervais said something like, he doesn't mean to offend anyone's beliefs with the movie and that he doesn't mean to offend God but he thinks he has a pretty thick skin. Is that why you love his comedy so much? He just goes and offends everyone?
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