I’m Offended!

Oooooh, doggie! My Facebook news feed was on fire last night regarding a sign in front of a bar in Las Vegas. The sign read, “The Broncos Couldn’t Beat the Kids From St. Jude’s.” Now, I appreciate some adolescent humor from time to time, but I’m more of a fan of the self-deprecating type. Don’t make fun of others. Unless it’s behind their backs, right? NEVER on a public billboard for crying out loud. I’m just kidding. As a “cancer mom” I am offended by this sign, because my son is much stronger than the turds who came up with this “brilliant” message. I told the establishment what I thought of their poor taste in the following “review” on their Facebook page:

“I told my 12-year-old son about this sign, since this type of humor is clearly geared towards middle school aged children. However, this particular 12-year-old boy has been battling Neuroblastoma for the past 10 years. Now, at 53 lbs, I’m sure he couldn’t really challenge anyone to anything physically taxing because cancer has ravaged his body for a decade. But, as a human being? He has more class in the massive tumor they removed from his abdomen than you have in the whole lot of you. There’s a little thing called “compassion.” Maybe you should get some.”

BURN! Right? I thought it was a pretty good retort.

The odds are, however, that they don’t give a crap. This sign brought them a lot of attention and, as I have heard before, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. I’m sure they won’t feel the need to attend compassion classes or change their views. Yes. Cancer kids are physically weak. You stated the obvious, genius. Now, I’ve stated my view. I let them know I thought their comment was heartless. But I cannot change their minds, nor will I waste any more of my precious time yelling at them. Moving on….

Interestingly enough, ALL the news I get is directly from Facebook. I no longer consult the news for anything. Weather? I know what it’s like all across the Nation AND how everyone feels about it. News? Anyone important who has died will show up on my news feed. TV shows? When someone posts “NOOOOOOO!” followed by “Watching Downton Abbey,” I know some serious baloney went on before I even watch it (do they FORGET I’m in a different time zone? It’s not on here yet!) Or, should I invite Rhonda to go out to lunch with me? No. I know she’s in Portland on business. (She’ll be humored by this… I’ve never asked her to lunch, but now that she’s back from Portland, well, I guess I have to ask her out to lunch now! How’s next Tuesday, Rhonda?)

So, I didn’t even know about the Coke ad until I opened up my news feed. I didn’t watch the Super Bowl because I’m not a football fan. Oh yeah, and I was at the ER with my son right before it started. Kinda had other stuff going on.

“OMG… ENGLISH, people! I’ll never drink Coke again because “America the Beautiful” is to be sung in ENGLISH!” So, based on the commentary on FB, I watched the commercial. Now, I hate Coke because of how it tastes. I’m a Pepsi product fan, namely Mtn Dew. NOTE: This is NOT a continuation of my Colorado Avalanche obsession, I would love my AVS regardless of if they played at the Pepsi Center or the AstraZeneca Prilosec Arena. (Cancer moms, AstraZeneca also makes EMLA. I would have used that reference instead of Prilosec, but nobody would have gotten it but us. I’m thinking about ya, though!) Anyway, back to the ad. I watched it. I thought it was nice. Now, I know there will be backlash, because an alarming amount of my FB friends were bothered by it. I have a feeling, however, that the Facebook friends who were offended by the commercial are not the same audience who are reading my blog. But for those who DO read my blog and DIDN’T like that commercial, bear with me.

I tried to figure out how it was threatening. Yes, they were singing about America in languages other than English. But, no matter WHAT the language was, it was stating that AMERICA IS BEAUTIFUL! That’s the song they were singing! Not, I hate America and I’m gonna blow it up while you’re watching the Super Bowl. Now, I’m sure there ARE some people out there singing a song like that and even making PLANS to do so! But this wasn’t it, friends. We ARE a melting pot. We ARE a country made up of many other Nationalities. Over the years, my gene pool has incorporated MANY Nationalities, including Native American, Welsh, and Irish, just to name a few. I’m a mutt despite looking 100% Irish (yet claiming to be a Viking.) But, I truly consider myself to be an AMERICAN. And if I moved to another country, I would do my best to assimilate… learn the language and respect the cultures but hold true to who I am at heart, which is an American. I KNOW there are an alarming amount of people here in America who do not learn the standard English and choose to hold true to their own customs. My neighbor is one of them. Her English is extremely limited. But here’s what I appreciate about my neighbor: she saw my bald son when he relapsed. Her reaction was “Oh. Ohhhh. Ohhh. So sorry. Poor baby.” Compassion is universal. And then, when Justin died, I was standing outside with my dogs and crying. (I can multitask.) She came out with her dog, Mandy. Now, Yoshi and Mandy have a “thing” going on, so as they were cavorting, she noticed I was crying. She came over and hugged me hard. She said, “I’m your friend. I’m your friend.” Now, that sentence alone proved that she knew more English than I know Spanish, and I think that I’m really missing out on something special there. I don’t give a crap what language she speaks, from what she’s shown me, she has more compassion in her heart than people who are pissed off about others thinking America is Beautiful in their Native language.

Also, I have to state here, that the German band “The Scorpions” do not speak a word of English. All of their songs are translated into English. They compromised their Native tongue for US, people! How many sacrifices are we expecting our International friends to make just to make our narrow minds happy? (BTW, this remark is meant to be a funny side note… I seriously don’t want to offend ANYONE!)

The point I’m trying to make is that there is ALWAYS going to be SOMETHING that offends SOMEONE. My hot button is Childhood Cancer. I know there are many other folks who could give a flying crap about Childhood Cancer, including the American Cancer Society and the NIH. But that’s my passion. Others are passionate about Animal Cruelty. Veteran’s Affairs. Human Rights. The Second Amendment. Legalized Marijuana. Religion. Politics. The list is never-ending. But what we’re forgetting is that there has to be an element of RESPECT for others. Yes, there are so many out there who don’t respect us, but shouldn’t we be the bigger person instead of sinking to their level? WWJD, folks?

So, while many of my conservative friends are going to holler about my being Un-American, I’ll have to disagree. I’m an American. A proud one at that. I agree that there are bad people out there who DO threaten our freedom, but Coke isn’t the issue. After all, they just wanted to teach the “world to sing” back in the 70’s – and with this ad, I believe they accomplished their goal.