You don't get to.

Someone help me out here. I'm having trouble understanding why something is offensive and must be removed.

Lots of people find this offensive. They say it then must be removed, taken down, destroyed, eliminated, etc.

HOLD YER HORSES

Before you explain the reasons why this icon must be eradicated, let's take a look at some stuff other people find offensive.

Gay marriage.

The idea that there are 7 billion people on the planet and each person is a separate and distinct gender.

Smoking.

Vaping.

Swearing.

Islam.

Christianity.

Marijuana.

Guns.

Judaism.

Jainism.

Free speech.

Evolution.

Liarberals.

Cantservatives.

Liberaltarians.

Fascists.

Anarchists.

Creationism.

Socialism.

Capitalism.

Communism.

Porn.

Religious displays.

Climate change.

Eating meat.

Hunting.

This list can go on and on and on. Just so you know, I find none of the above offensive. Most of the items on the list above, I do not care about at all.

If you feel the need to be the 198,327,430th gender, more power to you.

It ain't none of my business.

If you feel the need to have a gay marriage, grow Purple Kush and protect the crop from a bunker with a SAW, that's your business. Um, can I shoot the SAW, please?

If you believe socialism is the way, the truth, the light and salvation, well bless your heart and rock on. Just don't try to force it on me, please.

If you want to be a porn star, head to Southern California and give it a go. I don't have any contacts in that industry so I can't help you.

If it does not cause measureable harm to me, it ain't none of my business is how I see it. Now if you need help, then I'll do what I can. But you have to ask.

MOVE AHEAD SLOW

Here's what I truly do not understand. The people who find the Stars & Bars offensive have no problem getting in my face and telling me I have no right to judge others for how they live their lives.

They are allowed to have a splodey head over my flag.

But if I dare to question a choice they make, damn the torpedos and launch a nuke.

They indignantly tell me, "It is none of your business because it does not affect you and has nothing to do with you."

Yet, these same people feel perfectly righteous in judging me if I have this flag.

How does this flag affect you in a measurable, empirical way? Hurt feelings?

Freedom smells like someone being offended.

SHIFT INTO SECOND

I am told I cannot force my religion on someone else. (Never mind that I won't do that. You have to ask and then I will try to explain.) I'm told I can't do a lot of things because, well, it is wrong to force my belief structure on someone else.

Ayup.

At the same time, I am emphatically told those other people have the unfettered absolute right to engage their belief structure.

Ayup. As long as they don't try to force their belief structure on me.

But they do not have a problem attempting to force their belief structure on me.

How is this fair?

THIRD GEAR

Two ladies can wear Che Guevara gay pride shirts, walking down the street and stop for a kiss in front of City Hall and this absolutely, must, positively, without question be an unfettered, unrestricted, unambiguous right. Never mind that some people are offended, quietly offended and turn away. Those people must be bigots. (It ain't none of my business.)

Harvard agrees to let "black" students have a separate graduation and that's just hunky dory wonderful (ans it is my business as tax dollars are putting the graduation on) but when kids in my community planned separate, privately funded proms a few years ago, the world was ending. And it was none of my business because public money was not involved.

How is one fair and the other not?

FOURTH GEAR

I must allow "cultural expression" for people who's only connection to that culture is genetic and somewhere between two and a dozen generations old.

I must accept other people exactly for who they are and cannot even think about asking them to do any different. To even consider that someone else might need to make a quantum level adjustment is intolerance of the highest order.

I cannot even imagine that someone else's choice is anything but a universal law that cannot be broken. Should I even approach the idea that the choice could be a smidge better, then Cthulhu stands back in shock as I become so evil that the Ancient One becomes a paragon of virtue by comparison?

FIFTH GEAR

Unless, of course, it's a Stars & Bars. Then, me and the flag need to be reduced to subatomic particles because of what that flag means to someone else. Never mind what it means to me. It is what it means to someone else that matters.

Now, explain to me why your feelings are more important than mine. Tell me why I should care more for you than you do for me? Tell me about this tolerance and acceptance.

Can you show me? 'Cause just as sure as I can see armadillo road pizzas, I can't see how your rights to do what you want are more important than my right to do what I want.

LIGHT SPEED

I am told, "You don't get to define it."

Who does? How does someone else have the right to define it?

If you have the right to define what the Stars & Bars means, do I get the right to define what the icons in your life mean?

If you set the rules, does everyone get to play by those rules equally? Or, are you just after special treatment? How much special treatment do you need, at my expense?

No. The truth is, you don't get to define what the Stars & Bars means to me. I alone have that right.

You don't get to.