On the offender rest the obligations of politeness, restraint and decency.

For the offended, traits like confidence, optimism and general goodness will help a lot.

But the offender, if indeed he offends, is violating no right.

And the offended have no right not to be.

I am obligated to be kind, not by law but by humanity. I am obligated too, by that same humanity, to be charitable to him who offends ME. To forgive him, excuse him if possible, and generally to get over it and move along.

To be fixated on an offense given to me was regarded, for most of my life, as being a wimp and a pansy… a child when adulthood was called for. I was told to suck it up and be a man when someone insulted me. I was told that if I let my feelings get hurt, then I was giving others power over me that they didn’t have to have.

I was taught, as were generations before me, that my feelings were my responsibility, and nobody would give a crap about a pathetic, whiny child… but that people would respect a strong and confident person who let insults roll off his back out of a general positivity.

When did we as a nation become the pathetic whiny child my dad told me not to be when I was ten? Why is giving offense now legally punishable?

Don’t they know that is the end of all real conversation?

I think they do.