What do people want to see when they look at the world? What do they want to hear, feel, remember, or even dream about? I want to believe that when I look at the world I live in, I see progressive thinking. I feel accepted, and I remember all the good that our country has accomplished, but there can’t be the good without the bad and the ugly.

In recent news, Nico Hines, a reporter for The Daily Beast, wrote a rather controversial article. His Article, The Other Olympic Sport in Rio: Swiping, was taken down after the backlash it received for outing some closeted Olympians. I read a lot about this issue, and trust me, there was a lot. Most of the outrage was negativity pointed at Hines and rightly so. He may have put some of those he outed in danger. He simply displayed what many think to be a blatant disregard that some of the people he talked about could be in serious trouble when they return to their home countries where governments might not exactly be okay with people being gay.

Although he didn’t name the Olympian’s specifically, pointing out their body stats didn’t exactly conceal their identities. According to Slate.com writer J. Bryan Lowder, one of the “victims” that he identified in the original article is from Kazakhstan, which is “hostile territory” for LGBT+ individuals.

“The point is outing like this, even unintentionally, is a very dangerous game because you cannot know how the revelations will impact the person involved” said Lowder on the issue.

This fact makes Hines appear as an even bigger…well, you know, but I digress. The backlash seems warranted, but how far is too far for the public to go in their affliction?

Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned in all this? At least, that is what Jacob Geers is trying to do. In his article, I Am A Gay Man, But Our Blind Hatred Of Nico Hines Needs To Stop, he talks about the comments of those who are “out for blood” and tries to get everyone to see that, yes, Nico Hines messed up, but what can we do about it that moves us forward not backwards? “The cure for ignorance is not hate, it is education. It is learning. It is Growth” and I couldn’t find Geers’ words to be truer. Everyone is so ready to pounce on ignorance and try to beat it down with their bare fists, and I admit I can be one of those people sometimes. I now see that ignorance is not a permanent state but a temporary one, if I want it to be. I know it’s hard to push that anger aside, but you don’t have to exactly push it away but aim it. What I am saying is you should direct that anger towards something more. Yeah, we get it, Hines really messed up, so what are you going to do about it? Will you beat at the problem or solve it? I know what I’m doing; what about you?d.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)[0].appendChild(s);