Dotty Parker

communities might stink

I had a committee meeting tonight. One or two people were very upset, indeed, about some fiscal policy. They didn't like the wording--thought it sounded insulting and offensive. I'm curious about the possibility of things being insulting and offensive. Seems like in some circles, like maybe some parts of the art world, being offensive is part of the territory and isn't guaranteed to be a universal opinion.

In my committee, being offensive is apparently the jurisdiction of one woman. Perhaps I'm the one offended now. Her opinion was taken for mine.

I'd vote no on that situation, but I don't really have a vote, now do I? (snarky snarky snarky)

I'm curious to know if I'm missing the boat here. Folks get really upset about things at these meetings. They turn colors or start to blink funny or do stuff with their hands or their pens that they didn't do when these hot topics weren't being tossed around. Maybe I wasn't trained well enough as a child. I doubt that's it. I know that I haven't been on the committee very long or as often as I should have been, so maybe my outrage and insultedness will come with time.

(Secretly, however, I don't want it to come at all.)

There are picketers outside the hospital where Mrs.MaryMom is staying. Today was some kind of rallying day. There were lots more picketers today than there had been the two days before. And now they were loud and the cars driving by were honking and people were yelling and whooping. Yes, whooping! That was a scene of outrage. Big, bad, furious outrage. I think outrage is related to being insulted and offended.

What's the historical record in regard to people who express outrage? Do they get things done? Or is it the cool guy who doesn't seem to be bothered by it all? Who has compiled this list? I would suggest that the outraged get more done when they're getting in the way and being a pain in the ass. I would also suggest, however, that the cool guy gets much more done in the end since he can often get it done before the outrage-able people get their outrage-o-meter really cranked up to the insulted mark.