I’ve often thought that there are people in this world who spend their days walking around just looking for something to get offended about. An article in the November 17, 2006 edition of USA Today has confirmed that notion. The most inoffensive and natural act a person can perform, that of a mother nursing her baby, caused a young family to be removed from a Delta Airlines (operated by Freedom Airlines) flight back on October Thirteenth. Why? Because a flight attendant found it offensive.
Emily Gillette had just begun feeding the child while awaiting takeoff. According to her own account of the incident, she was using her free hand to hold her shirt over her breast. She had a window seat and her husband was sitting next to her in the aisle seat. They were seated near the rear of the aircraft. Offensive? Hardly.
Nevertheless, a flight attendant insisted that Mrs. Gillette cover herself with a blanket. When she refused, the entire family was booted from the plane.
The incident took place in Vermont, and Mrs. Gillette has filed a complaint through the Vermont Human Rights Commission. Vermont state law protects a woman’s right to breast feed in any place “of public accommodation.” A group of parents and children have staged a “nurse in” at the Burlington International Airport in support of the Gillette family.
Let’s put this in perspective. There are some activities that simply should not be done in public places. Some activities are socially acceptable depending upon where you are at the time. And in some cases it’s a matter of context. A woman whose breast is partially-exposed during nursing is not the same as a drunken stripper who “loses” her top in an IHOP at three in the morning.
A commercial airliner is in essence a bus with wings. Breastfeeding in an airliner does not equate to mooning Luciano Pavarotti in a fine opera house (now there’s an idea). For the life of me, I cannot fathom how the flight attendant’s life might be adversely affected by a young woman feeding her child. Some people are uncomfortable around a nursing mom, but rarely does anyone make a fuss about it. I for one am sick and tired of reading every day about self-important people getting offended over the most trivial of matters. Life would be so much simpler for all of us if we’d just live our own lives and stop meddling in the lives of others. Emily Gillette was absolutely correct to file a complaint.
Think about it. We’ve got people out there in the world who are offended by Christmas decorations, religious symbols, music, literature, movies, free speech (if they don’t agree with the speaker) and even the act of eating meat. What are we supposed to do? Should we just stay at home, keep our mouths (and shirts) closed and read books about how to be more sensitive to others?
And now an arrogant flight attendant has chosen to be offended by the simple act of a mother feeding her child in the most natural and healthy way. What’s next? Seriously folks – we’re reaching a point in which just about anything we do or say runs the risk of offending someone else.
The only people in this scenario who have the right to be offended are the Gillettes. Frankly, I hope they (groan) milk the airlines for all they’re worth.
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It had to happen sooner or later. The Left has fought for twelve years to get back into power. With a slim majority in the Senate, a larger majority in the House and an unpopular lame duck Republican president, they have accomplished that goal.
Our government has grown at an alarming rate. I’m not talking about necessary expenditures for Homeland Security or the War on Terror. George W. Bush and the Republican Congress have placed a gigantic fiscal burden on our future with out-of-control social spending and pork barrel projects. As I recall, that was not a part of the Contract With America.
Need I even mention how badly Bush and Company has bungled Iraq? In truth, the Iraq situation is nowhere nearly as bad as Bush’s dishonest critics have claimed. But it’s still a mess, and questions will always remain regarding those infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction. Bush’s biggest mistake in this matter was his failure to take into account the stream of foreign terrorists that has continued to delay the completion of operations in that country. Mission Accomplished? Yeah, right George. 
If the same old bunch of wishy-washy “big tent” compromisers inhabit the GOP in 2008, we’ll get two more years of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid being in power. That fact alone should be sufficient to scare the RNC back to its senses.
Parts of Iraq are showing signs of becoming calm. The Baghdad area is still a war zone, but that may change with time. The question is, what will Iraq be like once the dust has finally settled? The new Iraqi constitution makes generous allowances to Islamic law. That could make the “new” Iraq a de facto Islamic regime. What a shame that would be. At this point it could go either way. Hard line Muslim fundamentalists will not peacefully retreat to the sidelines and allow a secular government to rule Iraq. 
The Middle East is a deeply religious part of the world. More so than the United States and certainly more than secular Europe. The problem here is that Islam is such a violent religion. I’ll not spend time extolling the virtues of Christianity. It should however, be noted that Christianity left its bloody history behind centuries ago. Baptists don’t lop off the heads of Methodists, and Evangelicals don’t strap on a bomb belt and blow up the local Kingdom Hall. Compare the reactions of Muslims around the world to the now-famous cartoons of Muhammad, and the quiet dignity and forgiving nature of the Amish in Pennsylvania after the recent bloodbath in a one-room schoolhouse near Lancaster.
Western-style freedom is looked upon as a corrupting influence by Islamic true believers. A culture that requires women to cover themselves head to toe for the sake of “decency” cannot be expected to embrace a way of life that might include bare breasts at Mardi Gras, mini skirts, hip hop music and gay marriage. Our culture is regarded with disgust and fear by Muslims. And that disgust and fear has lead to hatred and violence. The 911 attacks didn’t occur because of any specific action by the US. Those attacks occurred because of what and who we are. The US has no desire to coerce Iraq to embrace indecent behavior, but many in the Middle East perceive otherwise. 
The influence of Islam may very well be the downfall of Iraq’s future. No civilized society can exist under the heel of an oppressive theocracy, and no religion is more oppressive than Islam. Until the Arab world recognizes the necessity of keeping religion and government out of each other’s way, the Middle East will continue to be a place of death and destruction. To be honest, if they were only killing each other and leaving the rest of us alone, I doubt I’d care all that much. They’ve been busy destroying each other for centuries and they’re not likely to change anytime soon. But that culture of death is spilling over into the civilized world, and the result has been chaos across Europe and the catastrophic attacks on the US in 2001.
