So Much to Say; So Little Time

One of the things I absolutely hate is the personalization of victimization.

Take two things I heard about on the way home from work.

ITEM 1: A group of folks who have lost loved ones to distracted drivers. Their goal, after patterning their group and actions after MADD, is to get cell phones off the road.

ITEM 2: The gays who are trying to get the gay marriage ban- that was approved TWICE by a majority of California voters- overturned, by testifying that their rights have been violated by not being able to marry. Where this ephemeral right comes from; no testimony. That this poor individual has been harmed by big bad government, lots of testimony.

In both cases what should be a simple incident is over blown by making the loss personal and giving it face.

First; I am sorry for the loss of a loved one to a distracted driver. But let's do the math. 300 million people in this country. Let’s say 200 million drivers; each drives just 10,000 miles a year. Well over a trillion miles a year. Let’s say we lost 10,000 loved ones to a distracted driver, and let’s say each was in a single incident, each time with a different driver.

Do you see the magnitude of this problem? Less than a 100th of a percent of drivers have a problem. Yet all of us will have to pay, if this group gets their way.

Because they have made the victims personal.

Now we have the gays crying in the courtroom about not being allowed to marry. They are allowed to marry; just as any other individual in this country is permitted to marry. The just need to find someone of the opposite sex to marry, and apparently that’s the problem. Some reports put the gay and lesbian population at 10%, but better surveys say closer to 2%. And what percentage of that 2% actually wants to marry their same sex partner? Let’s say 25%. So let’s overturn the whole social system because .5% of the country wants us to.

Screw That.

No pun intended.

But it is the personalization of the victimization. If they have two dozen couples testify- 24 people- why should that miniscule number of affected people overturn what 5 million people voted for? The report that 24 people were affected would not raise an eyebrow. Those 24 crying on the stand creates a crisis.

Amazing how the media can make a group of 24 seem major, yet totally marginalize the thousands who participate in TEA Parties.

Maybe we need to make ourselves more personal. Show the damage government policies have done to individuals.

But we don’t and we can’t.

Conservatives don’t cry.