If you don't like mushrooms, you probably don't order them as a side dish in a restaurant or seek them out in the grocery store produce aisle. And despite a staunch dislike of the vegetable, you likely don't throw your hands into the air with disdain any time someone you see is eating one.
So why do people get so bent out of shape when it comes to other personal tastes? Drag queens, for example.
Jumping from mushrooms to drag queen performances is a large leap in subject matter... but not in context. An event in a Lakeland community last weekend featuring a bilingual drag queen generated some big attention in the days leading up to the show when a few members of the public decided they didn't like the sound of it.
How will it affect the children? Why does it have to be seen in our nice, little community? How can this be happening? Those comments — and worse — were typed onto socia media pages relating to the show. Dozens of ill-informed Chicken-little comments were splashed out by local and non-local residents who felt the performance was something that should not happen.
So don't go.
It should be that simple. Don't go. If you don't like it, why should it matter to you that others might not feel the same way? And even more so — why jump on a soap-box to scream about it? Sure, free speech and freedom of opinion is enshrined in our Constitution, so yes — we are free to say and feel what we want... but just because we are free to do it, that doesn't mean we have to tell everyone.
The freedom to express yourself — whether by angry Facebook rants hidden behind a computer screen or by putting on a wig, sequins and high-heel boots to walk across a spot-lit stage — is a precious gift. It's just unfortunate that all too often those freedoms polarize communities and nations. It's great to have differing opinions, that's what makes this country and its inhabitants great and dynamic — but when freedoms over-step human decency and human choice, it's no longer freedom.
When it comes to the freedom to express opinions, some things must be addressed to bring issues to light. But, like the mushrooms referenced to start this piece, not everything grows in the light. Being a free society is important, but it's just as important to be an intelligent society, realizing the freedom we have to keep some opinions to ourselves.
