Leave Us Alone

I have never been to a drag show. I never was interested in attending one, no one ever asked me, or coerced me, to attend one. And since it is not on my interest meter, I don’t know where or when they occur. I really do not care.

I also have never been to a monster truck rally, an opera, a professional soccer game, or Tulsa, Oklahoma. The reason is I just do not want to. I don’t care if you want to go, but please don’t invite me. I will not be going.

And, whether Amanda Gorman’s latest poem is my cup of tea, or not, I don’t mind if your nine-year-old wants to read it. And I am OK if your middle-schooler is interested in learning about what led our country to a civil war; in fact, I think kids should learn about as much as possible. But if you live in Florida, your kids may not have those options.

I am not gay, but I am not offended by someone who is, or if someone has the temerity to say the word “gay.” No one has tried to convert me.

I do not enjoy watching gay encounters on primetime television, but I can control that. I will not watch TV that is offensive to me, and that includes Big Brother, Bachelor, The View, and the myriad advertisements that promote so many things that I am embarrassed to watch with my grandkids.

I don’t need a politician to decide for me – I can avoid the things that I dislike. I can turn off the TV or flip the channel. I can avoid offensive events. I can provide guidance to my own kids to help them make their own informed decisions.

In today’s America, our so-called leaders are deciding what we should see, what we should do, and how we should act. And we are in a cycle where much of that decision process is dependent upon which party has 51 percent of control?

Why do they care so much about what you and I are doing? And why do they get to decide what is appropriate? It becomes a slippery slope when we allow one person, or one party, to determine what’s “correct” for another? Who gets to decide what we can say, how we play, or to whom we pray?

I am not promoting drag shows, or even Amanda Gorman’s poetry. I am advocating for letting people do what is “normal” for them, to read what they like, do what they enjoy, and to live the lifestyle they prefer, not the one Ron DeSantis or Joe Biden chooses for them.

In a country so consumed with “cancel culture,” we seem to keep canceling more things. When I get to choose, I would like to cancel smoking, tattoos, mustard, reality shows, garden gnomes, obscene political flags, earrings on men, leashes on kids, social media… I could go on.

It has been a long time since Mrs. Mac and I raised young kids, but if there were events or ideas that we did not want our kids exposed to, we parented. We didn’t ask our local politician to parent for us.

And when it came to education, we were involved, we were aware, and we communicated. We shared our ideas, but we allowed trained educators and experienced administrators to craft curricula that provided a complete education for our children. No one seemed eager to carve out areas of study that someone thought could make our high-schooler uncomfortable. After all, who isn’t uncomfortable in high school?

It seems ironic that we want to censor U.S. history in the classroom, but social-media bullying is basically unchecked, while becoming epidemic.

Mrs. Mac and I do not do Facebook. That’s our choice.

Curt MacRae, lives in Coldwater, MI / publishes rants on rant-able topics.at this site.

All published posts are tweeted (@curtmacrae) — comments to rantsbymac@gmail.com