offended

I think most people would agree that the word "offended" is vastly overused these days. There is no way that some people are actually offended as often as they claim to be. Either that, or people have become way too sensitive. Regardless, I usually roll my eyes at the sound of the word. I will be giving a good example of this tomorrow, as this is not the purpose of today's blog post.

The point of this blog post is to bring up something that actually offended me. And I am not easily offended (which you may have deduced from the statements made in the first paragraph). I'm not going to make a stink about it or anything like that, but I'd be lying if I claimed that I wasn't offended. And believe me when I tell you that I tried. I tried to laugh it off (it does humor me to an extent, as I do not take myself very serious).

So, what offended me to the point of blogging about it? It all went down Wednesday night. I was relaxing at home, watching television. I was minding my own business when a commercial came on. It was the first time I had ever seen this particular commercial. I'm curious if anyone else has ever seen it. Let me describe it for you:

The commercial showed numerous people in various work environments. They each started pushing on a wall. Eventually they each break through their wall. It shows them walking through the broken wall. One was a security guard working in a "guard shack." One was a grocery store employee. There were numerous other jobs featured. Then it mentions how if you earn your GED you can break through the barriers that have been holding you back. Turns out it was a GED commercial.

So, here's my problem. Most of you probably know that I'm a youth pastor. Because my position is only part-time, I need a full-time job to supplement my income. My secondary job (though admittedly the majority of my income): Security Officer. Where do I work? In a "guard shack" (though we call it a "kiosk"). I find it incredibly offensive and disrespectful to people who hold these jobs to suggest that it's a barrier to break through. I love my job. And not only do I already have a high school diploma, but I have a B.A. So, I'm pretty sure that not all security officers are high school dropouts as the commercial implies (or so I inferred from it).

I don't typically get offended by things, but I thought this commercial was incredibly outrageous. I took it quite personally. I still think most people overreact (see tomorrow's blog) but I learned a lesson here none the less: Sometimes, people might actually be legitimately offended, as I was the other day.