<h3>By Cherimie Crane Weatherford</h3>
Easily distracted, I often fall victim to missing the latest trends, pop culture happenings and news common to most breathing humans. Living happily in the confines of a curious mind, the direction of the wind can consume hours of rambling thought and prevent the ongoing escapades of general life from penetrating my realm. It is an oddity that serves no benefit but keeps me comfortably isolated from the general public. Occasionally I come down from the haze that is my world and find myself considerably clueless.

Trying desperately to educate myself on issues pertinent to the upcoming Presidential election, I have turned to the unfamiliar world of television. Normally my nose points towards a book or online documentary that holds my interest. Recently television has opened my eyes to issues that require substantial thought. Being of loud mouth and slow restraint, I find many of our present day conundrums perplexing at best. Possibly others suffer from the same ailment. The one that furrows my brow the most is the slippery slope of offense. Seemingly everything uttered, thought, written or weighed, offends to no end some portion of our sensitive population. Already known to leave a wake of disdain in my opinionated path, I fear this trend will force me to become mute or follow the footsteps of Thoreau into a wooded abyss.

Unable to reveal the original source of our discontent, it is unclear to me where the sensitivity began. Black is no longer black, white is no longer white and if you mix the two in order to form gray, this too is unacceptable and highly offensive. It is more than my simple southern mind can bear. Fairly certain the dictionary will have to be rewritten, history retold and my mouth re-taped. What has come of our society that has every thought, every opinion and every stance a preemptor? I fear my very appearance is grounds for an immediate apology, especially pre-coffee.

Even without my necessary glasses, I see things as my mind allows. My mouth quickly follows suit, calling a cow and cow, a duck a duck and ugly shoes, ugly shoes. It hadn’t occurred to me to prepare a plea for every opinion I muster. This will be very time consuming. It isn’t an existence that thrills me. Never preferring the icing over the cake, I long for less offense and more common sense. Offending has always been opportunities for one view to debate the other then both go along their merry way. Now one must offend, defend and repeat all the while shrinking to an apologetic pile of salt. The apology becomes the focus, not the view nor the offense. It is best I stay at home. My husband is accustomed to my opinions, my dogs find no fault and my daughter has yet to show me the error of my ways.

It is in our genetic quilt, the very fiber of our Southern being to say what it is that we believe without fear of decorating our denomination. And by denomination I do not mean race, religion, gender or any of the other predominant categories that will call for an immediate apology. *Disclaimer, all opinions presented in this column are those of Cherimie, after 4 cups of coffee and no wine therefore obviously subject to change.