They say that you should never speak of politics and religion in public places, but I decided to defy conventional wisdom with this week's effort for the TFP. (And why not, I've defied pretty much everything else.) "I'm Going To Hell For This" is probably a fairly apt description of the future that lies in store for me after calling out a number of the Catholic prelates who are suing the federal government to prevent at least one part of Obamacare from becoming a burden on businesses owned by the Church.
It's not that I want going concerns owned by the Catholic Church to have to pay for things that violate their doctrines (though quite frankly, their doctrines have no place in creating or enforcing the law), it's that I don't want any of us to have to pay for government dictate that's a violation of the limits placed on it by the Constitution.
But listen, while my doom is undoubtedly written large in the Great Book, there's probably some much more cheerful reading to be had in the mid-week Free Press 'Star' edition. If that's not enough to brighten your spirits and save you from sharing my eternal damnation, there's only a few days to wait before Toledo's largest Sunday circulation and Ohio's best weekly newspaper for the last three years, the Toledo Free Press.
We seem to sue everyone for everything these days, with causes from bad grades for our kids to who got the promotion and the raise at work. We sue when the coffee is too hot at McDonald's or the food is too cold at our local restaurant. We sue for physical pain, emotional cruelty, and loss of self-esteem. The truth of the matter is that many people sue like playing the Lottery, regularly and in the hope of winning the "big bucks".
I wonder about the cost though. Oh not the court costs or the costs to businesses every year, though they have to be staggering. What I am talking about instead is the cost to courage in this country. The truth of the matter is that each of us, to some extent, has our words, our actions, and even our very freedoms are restricted by the threat of such lawsuits.
Where such restrictions should call for courage in the face of adversity, I am afraid that such calls go largely unheeded.
Instead, the moral high ground is ceded to those who shout the loudest. Common decency, common courtesy, and common sense are shoved aside; with control instead grabbed by those threatening legal action. Even our very laws themselves are ignored by those entrusted with their care as these bullies and their legal vermin seek compensation from anyone.
Judge Robert H. Bork (yes, that Judge Bork) once said that we now seek, "the equality of outcomes, rather than opportunities". And if for some reason, your outcome doesn't fit your self-image, then by God sue somebody for an outrageous amount of money to redress that discrepancy.
And what of those who chose not to play this Lawsuit Lottery? We now bow our heads and submit to those who shout at the rain. Bereft of the courage that once founded a country we hide ourselves away, terrified that anything that we might do or say will place us squarely in the sights of the takers. Confined within the walls of political correctness that have been erected around us we cower, fearful of giving offense and refusing to take offense from these loud-mouthed louts. Even the government takes sides in this battle, telling us that "hate speech" and "hate crimes" somehow make illegal actions worse because of their motivations.
Well I for one have just about had it. I am tired of living in fear of those who want to shout me down. I am tired of hiding to keep them from noticing and thereby targeting me. I am ashamed of having abandoned courage in the name of political correctness and safety. I hope that in the coming days you will find me engendering some PC outrage, not as an exercise in writing, but as a result of a statement of principle. And for those of you lining up to lay claim to some part of what is mine as redress for some imagined insult now or in the future, take your best shot. (I don't have much of anything, anyway.)
