Freedom is Not Free
That expression really cuts to the heart of everything this country stands for.
Monday was Memorial Day and I think it really is lost on everyone under a certain age what it actually commemorates. Do they they even teach Civics in schools anymore? Not sure.
As most of us know, Memorial Day is not really a celebration. It is a day for all Americans to give thanks for the men and women who gave their lives to protect the freedoms we take advantage of.
As the son of a World War II veteran. I have always been very proud of my father’s service to this country. He came back, 407,000 men and women didn’t. The Korean war, there were over 36,000 deaths. Vietnam, 58,220. Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Somalia, Iran, etc over 12,400.
The men and women that died in service to this country should never be forgotten and there should always be part of every students curriculum as to why Memorial Day exists.
Maybe if the younger generation learned and had respect for the sacrifices that were made for them, they would have a greater respect for this country and not try and trash it every chance they got.
Which brings me to the backlash that companies are feeling from trying to push a minority agenda on people who actually could care less about the agenda being pushed.
Target, Anhueser-Busch, Disney are all feeling some heat for attempting to draw in a more progressive approach to marketing and sales.
My own opinion aside, I think it’s pretty obvious to corporate America what the vast majority of the working population feels about forcing a certain agenda down their throats. It will go down as one of the largest miscalculations in corporate history and probably will end up as the perfect model for business schools around the World. How not to screw up a perfectly fine relationship with all your valued customers.
The more articles I read, the more it is apparent that people are not anti-transgender, they are just tired of companies acquiescing to a very vocal minority and trying to force their agenda on people who really could care less.
Live and let live, I say. You want to dance around like a total idiot like Dylan Mulroney, God Bless You. That is your choice. It doesn’t impact my life one iota. Do I think that Budweiser blew it? Yes, 100%. Dylan Mulroney advertising Tampons? You want to follow that marketing gambit? You are the idiot.
Using some wannabe to advertise your products is always a huge risk but when you bring in someone who really, truly has no affiliation with that product in any sense of the word. That is just plain dumb.
Like I said, it doesn’t matter to me at all but I bring it up only because of the lessons that are being learned. Market to the people that will buy your product. There are what, 100,000 truly transgender people in this country. Seems like a very narrow sector of the economy.
Advertising products or poor product placement in a store really has no bearing on most people. Pretty sure most people ignore the drivel and move on with their lives. However, I think there are bigger issues to be dealt with as far as transgender people and society as a whole.
Now for my humble opinion.
The first thing is in sports. Personally, I don’t think it’s fair for a trans male to compete in any women’s sports. Title IX was one of the toughest pieces of legislation to be passed in the last 50 years. Having transgender boys/men compete in female sports blows it all to Hell. I really do not care if that male transperson has completed the whole process, they should not be allowed to compete in any woman’s sport. I am open minded about a lot of things, this is not one of them.
Second. Allowing children to begin the process of transitioning from one sex to the other should be seriously looked at and we as a society have to come up with some sort of guidelines. A 14 year old who feels he is a girl in a boys body should not be allowed to start any kind of chemical or physical transitioning. A 14 year old can’t decide what shorts to wear to school each day and you are going to allow him to decide something so drastic as changing his sex? Come on now, thats even dumber than having Dylan Mulroney advertise Tampons. I may be wrong but I would think that any parent would want their child to talk to someone other than family members and see how genuine this desire is.
Bruce Jenner struggling for years I understand, a 14 year old boy I do not.
Third. While this can be argued I don’t think that a transgender woman should be allowed to receive a Woman of the Year award for anything. Is it more important to make some sort of statement for a very small minority than to actually acknowledge the success of a biological female. Time Magazine may put a person of the year on the cover of it’s annual issue and that person may be transgender but what about all of the men and women that have achieved incredible things that won’t have a shot?
To appease the three liberals that read my Substack columns let me just say this:
I think people when they get to a certain age can do what they want with their bodies. If you are not harming anyone else go for it.
I do think that children should be afforded some protections from ideologies that they can’t fully comprehend. That goes from sexual orientation to political orientation. There are things that should be taught at home and things that schools should be responsible for. Crossing lines doesn’t work all that well. Deciding on the ages where things can be crossed over is a discussion that should be had.
One last note: Because people have fairly strong opinions about the transgender community does not mean that those feelings consistently incite violence against that community. The enmity directed at that community is because of what I stated before, the community is shoving their beliefs down the throats of average Americans who really could care less. Keep pushing to gain acceptance and all you do is build animosity.