I’m told there’s a game on

It’s Sunday evening and unless things have gone terribly wrong, there’s a well-attended football game going on. I’m not in front of my television and am unlikely to see any of the commercials or game. I have nothing against the game itself, but earlier when I was trying to decide why I’m not going to watch, my wife suggested that I have a great deal against the hype. She’s right. I’m likely to avoid the books on the best-seller list, I rarely go to the movies and almost never watch the award winners until years later, and I stop listening to most music when the musicians become popular.

It must be left over Holden Caulfield from eleventh grade.

There’s a certain cachet to not watching, but there’s also something probably more important. For the next few hours, most of America will be watching their televisions and eating. I’m going to be doing something else. I could use the break from the tv.

Let me know who wins. On second thought, I don’t think I could care any less, so go on without me.

Why’s the Outrage?

Perhaps I should learn to be more offended.

Today, people furious over cartoons of Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper decided that their only recourse was to burn the Danish consulate in Beirut. Religious conservatives in the United States were outraged earlier this week when a rapper appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone wearing a thorny crown and portraying himself as Jesus. And in there is uproar, also in the US, over a political cartoon in which Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stands over an amputated US veteran from Iraq and calls him “battle hardened.”

It would seem that there is enough out there to get me to feel some outrage. But I’ve looked at the Danish cartoons, seen the cover of Rolling Stone, and seen the political cartoon and can’t muster much feeling about them aside from a wry smile at the cartoon of Rumsfeld.

Is there something wrong with me? Perhaps.

Then again, maybe my outrage is directed elsewhere. Maybe I’m just enjoying listening to The Wallflowers so much that I don’t give a damn about these other things. Or maybe they don’t deserve the outrage they are receiving.

The outrage over the Danish cartoons should be a warning to all of us. There is a fear of free speech in large parts of the Muslim world. Freedom of speech will tear these ideologies to pieces. Funny thing is that there seems to be a similar fear of this freedom within our own country.

The venom pointed at the cover of Rolling Stone has less to do with blasphemy and reverance than with a black man whose art is often connected with violence and rebellion. Jesus, I think most of them would say, deserves better than to be portrayed by such a man. And here I thought God created man, all men and all women, in his image.

As for the editorial cartoon, it has become sac religious to refer to anyone in our armed forces as anything less than saintly. To show that men and women are coming back from Iraq in pieces is an affront to the ways in which we want to look at this war. To show one of the engineers of the Iraq situation glossing over the losses might be accurate, but it’s not what we are supposed to be thinking of.

Perhaps I should be more offended, but I’m not offended at all. I’m hardly touched by these things any more. I worry about the common bond shared by so many of the people who are offended and that’s a firm dedication to closing their minds. The consulate will be rebuilt, rappers will continue to sing, and soldiers will continue to come home in pieces. I’m going to think very carefully about when and why I should be offended and outraged.