I am constantly amazed at some of the mail we get here at Weekly World Central from people who are offended at the tiniest little things. Take, for example, last week's cover story by Tom Danehy, "Growing Up Black in Tucson." One person wrote that she felt queasy, because Tom talked to two kids who liked rap; she apparently felt that was too stereotypical. It didn't matter that these two great kids just happened to like rap; the writer was offended.
Someone else wrote in to complain that we had a "hack" sports writer like Tom Danehy write such a piece. That's all well and good, except the writer went on to say he or she hadn't even read the article yet.
The next day, I got a complaint from someone who didn't like the "fact" that I "always include a reference to (my) sexual orientation" in restaurant reviews. I found this comment to be quite interesting, seeing as I didn't recall mentioning sexual orientation in any of my recent Chow pieces. I quickly re-read my last three reviews, and sure enough, there was no mention of any gayness.
And I won't even go into detail on the complaints, primarily from some of our more senior readers, over Catherine O'Sullivan's snowbird-invasion HUMOR piece last week. Or the person who was upset that Pete Delgado, in his guest commentary bemoaning the poor behavior by UA football fans, made a reference to a "Bolivian soccer match."
What in the heck has happened to us? Folks, we need to calm down and funnel our outrage into proper outlets. Considering all the horrible things happening to our environment, to our economy, to our laws, there are plenty of things to be offended by. And the fact that Tom Danehy talked to some kids who like rap is most certainly NOT one of those things.
