Why does it seem that defenders of the right to free speech are sometimes the same people who enjoy verbal and written attacks on people? What makes public commentators so vengeful, ugly and vile in their statements against fellow human beings?

What is this obvious preoccupation with wanting to be the winner at all costs? I’ve never understood hatred. Not even as a child. And not even as a child growing up with severe, painful, life altering situations.  There is always a choice – continue the pattern of smashing another human-soul to pieces or acting with love and a generous heart.

Freedom of speech seems to give people the go ahead to say whatever they want about someone and claim it to be the truth, while offering no credible proof. And people pay to read this stuff. Where I live, some stores cover up issues of Cosmo magazine to hide the bodies of the cover models, but they leave in full view “US”, “People”, “Star” and other publications that promote rumor, half-truths and made-up stories to sell ad space. Blogs do the same thing. A blog can publish any content, true and factual, scraped and stolen or one-sided and unproven, and earn money from their affiliate and paid ads.

The underlying poison in using freedom of speech as a free pass to say and write anything, regardless of the truth or proof, is the judgment of character by the person having the free for all. Commentators write and talk about people they’ve never met and think they have the freedom and right to not only pass judgment on them, but can write and say anything they wish and be backed by the Constitution of the USA.

Personal attacks are judgment calls and one person’s view. There are always many sides of an experience. Does Freedom of Speech give everyone the right to pass judgment and spread their agenda? Does the law make it right to purposely lie? Since we know that many people will never fact check or look at a story from a 360 degree perspective, is taking advantage of those people the loving to do?

Do Truth, Accuracy and Peaceful Co-existence matter at all anymore?

The news this week is about yelling. It’s about being rude. And the most amazing thing is that each time someone has an outburst, it was a man who felt a public apology would make it all better; like a boo boo on their knee.

It’s a real statement on the state of consciousness of the United States when certain people feel justified in throwing shoes at a US President, shouting “You lie!” during a joint congress gathering, and interrupting a young singer as she tried to accept her award.

My beef isn’t that we shouldn’t forgive people who make stupid mistakes. What worries me is that there seems to be this new sense of PERMISSION to act like an idiot. It’s as if there’s no longer any impulse to respect persons in authority. Leadership has always been a “teach by example” achievement, and yet today’s leaders are more inclined to show their mere mortal status. In one case, it was clearly Mr. Big Shot stealing the moment from a new talent. Kanye West claimed the death of his mother was the emotional driver behind his on-stage outburst while Taylor Swift was making her acceptance speech at the Video Music Awards.

Mr. South Carolina Republican Congressman illustrated that throwing a tantrum is some new leadership quality and by golly, he has a lot of public support for it!

I don’t accept what’s happening and am truly alarmed that so many Americans find nothing wrong with leaders and famous people acting in ways that would have had me grounded without dinner if I’d pulled a stunt like they did.

The rest of us regular people on the planet have lost loved ones too. You deal with it. If you have any common sense at all, you know enough to not spread your misery to others. Or if you do, you share with close friends and family who know you and can offer support. Rushing up on stage as West did was a public display of selfishness in an environment where the ego rules. He must have thought he was pretty hot shit to come up on stage, take the microphone away from a young rising star and tell the world he likes someone else’s video better.

When Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” we all heard it on TV. I was shocked. It didn’t matter who did it. What was incredible was that it happened at all. These men, and a few women, are called “lawmakers”. If any one of us regular people had yelled like he did, we would have been escorted out of the room and arrested. So why is it okay for people who make our laws and decide how we live to show bad manners? For what possible reasons are we expected to support them when it’s obviously okay to be rude and obnoxious?

Not only was his outburst pathetic, the entire Republican party display of frowns, folded arms, reading hand held devices, sitting during standing ovations, not clapping in any show of support, waving documents in the air, calling out with verbal feedback during a televised speech and their overall obstinate energy was fascinating to watch.

I was taught to be polite and listen with an open mind. If I disagreed, I was to keep my mouth shut unless invited to speak and again, always show respect. Are these lessons I grew up with a thing of the past?

Arrogance and stupidity among Americans is growing. Thousands of people marched on Washington for a “Tea Party” demonstration. I’m all for peaceful demonstrations but when the cameras were on, interviewees said they were there because they stood by Representive Joe Wilson! So now there’s an entire political party that feels proper behavior is yelling the loudest and being the most abrasive in public. That ought to go over really well in negations with other countries.

The true test of leadership is being able to continue in the face of bigotry, hatred, and enormous negativity. That President Obama does this every day is remarkable. For the USA to become stable again, things have to change and he knows it. The old ways no longer work. Its incredible how many people, from positions of authority to me and you, are unwilling to try something new. Even when the present way of doing things is literally killing citizens, talk of new ideas is shot down or someone starts a myth about the government killing people to save money.

I’m sick of the so-called apologies. When you’ve made a Class A fool out of yourself to a worldwide audience, there’s no excuse. These people knew the world was watching and they took advantage of that. Claiming to not be responsible for your actions due to a personal issue or emotional moment is not an apology. It’s an excuse. It’s showing how retarded these people are in their thinking; believing they can get away with this behavior.

What I want to know is what Mr. Shoe Thrower, Mr. You Lie Mr. President and Mr. Music Ego are planning on doing to help our country do better. Tantrums are for babies.

Grow up.