The sad thing is that this was not even close to a unique occurrence. I could have written those words. One for the priest at mass, another for the religion teacher at school, and a third for a school administrator, all of whom felt the need to make Sinead O'Connor public enemy number one. There were doubtlessly more.
Her protest was so big and so explosive that it was the topic of everything, from the dinner table, to Sunday mass, to religion class. Ironically, the "trusted adults" who felt the need to publicly denounce her ended up amplifying her message so that it made it to young me, who wasn't allowed to watch Saturday Night Live and wouldn't have known about it otherwise. I knew she was right, even at age 12.