Shannon Spaulding, Full of Shit in Christ

Shannon Spaulding has just achieved her fifteen minutes of fame. This obviously intelligent and strong-willed young person did it by compromising her dignity and the rights of others. In her mind, however, that's just fine.

Shannon Spaulding is the valedictorian of Wolfson High School in Jacsonville, Florida. Her graduation speech included twenty minutes of proselytizing that included telling those in attendance that if they died with sin on their souls, they would "immediately be puled down to hell to pay the eternal price...". Isn't that inspirational? Nothing like good 'ole down home common sense talk to carry with you on your journey into the real world, eh?

Shannon feels she can's say she's sorry. "I can't say I'm sorry for the message I shared. I'm sorry if people were offended, but I still believe in what I said."

I wonder what she could have said if say, perhaps, a person of the Islamic faith stood up and heranged the audience for their beliefs. Do you suppose Shannon would have minded that her rights were violated. Would she sit on her hands simply accepting that it was this persons beliefs? If a Jewish student had stood up and denied Jesus as the messiah, would that have been okay with her? If a Wiccan had preached their beliefs, do you think she would be so tolerant of their differing views.

What it comes down to is that Shannon, who claimed to not "totally understand why it's such a big deal" is either completely undiserving of her valedictorian title and unprepared for the real world, completely deluted and self absorbed, or just plain full of shit. I'm going with the latter. I'd actually prefer that she's callous and inconsiderate than insipid and ignorant. I'll grant her that. I, however, will not give her a pass. Times up, we're at fifteen minutes.