Principled Pontification

Today was not a good day, principle-wise.
I was, for reasons which are still somewhat unclear to even myself, a guest in the home of a couple of my less distant relations this afternoon. Let me first stress that I am fond of both of these individuals, man and wife. They are, in fact, perhaps the only members of my family outside the nuclear unit that I can abide at all. The wife--my great-aunt, specifically, though I generally don't bother with such designations at that degree of removal--is (and I say this with the utmost respect), in the immortal words of Archie Bunker, a dingbat. She is not unintelligent, but she is of a rural background, and is thus of an extremely provincial mindset. I see nothing at all wrong with this, except for the fact that she insists on affecting an insufferable worldly, cosmopolitan attitude. Also, she is one of that peculiar breed of individual who believes it impossible to possess knowledge without sharing it with others. So, as we sat around the kitchen table, she commenced to hold forth on a wide and varied array of things which form only a blur in my mind at present. The topics addressed ranged from her role in the local church--did I mention that she is also an impossibly pious church-going Baptist?--to what she planned to do with her husband's belongings when he died. (Don't ask me.) Finally she alighted on the subject of the Hispanic family that had recently moved in next door, and had been attending their church on occasion. By this I mean, she proceeded to talk condescendingly about them, but in such a sanctimonious and yet sincerely kindly manner that it came off sickening rather than offensive. From both this discourse, and my past dealings with her, I am convinced that, both as a person, and as a good Christian, she would never deign to be anything so vulgar as racist. She simply looks quietly, meekly down on all members of other races than her own as poor, piteous creatures of some slightly lower order. At this point, I will note, for the record, that racism or bigotry in any form inspires me to express my powers of reason via a stout stick. She sat lecturing all those present on the relative virtues, or lack thereof, of her Latino neighbors in the same matter-of-fact way that one might discuss some failing in a wayward dog, or some other such thing. Specifically, she was outlining various aspects of "their culture" by which it was known (for she stated all of it as though it were plain as the law of gravity or of entropy) that young women of Hispanic nations or descent were allowed, encouraged, even socially expected, to be--this is her terminology--"free with their bodies" beyond the age of fifteen. In other words, beyond puberty, Latinas are whores, or at best distastefully fecund breeding machines. This naturally came as something of a shock to me. For, in my experience, Hispanics, both male and female, are by nature so reserved and conservative--especially in matters of romance and sexuality--as to make the typical American appear to be a pig gorging at society's trough of hedonism (I don' think this is NECESSARILY a bad thing, either, by the way). Being, as ever, a tireless combatant of ignorance, it occurred to me to challenge this flagrant abuse of truth. But something stayed my tongue. Be it familial respect, or observance of some unspoken convention forbidding one to point out foolish ethnocentrism and provincial ignorance in one's hostess, or simply the knowledge that the dear woman was thoroughly unequipped to defend herself intellectually, I know not. But I held my silence, consoling myself that I, at least, knew better.
But I've done a good deal of reflecting on the matter since, and I've come to an unnerving conclusion. I think, at bottom, that which bade me not speak out was not some remnant of social grace, or ponderous chivalry, or any such thing so noble. I fear it that it might have been laziness. Perhaps it was just simpler not to say anything, easier to go with the flow rather than jump the dam. Could it be that I am really so apathetic, so far removed from something to believe in that even my proudest-guarded creed--that of truth in knowledge, and knowledge of truth, for one and all--fails me? I sincerely hope this is not the case, but I am certainly shaken by it.
Consider this. What good are the noblest of our ideals, when we won't even fight for the simplest of our principles?
What does it say about me, about any person, when a principle is just no longer worth the effort of defense?

My advice, to all, is to know well what you believe, and even more importantly, why you believe it. When you know these things, stand firm by them. Never sublimate your principles, no matter how good the reasons may seem.

Think on, friends.