I'm sick of victimization in our discourse

The cries of "sexism!" in response to the media's treatment of Sarah Palin are the latest in what seems like a never ending stream of events in which victimization is used as a tool to gain power. The same thing happened with Hillary Clinton.

The uproar over Don Imus' comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team was also about the same thing. Ditto the cries of anti-semitism when Mel Gibson was pulled over for drunk driving.

Clearly, people will attack women for being women, minorities for being minorities, Jews for being Jews, and so forth.

There will be blatant hatred in many of these attacks. There will be subtle, insidious sexism, racism, and anti-semitism in others. It is understandable to be repulsed by this and to want to lash out at the perpetrators.

Get over it.

When Republicans cry sexism at the treatment of Sarah Palin, they are using that cry as a tool to gain the upper hand in their battle for power. Ditto the other scenarios. The "outrage" and "shock" expressed by many in response to "offensive" comments or thinking is mostly calculated to push the buttons of divisiveness, doubt, and hatred that keep people in a dynamic and diverse society feeling different from one another.

It is the height of cynicism.

We should all strive toward discourse that is free of hate and full of fairness. As Americans, we have the unique potential to do this in a way that is not possible anywhere else in the world.

But we won't get there by policing our language and pouncing on things that can be deemed "ugly" by people who have a victim card to play.

We'll get there with our actions, not our words.

Hillary Clinton was the first serious female contender for a major party's nomination for president, and Sarah Palin is the Republican's first female VP candidate. They fought and earned their way to these accomplishments by virtue of who they are and their political skills- not because artificial bumpers were erected around certain words and behaviors that sought to treat them in a sexist manner.

By focusing so much time and attention on the words and deeds that aim to keep people down, we are lending credibility to the power of those words and deeds. We are, in effect, saying that certain people aren't tough enough to weather them.

There will always be voices of hatred and ignorance, typically aimed in the direction of groups that have suffered injustice. There will always be elements of society that are unfair to certain people.

The way toward more fairness and tolerance lies more in celebrating the strength of the people who break out, and less in dwelling on the actions of those who seek to keep them down.