It's time to get offended about something worthwhile

Over the last week an interesting question was raised. Is it possible that certain columnists (not to mention any names) have been going out of their way to write things that are blatantly inflammatory or offensive? It's a good question. After all, I have certainly offended a person or two in the last few years. Could I have avoided it? Almost certainly. Would I want to write a column that was never offensive? Certainly not.

This is an opinion page. I write my opinion on matters, some that are serious but most are not. My opinions - my thoughts and views on life - have been shaped by my experiences, probably just like each and every one of you out there. But since no two people can have a history of identical experiences, it stands to reason that no two people can have identical opinions on all matters. I simply try and provide some intelligent and entertaining insight on matters that people may not have thought about or may not have looked at from a certain angle before. It is a certainty that some people who have not shared my experiences are not going to agree with my opinion and some may even be offended by it. Here's a little bit on the experiences that have shaped my views on life.

 

Branden Sanz Dropping the Hammer

I am the product of a broken home. My mother and father have both been married three times and my mom is an alcoholic. There was a messy divorce when I was four that I don't remember too well and an even messier custody battle eight years later that I recall all too clearly.

I have been poor. I remember times in high school when it was so cold during the winter that my dad and I had to go out and steal wooden pallets from behind grocery stores and sleep on the floor near the fireplace while we burned them because we couldn't afford the heating bill.

I have seen human beings at their worst. I was smack-dab in the middle of inner-city Sacramento when the Rodney King riots broke out in 1992, and for those of you who thought the violence was limited to L.A., guess again. I have had friends raped and murdered. I have had friends who turned into murderers (more about that next week.)

I have known beauty. In the rainforests of Thailand I have heard monkeys screech and seen jungle streams glitter like enormous emeralds as light from the rising sun danced upon them. I have sat on the rocky cliffs of Big Sur, California as the surf roared in my ears and the wind whipped my hair and watched the sun set in a million different colors. I have seen moonless nights in the Arizona desert where the stars were so bright I could have used them to read by. I once dated a former Ms. Ohio.

I have known pain. I have broken countless bones, been shot, stabbed and had a finger bitten off. I have endured pretty much every kind of torture the U.S. military can devise. I had gone off to faraway lands and had some friends come home in body bags, all for God and country. I have lost family members to both cancer and diabetes. I once had a girlfriend cheat on me with my roommate.

I have been insecure. I lived in eight states over a ten-year span and always seemed to be the new kid. When I was in grade school, I had a weight problem and was also the fat kid - last picked for the kickball team and all that. My birthday is in August, so I always seemed to be younger (and shorter) than everyone else as well.

I have known danger. I have ridden bulls (the live kind), jumped out of perfectly good airplanes and handled live explosives. I have ridden my motorcycle at 130 miles per hour and dodged automatic weapons fire from angry people on two different continents.

I have known love. I once saw a father give up everything - his life savings, his house, his job and even his wife - for the sake of his son.

In short, my experience is to complex to encapsulate - probably just like you. I am all of you and none of you. I am the best of you and the worst of you as well. It is for this reason that I don't like to judge people. Let me rephrase that: I judge people all the time, but I will not judge a person. A person is too complex - too much light and dark - for anyone else to know well enough to judge.

I recognize that dichotomy within myself and understand that, as a result, my opinions are pretty complex and involved as well, but there is one constant to my beliefs that all my opinions stem from: Don't sweat the small stuff. I wake up every single morning and thank God that I'm not dead or in jail. Beyond that, there's not a whole lot that I take seriously - certainly not myself. I guess with all the shit that's happened to me I could start taking myself seriously, but I realize that I'm still the same dork who watches Dragonball Z religiously, listens to Enya and cries every time he sees Braveheart.

I guess, because of that, I'm not interested in sounding deep or taking on Big Issues. I just like to point out little things that I find ironic or that irritate me, but even then, I'm usually very tongue-in-cheek. If you choose to take it seriously and it offends you, so be it. Violent crime offends me, racism offends me, and terrorism offends me. Someone's opinion? Not a chance. I've got too many other things to worry about to sweat the small stuff.

- Branden Sanz can be reached via e-mail at hamrhead@umich.edu.