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PC War heats Up
By Al
Ruechel
Wasn't it nice while it lasted? After
September 11th it appeared we might bury the PC monster and regain
our senses about what's significant and what's incredibly trivial in
our society. For about two months I couldn't find one single PC
story. We were all too busy dealing with the reality of
three-thousand of our fellow Americans being massacred by terrorists
in the most horrific visual Armageddon of our time to worry about
offending folks whose stomachs are so weak the smell of water makes
them gag.
But no, it's back, bigger than ever.
Here are a few items in the news just this week alone.
*A publishing company has now
released a gender neutral Bible. They've decided it's an abomination
to think of God as a male. This is the same group that doesn't
believe the Word of God is divinely inspired. Can you imagine that?
So, the Word of God is being sanitized to remove references to
"the Son of God", "Our Father who art in
Heaven", "The Father and I are one", you get the
idea. Grab your old whiteout and have at it. We all know their
ultimate goal is to make God as comfy and universal and
non-offending as possible. I'm surprised they haven't removed the
name Jesus. This is the same group that believes there's just a
misunderstanding when it comes to what the Bible says about
homosexuality and lesbianism. I'm guessing the phrase about facing
judgment for modifying or adding to the Holy Spirit inspired Word of
God is going to be removed as well. It's kind of like covering your
tracks just in case the Almighty, which by the way is the PC way of
referring to God, is looking.
*In Massachusetts the word
"minority" will no longer be used in some government
proceedings because it is viewed as being derogatory. No more
minority contracting or minority business leaders or minority
scholarships or minority parties. When votes are taken by
legislative bodies I guess it will now be called, "those voting
with the folks who don't have as many votes as the people who have
the most votes".
*A major newspaper group is asking
its writers to refrain from using the term "boy friend"
and "girl friend" because those terms indicate gender and
may not accurately portray the individual relationships. From now on
boy friends and girl friends will be referred to only as "the
person they are seeing or dating". Translated: the paper is
nervous because they can't figure out how to describe gay and
lesbian relationships that don't fit the guy-girl pattern. I guess
"significant other" was too catty. One man's
"significant other" is another man, or woman's bedmate.
*New Jersey schools are removing any
of the God Bless America signs placed on school property as a result
of the September 11th attacks. They're afraid it may violate the
separation of church and state. (At this point I am screaming at my
computer and throwing my tennis shoes. You know how I feel about
that separation BS) This is the same school district that asked its
teachers to refrain from over emphasizing Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln and any of our other traditional patriotic heroes and
presidents in favor of their selected list of folks none of us have
ever heard about. They also suggested removing their pictures from
classrooms.
*In California, the mandated
curriculum in 7th grade classes includes teaching students about the
beliefs of Islam. It includes a day when students are asked to dress
up in traditional Muslim clothing, complete with turbans, eating
their traditional meals, and participating in their own personal
"jihad's", as in holy war. That's refreshing. Of course,
there are no classes that teach about Jesus.
*In Florida, the ACLU decided to drop
its lawsuit against a small town mayor and the city council, which
had approved a proclamation that barred Satan from the city.
Citizens lined up a hundred deep at a public hearing to defend the
proclamation saying it fairly represented the views of the community
and their desire to keep crime out of the city. Wake up ACLU, it was
a symbolic act! So what some women who had an ax to grind didn't
like it because it was on city letterhead.
Okay, I give up. Uncle! Enough
already!
According to a survey by George
Washington University, 86 percent of those questioned feel political
correctness is out of control. A majority of those same respondents
feel political correctness is always politically motivated, that it
is not in response to the wishes of the people but used as a tool to
steer people's thinking. In other words, it's the cart leading the
horse!
Words are powerful and they have
meanings far beyond the letters that appear on a page. By attaching
emotions to those words you can create stereotypes that are almost
impossible to erase. Words like "nigger" and
"chink" and "jewed" and "gypped" are
offensive because of their origins. Unfortunately, most people
haven't the faintest idea where some of these words even came from
which is why they are shocked when they are labeled as racists or
anti-Semitic for using them.
No one is going to argue that in some
cases removing or disciplining ourselves away from certain words or
phrases isn't a good thing. The key is self-discipline, not forced.
Where it crosses the line is when PC asks us to feel guilty or to
abandon our own personal and religious beliefs in the name of social
harmony. Political correctness tries to take things we hold near and
dear and water them down or make them seem evil. It reminds me too
much of Joseph Stalin or Adolph Hitler and his master race.
The ultimate goal of a free society
should not be to turn us into one monolithic glob. And make no
mistake about it, that's the goal of PC, scuttling what we have
known in the past and creating something that makes us all
"feel better." They preach diversity but wield public
condemnation like a sledgehammer. Religious people should not be
forced or shamed into compromising their ideals by the misguided
notion that abandoning them in the name of harmony is the greater
good. Offending someone and disagreeing with someone is not the same
as killing them. Hello!!!!!!!!!!
We joke a lot about PC maybe because
it's just so danged obvious and so maddening. It gives talk radio
plenty of ammunition. But there's nothing funny or innocent about a
group of people, some call them liberals, or media, or college
professors, or the NOW gang, who've learned the way you change
institutions is not with giant sweeping laws, but by dismantling or
redefining our notions…one word at a time!
Al Ruechel, copyright 2001, all
rights reserved
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