To Spaz or Not to Spaz…

I have a “child with special needs”, and I’m sad. Not because I have a “child with special needs”, but because I don’t know what to call him.

I just read this article about Tiger Woods referring to himself and his playing on a particular day and using the word “spaz”. The article goes on to tell about how many people are up in arms about it. It also referenced a survey that lists a bunch of other words for this sort of condition that people find offensive.

I think it’s time to invoke the Mo’Boy Doctrine again. I mean, c’mon people, let’s get a life, here.

What frustrates me most about who can use what word, and who gets offended by which word is that I realize that underneath it all, the words don’t matter. What matters is that we want to insult each other. No matter how many words we put on “the evil list” we will continue to create or adapt others to be offensive, we will continue to find more offensive words, because people are still trying to be offensive.

Think of it. If kids like mine hadn’t grown up being insulted on the playground, then when Tiger said he felt he was playing like a “spaz”, no one would have batted an eye. If no-one wanted to insult an African-american, then the word “nigger” would be just as meaningless. No matter who said it, or to whom.

The bottom line? We need to be nicer to each other. We need to not insult each other. We need to not get offended as much. We need to not worry about picky little rules of words, when words really aren’t the issue.


MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com