Wait...WHAT?

I've never been bullied.  I've never been victimized or been in a position where I've felt afraid of the crowd of people I was in.  But I have had my feelings hurt; I have been affected by people saying things about my appearance, my clothing, my personal property.  Basically, I have been affected in a negative way by other peoples words.

But I admit I haven't 'walked in everyone's shoes'....and when situations like this occur, I try to keep an open mind and look at it from the person's view. I heard a news story this morning and I have been shaking my head in confusion/frustration ever since.  Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, was fined $100,000 for using a derogatory phrase towards a Referee after he called a technical foul.  He then punched the chair before he sat down...and was clearly angry.  

Ok....he was fined - I'm cool with that if that is standard operating procedure for calling a Referee a name.  Whatever.  But every news station or paper covering this story is calling the derogatory phrase a "homophobic slur"....what???  Does that make any sense?  I have to assume that it was a word that means Gay, and that it was meant to be a negative name, but does that honestly lead one to believe that Kobe is homophobic?  Seriously?  Because I think he said the first mean name that came into his mind.  Had he called the Ref the "N" word....would that mean he had "fear or contempt for African Americans"? 

I just find it ludicrous that we nit pick every little derogatory word to death when someone famous says it.  How many Celebrities have had to come out and apologize for using words we hear every single day?  It's just getting silly.   People say dumb things when they are upset.  Oh, and we learn name calling on the playground, folks....and in our homes, and in our place of business.  We don't learn it ALL from Celebrities and Sports Stars.

I think we need to brush all those CHIPS off our shoulders and learn to turn the other cheek!