Oh No! It’s Some Cotton!

A recent article has to be in the top examples of the everything-is-offensive culture.  In the Tennessean came this article:  “Lipscomb president apologizes for cotton stalk centerpieces”

According to Randy Lowry, Lipscomb president, “Last night we invited Lipscomb African American students to our home for dinner to discuss their experiences at Lipscomb. Several students shared with me their concern about the material used for centerpieces which contained stalks of cotton.”

Stalks of cotton are now offensive?  No doubt the thought is that cotton was a main crop in the days of the slave-holding south.  But if you are going to be offended by the existence of cotton - stalks, balls, take your pick of the cotton plant – then it might be time to admit that some people just want to find an excuse, no, a pretense, for “offense.”

To jump to everyone’s favorite, stupid example in some of these inane discussions, I notice that every swastika I have ever seen has many right angles.  Should we now expect anyone with any hint of Jewish ancestry to be offended by right angles?

It is time to stop the idiotic cowering every time someone claims to be “offended.”  It is one thing when people actually attempt to be offensive.  It is quite something else when people scrounge, scrape, and dig up something at which they can make the pretense of offense.

If Randy Lowry had any guts or the hint of a backbone (metaphorically speaking, of course) he would politely tell these students, “I am sorry you are so easily offended by something that should not be offensive to any sensible person.  I am also sorry to say that if you lack the sense not to be offended by a cotton centerpiece, you might not be ready for college.  In fact, you might not be ready to function in the world at all.”

Someday sensible people are going to grow weary of this idiocy.  We can only hope that when that time comes, there are enough sensible people left to make a difference.

I hope that someday, at least in the not-too-distant future, the kind of idiocy we are now enduring will come to an end.  But my hope is very slim.