This is My Opinion

I was reading a blog post relating to a recent gay-bashing , a well written rant , much like a lot of us write , and wandered into the comments section . There were were justifiably outraged comments , not at the blogger , but at the horrendous hate crime that she blogged about ..... And then I came across this peculiar comment : (this is verbatim)

To bad it wasn't hate-monger MARIO LAVENDERIA aka PEREZ HILTON who got bashed instead! I hope I wake p someoneday soon and read in the paper that he has been murdered! Mario is ugly on the inside and out,wishing you & Lindsay death.

And after a little web wandering , I discovered a lot of similar comments about various gossip mongers ranging from the "I wish you were dead " type to the "I'm going to hunt you down and dismember you and eat your dog" type . There were literally thousands of similar entries and I am not about to source them all or give credit where it is not due.

Now , Mario and I do not get along . Mario lives a filthy lifestyle verbally attacking others , making big bank off of the misery he causes . He is crass and judgmental and takes his shot at an easy buck spoon-feeding bullshit to a hungry media-savvy public . His words are vile and divisive . He takes credit for the gay rights movement while vilifying people who are brave enough to come out . He is the self-loathing product of a vapid , egotistical society that pretends to love him but actually fears him . He utilizes his freedom of speech and tries to deprive others of that right , but he still has the FREEDOM to be an opinionated ass and I would die to defend it .

What we have is the right to voice our displeasure , to tell the world that we disagree with him . We have the right to a rebuttal , in fact , I've written numerous blogs about people like him , ranging from eloquently describing my dislike for their opinions to just plain ridiculing them . I have the right to do that and so do all of you . We have the ability to have an opinion , tell others our opinion , dance naked with our opinion , and even CHANGE it from time to time . Opinions aren't like assholes , folks , they are colostomy bags - when we decide one is full of shit we can trade it in for a new one .

What we do NOT have the right to do is physically attack people or advocate people to do so based on their words . People have the right to be all the asshole they can be or to be honest and decent . People have the right to a life of their choosing regardless of thought or belief . The neo-fascist fucks who perpetrate vicious hate crimes attack people because they disagree with something about their victim (or victims) , be it their opinion , lifestyle or religion or something immutable . The only real reason for violence would be to defend someone or oneself - it should not be used to attack ANYONE based on their OPINION. If someone's libelous nature is genuinely injurious to our mental or financial well-being , we call a lawyer , not a firing squad .

Encouraging or committing violence against others based on what they believe makes us no better than the bigots that hate us.