Tune out

I've learned so much from my parents that it's tough to single out one thing that's the most important. It's probably not possible. But one's always the most relevant at any given time.

Right now, this brief anecdote seems the most appropriate: When I was a kid I was picked on frequently as the youngest and smallest in my class. I was pretty much everyone's target when it came to needing a boost for their own self esteem. I had my feelings hurt more than any child probably should, and probably nowhere near as much as many do. My parents gave me some brilliant advice, and it certainly wasn't easy advice to take as a child. Obviously, given the way things have progressed in the national debate in the past few days, it's also not very easy advice to take as an adult. But it's great advice: Who cares what other people say about you? You know who and what you are, and what others think or say has no bearing on that.

This will be the last thing I say on the deplorable attack on our freedom of speech that has gone on in the past week. It's something that will from now on have an effect on every broadcaster, comedian, musician, journalist, entertainer, author, blogger and filmmaker you will ever experience for the rest of your life. You may not like what people say, but no matter what it is you have no choice but to accept their right to say it. Thinking any differently is a direct assault on one of the fundamental principals upon which this country is built. An assault that will carry over to every other right we have.

So I beg this of you -- not just for the sake of entertainment, which will continue to become more bland and less risky and edgy and fun thanks to the "nonexistant" censorship in this country (and as you can tell by what I write about, that does matter to me significantly), but for your own sake, because the sooner you learn the lesson my parents tried to teach me, the sooner the ignorant people of the world cease to matter.

If you don't like something you see on television, change the channel.
If you don't like something you hear on the radio, change the station.
If you can't handle the subject of the movie you're watching, leave the theater.
If you don't like something being said by someone you're standing next to, just walk away and don't associate yourself with that person. You can't, nor should you, stop them from saying whatever it is they want. But that doesn't mean you have to listen to them.