My Opinion Matters

The title of this post should really be "My Opinion Matters and Passive Aggressive People Suck the Life Out of Me" but it was much too long.

There's a funny quote about opinions I'm sure you've heard at one time or another and it goes a little something like this:  "Opinions are like assholes.  Everyone has one."  Yes, I have opinions and I'm not afraid to voice them.  It's OK.  Everyone has an opinion.  It's what makes the world go 'round.  We all have opinions on the following:  global warming -- does it exist?, Obama -- worst President ever?, the best color in the box of crayons, Coke or Pepsi, which Kardashian sister is the prettiest, Alabama or Auburn, Rangers or Islanders.  You get the idea.

Earlier this week I swore off social media, specifically Facebook, for a few days due to the mess in Ferguson and other reasons.  Sometimes I just get inundated with visuals and information and I can only take so much.   Stimulation overload if you will.  I proclaimed I was going off the grid because I was tired of a certain professional race car driver taking up a lot of my timeline as well as the situation in Missouri.  Let me explain . . .

I meant nor implied anything critical when I claimed that I was tired of Tony Stewart clogging up my timeline.  I do not know Tony Stewart.  I do not care to know Tony Stewart and I do not want to know Tony Stewart.  Mr. Stewart and I do not run in the same social circles and I'm OK with that.  I did not proclaim any guilt or innocence in recent track-related events.  I did not assassinate or question his character, morals or integrity.  I did not infer that he should be criminally charged.  I do not have any opinion on if and when it is appropriate for Mr. Stewart to return to racing. These things are better left to the fine folks at NASCAR, ESPN, FoxSports and, of course, Mr. Stewart himself.  I simply stated I am tired of him clogging up my timeline.

Whelp, apparently that ruffled a few feathers.  Apparently a friend took great offense to my comments.  Although I have not logged on to Facebook as per my self-imposed silence, it has come to my attention that several thinly veiled threats/accusations were made towards me.  Passive Aggressively, of course.  Again, because I haven't been on FB I'm hearing this second hand but "allegedly" I was called a "Mean Girl" and "not a true friend" because I made a comment about Tony Stewart clogging up my timeline.  I cannot re-iterate enough --  I HAVE ZERO OPINION ABOUT MR. TONY STEWART.  It is not my place to judge what happened on that race track nor have I EVER attempted to judge what happened on that race track.  I wasn't there.  And neither were you.

However, I AM entitled to say that I am tired of something.  It's MY OPINION.  Stating my opinion does not make me a Mean Girl.  What it does make me is brutally honest.  I have never nor will I ever stifle my agenda to better fit someone else's.  And I'm not raising my girls to conform to someone else's ideals either.  Stating my opinion about something doesn't make me a bad friend.  In fact, claiming that someone is a bad friend because they have opinion different from yours makes me sad.  I'm sad on several accounts:  #1, I'm sad that this person doesn't recognize the value in other people's opinions and #2, if I offended that person, she should have texted or called me and expressed HER OPINION (to which I would have happily listened).  Not taken it to Facebook.