Speech Impediment

This has not been a good few months for the Pittsburgh Steelers. First, they have to deal with “Big” Ben Roethlisberger deciding he wanted to get a college girl drunk and show her “Little Ben” in a Georgia bathroom, costing him .  Then, they lose “Big” Ben for four games due to his indecent exposure and drunken issues.  This doesn’t hurt the Steelers as they make it to the Super Bowl, only to lose to the Green Bay Packers.  Then, they discover another one of their players has loose lips.

Rashard Mendenhall posted some rather inflammatory tweets over the past few days saying that he didn’t quite understand the excitement and celebration over the death of Osama Bin Laden.  He had a few comments to make via Twitter, but the one that drew the most ire was:

“What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side.”

Now, this hits a slippery slope. While listening to the Dan Patrick Show, Dan said someone was talking about Mendenhall’s rights as they pertain to freedom of speech. This has been a gigantic rallying cry for people like Mendenhall (who hasn’t said anything about it, per se), former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, and former beauty contestant Carrie Prejean who decide to scream whenever someone disagrees with their opinion. Now, I have a problem with people complaining about that, and here’s why.

What people fail to realize is that freedom of speech is a two way street. You have every right to say whatever the hell you want whenever the hell you want.  That being said, so does everyone else.  You can say whatever tickles your happy place, but you can’t be mad when someone else says something that you disagree with.  For example, Mendenhall can say that he doesn’t think that two planes could take down the World Trade Center, and I can say he’s a fucking idiot.  Carrie Prejean can complain about people asking her questions she feels are inappropriate, and I can say that she needs to put her big girl thong on and face the consequences.  Sarah Palin can complain about people in the “lamestream” media twisting and contorting her words to turn them against her, and I can say that she’s a moron who doesn’t realize that she’s part of the aforementioned “lamestream” media and that she’s twisting and contorting the words of other people to turn them against them.

Everyone has freedom of speech, and everyone has the right to use it at their whim. But, don’t get mad because someone uses theirs to call you an idiot. That makes you a hypocrite…and no better than those who do the complaining in the first place.