Some of the people in this country can be very strange in their style of thinking. For awhile now I’ve felt that people are encouraged to express first and think after as opposed to the tried and true ‘Think before you speak.’
Nowadays everyone is so concerned about not saying things that would offend other people, especially groups of people, and because of this a lot of dumb ideas are allowed to have a longer life span than they should simply because nobody had the heart to snuff them out before they came to fullterm.
What I briefly watched today on the news was one of those stated ideas. A man named Lair Scott decided it would be a good idea to start a petition to have the puppets ‘Bert’ and ‘Ernie’ get married to promote gay tolerance on Sesame Street. Now maybe he was able to start this petition on his own merit and decided not to consult anyone about whether or not this was a good idea prior to doing so but I doubt it.(There are 700 signatures on this petition by people who thought this was a ‘good idea.’)
Anyway, my double take at the ludicrousness of this story called for me to do further research on the matter. Thankfully, my worst fears were averted and a rep from the Sesame Workshop stated the following:
“Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves.”
From what vague memories I can recall of Sesame Street, I don’t remember Bert and Ernie being anything more than just good friends and I don’t see why I’d have to remember Bert and Ernie as best friends while my godson has to remember Bert and Ernie as the best friend gay couple, in order to promote ‘tolerance.’
First of all, tolerance isn’t something one is going to learn from watching two puppets hold hands during a TV show. Tolerance(or lack thereof) is something that is passed on by close elders and/or gained from life’s experiences. I happen to be tolerant of homosexual people because I was taught to not discriminate against people who think or live differently than I do, but because I’m my own person, I could very well dislike gay people or whoever people for whatever reason I choose if I decided to be that way. I’d like to think most people received a similar style of upbringing.
With that being said, the reasoning behind this petition is stupid(yeah i said it) and somebody should’ve told Mr. Scott that before it got this far. At the end of the day, Sesame Street is a children’s show designed to educate and entertain young children. None of the puppets are married or even explore romantic relationships.What people should REALLY be concerned about is if Count is still teaching kids to count, and things of that nature. The education system in America is already sketchy as it is, and let the day come when my future child cannot count to ten and I will be booking the first one way tickets out of this country lol.
But what do you all think? is tolerance something we need to have taught to our three to seven year olds? Was this a stupid idea? Do you think his intentions were even in the right place?
totally agree. if these people think that ernie and bert as muppets have sexual orientation and could be considered as ‘humans’ in order to marry. well, i will treat them as ‘children’ living in one roof like as of those that in orphanage or foster home! now, do children have to get married also? shame to take advantage of their popularity. so foolish to promote such crooked and malicious idea. let children be children, ernie and bert are for children leave them alone!