Cleveland rocks but it isn't really about that....

I only remember one thing about The Drew Carey Show and that was the opening theme.  Cleveland Rocks.  I haven't thought about it in a while but I was reminded of it yesterday.

Cleveland Browns fans held a parade in Cleveland.  They were celebrating the Browns "perfect" season of going 0-16.   One better (or worse) than the previous season where they were 1-15.  Mother Nature also appeared to join in the celebration by making sure the temperature was 0 degrees.  I guess in the climate language of America, this is cold.  I'm Canadian and can take the moral authority on temperature and call y'll wimps.  

So, why did 3200 people go out in the cold to have a parade in homage to a perfect losing season?  Well, the people who participated had a variety of reasons.  Some Browns fans claimed that they were just looking for something to celebrate because it had been so long.  The whole thing about life giving you lemons and making lemonade.  Some fans used it as an opportunity to let out some of their frustrations and floats with dinosaurs in them professing to be the last time the Browns had a winning season.  Some fans were there to show that they were true fans and were still supporting this organization.  Some members of the football team participated to show support to the fans.  Some people just liked parades and wanted to express city pride.  

The parade wasn't without controversy.  Some football players and members of the Browns organization outwardly protested the parade and told people to stay home.  They felt they had nothing to celebrate and the parade was disrespectful.  Some thought the parade might incite violence.  

It turns out that most of the people who participated in this parade had their own simple common sense reason for wanting to participate and that reason was none of our business.  

I don't know how or why but we have turned into a society where we feel that we can morally comment on everything that has nothing to do with us.  

And we allow this to happen.  We never correct anyone who puts a nose in our business.  We have become a society where people gossip heavily, mostly because if we are talking about someone else, we don't have to focus on our own problems.  There has to come time of reckoning.  There has to be a time when people can politely be told that it is none of their business.  I have looked on the internet and there is a ton of posts devoted to this parade both favourably and not so favourably.  Most of people were weighing in from their heated offices in other states. How did this affect them in any way?  

We have become a society which has taken a value of transparency for our elected officials and extrapolated it every person.  This is troubling.  We feel we have the right to make judgement on everyone.   Why is this troubling?  

It is troubling because once we give society this right, individuals think they have this right also.  We haven't held society in check so we can also not hold a nosy neighbour accountable or the office gossip or that family member who passes judgement on our choices.  If it is fair game in our society, our nosy individuals are also entitled to do this.  

Think of this next time you comment or make a judgement on something that is none of your business.  You are also giving the green light for someone to pass judgement on your.  MYOB was a pretty standard response from Dear Abby or Ann Landers.  Maybe there was a reason this common sense advise was given.  Maybe we all might be a little better off if we just minded our own business.