Opinion: Think Before You Speak

Jacob Binford Junior Editor

Getting The Gears Moving: The gears in someones head represent thoughts being processed before they're said. Many tend to reverse the process and speak first, when really they should think first.

Sometimes, we all say things without really thinking about the potential outcome. A lot of people hear what one of their friends are saying and grab a hold of it to start using it creating a chain reacti­on. Although, just because we think it sounds cool, or just because we hear a vast majority of others around us say it, does that necessarily mean we know what it means when it’s in use? Probably not. Unfortunately, a large number of people don’t dig through the true meaning of their own words to understand that what they’re saying can come across as offensive to some people. “That’s so gay” and “that’s so retarded” are probably the two most popular terms that people don’t take the time to realize the effect of saying them.

Usually, both of those terms are used to say that something is dumb or stupid. But unfortunately, what some people fail to realize is that neither gay nor retarded mean anything of the sort. Ironically, “gay” is supposed to be a positive word meaning joyful, or also a homosexual, and instead given a negative connotation by our youth. Similar for retarded, it technically means slow or delayed. So if I were to call an inanimate object “gay,” I would actually be calling it “joyful” or a homosexual. And if I were to call an inanimate object “retarded,” I would be technically saying it’s slow or delayed. So just think about both of those terms for a second and what both are actually expressing when they’re used in that way.

People who do use either one of these terms tend to use them in a carefree manner, being unaware that it could be taken as offensive by some people, as well. Thinkb4youspeak.com is a website that focuses on the term “that’s so gay,” and just taking a quick skim of the website’s homepage, there are quite a few interesting things to notice. For example, there’s a small ticker on the bottom left side representing how many people are using “so gay,” and right above there’s a similar ticker representing the goal that they’re trying to reach, with a large zero that does not, and will never change. PSA’s (public service announcements) are also available, with stars such as actress Hillary Duff and comedian Wanda Sikes getting involved to help stop “that’s so gay” from being spread around. Exploring the site even more, there is also a story about the consequences that this saying could potentially have. An 11 year old boy, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hanged himself after enduring daily taunts at school about being gay. The mother had pleaded to the school to address the problem numerous times, but it had been too little too late.

It may not even seem like one simple term such as “that’s so gay” or “that’s so retarded” could potentially hurt someone even slightly, but in reality, it can. You never know who it could possibly offend, or you don’t know who around you might take it offensively. There could be one time when one say’s “that’s so gay” and there will be a gay person right next to them. Or when one say’s “that’s so retarded” and there could be mentally handicapped person to the left or the right. Those sayings could make homosexuals or mentally challenged people feel like they’re stupid and dumb themselves, and getting the idea of being straight and not mentally delayed is “right.” Imagine this; someone thought something was stupid or dumb and said “that’s so straight.” It probably doesn’t sound too nice, does it?

I’m not trying to restrict anyone from freedom of speech by trying to tell them what to say and what not to say. Although, I am saying that you need to take into consideration what’s going to potentially offend someone with your choice of words. You may not even mean it in a derogatory way, but to some individuals, it will come across that way, and both of those terms need to come to an end. So all I simply ask is to think before you speak.