by Donald Finley

Created on: May 23, 2008

Being offended is everyone's right, just like being angry, or happy, or any emotion there is. Our nation was conceived on the basis of freedoms, and fortunately, those of us who live in America have many of them. Individually, we have the right to exercise our freedoms, and if being offended is one of them I want to exercise, then so be it. Nothing and no one can stop me.

I think most Americans would agree with this sentiment. But would they still agree if I decided that my being offended by your exercising of your rights meant that I could force a restriction of your rights? What if you and your friends and your family commonly exercise your rights, there are many more of you than just me, I'm the only one offended by your actions, but I can still restrict your rights? You are in the majority, and I am the minority, but my single vote trumps yours and all your buddies.

Now let's turn it around. I'm still in the minority, exercising my rights without a care in the world. You and your friends and your family, the majority, are all offended by my exercising of my rights. But I don't care. You can't stop me. Your right to be offended is all you have, and it does not include any right to impose restrictions on my exercising of my rights.

See the common denominator here? In both cases, I'm the minority, but I win. That's what has happened in our country. Our legal system allows the minority to win, to impose its being offended on everyone else's rights.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2001, 76.6% of the United States population identified with a Christian religion. That would be a majority. The minority would be 23.4%. That minority is responsible for the removal of the Ten Commandments and other Christian icons from nearly every government building in the country. Why did that happen? Because the courts said they could. It wasn't because of the constitution; the presence of a Christian symbol in a federal building has nothing to with a "law respecting an establishment of religion". It is a religious artifact that provides faith, hope, strength, and inspiration to more than three-fourths of our nation's population. Yet when the courts force

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