As Maine goes, so goes the nation! At least that used to be the common phrase when it came to how the rest of the nation took its lead from our little state. Well, over the past week we have once again been thrust into that same national prominence. The pages of the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, The Independent from the United Kingdom, even the venerable Times Record, all had stories coming out of Maine. Yes, we lead the world in the reporting of Sombrero gate.

You know the story by now. A few Bowdoin students decide to have a party and drinking breaks out. At some point a fun loving student grabs some small novelty sombreros and the rest in history.

Tequila coupled with a few ill-timed photos and the world is thrown into a kerfuffle. I guess that once one is admitted to such a fine institution as Bowdoin they must have their ability to discern a joke from a real offense. Pity. Apparently $63,000, the current tuition and fees according to Bowdoin’s own website, does not get the same level of student that was once at Bowdoin. I doubt that Coffin, Longfellow or Chamberlain would have found the same offense.

How are the students at Bowdoin or, more likely, a very small number of offended college students able to live their daily lives in this most inconsiderate of towns. Look no further than some of our local establishments that are frequented by the betters at Bowdoin.

There is at least one restaurant down town that have sombreros hanging on the walls. Besides the nachos, the guacamole, the potatoes, the Corona there is no mistaking that this eatery is clearly aimed at a caricature of the Mexi-Hibernian lifestyle. Is this “micro-aggression” going to cause a person to become incoherent and inconsolable?

There are places that celebrate Octoberfest. Now aside from the imbibing of copious amounts of beer, which has always been an area at which college students excel, what is the average student to make of this? It is a tradition built around alcohol. Clearly no good can come of this. Perhaps the aggrieved students at Bowdoin can have a sit in and have a pint or two.

There is an establishment in town that serves some very fine food but its name suggests there is a circus type quality to the place. I wonder if the clowns at our local college are demeaned by the presence of a tent-like logo. The place better be ready to change their name and signage. If they don’t change, they risk being put on some “social probation” register.

Not far from the campus there is place that celebrates life on the green isles of Ireland. In fact just to make sure we know where they stand on such issues, they have a countdown clock to St. Patrick’s Day. Am I and other people to be offended by the way that the Irish are depicted by the pictures and sounds of this day? Absolutely not. My only wish is that I could enjoy a Fighting Irish game on St. Patrick’s Day. Notre Dame and a good corned beef and cabbage. Yum.

For offensive items on campus, Bowdoin students have to look no further than their own mascot, the Polar Bear. While the bear hearkens back to the expeditions of the Arctic and Bowdoin’s role in it, is it necessary to have a mascot that has been conditioned to live in a white world despite having skin that is black in color. To live in its environment, the Polar Bear has had to adapt to be something it is not. It has had to deny its very own being in order to fit in. That seems like it could be offensive to somebody.

When we become outraged and seek retribution for such a small offense it makes it less likely that a true offense will be taken as seriously. I hope that most of the students at Bowdoin reject the line of thought that says we must be offended by the smallest of infractions. Humor, both good and bad, is not an entirely offensive endeavor. It is the process by which we make sense of ourselves and our surroundings.

Living in a world where the thought police run free is a world where no one is free to comment or act. That is not where we should be going, especially on a college campus.

That’s my two cents…

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Jonathan Crimmins lives in Brunswick.