Oh, did I offend You?

Whatever happened to calling a spade a spade? (I'm sure that's not an acceptable term either.) I refuse to be politically correct. We live in a self-made world where anyone can decide to be offended by anything, and a cadre of professional apologists is standing by to wag their fingers and call our language insensitive.

While out at dinner awhile ago, a woman made the mistake of telling me she had a "special" child.

"Why, what can he do?", I asked. If you're going to call someone special, I expect them to be some kind of prodigy, or have a unique ability, like being able to levitate. Mozart was a Special Child. So was Blaise Pascal, H.P. Lovecraft and Niccolo Paganini.

But no, this kid just had Down's Syndrome. Nothing special in that. Thousands upon thousands of people have it worldwide. Downright common, when you come right down to it, so the appellation "special" really doesn't fit. He's retarded, not special. Use the word; it's a perfectly fine, descriptive word. No shame in that, happens in the best of families, etc. When did this culture become such a mealy-mouthed bunch of politically correct hypocrites that everything has to be softened? Special is such a vague word, but retarded is spot-on.

Give me a plain-spoken, direct and unambiguous person over a lingual revisionist any day!

I'm half Irish and half English (and I was born in England). I've never been offended by team name "the Fighting Irish". Why do people think the Irish are always fighting. How many people think the Irish are always getting drunk? Perhaps a team called "The Sober Irish" would be politically correct.

The Irish have a history of literature and music. Perhaps to be politically correct we should say "The Writing Irish" or "The Musical Irish". Being called a "patty" doesn't offend me either. I've also been called a "Limey". Hey, "The Fighting Limeys" sounds like a hell of good soccer team for some university.

Since becoming U.S. Citizen I've been referred to as a gringo, a yank, and an Anglo. The latter is always interesting because I don't think any of my "English" relatives or ancestors were Anglo-Saxon.

Am I insulted? No. Am I amused? Most of the time. Do I care? Not at all.

Incidentally, I don't even drink alcohol (so what kind of Irishman am I?) I rarely drink tea (so what kind of Englishman am I?). I drink decaf coffee (so what kind of "yank" am I?).

I do read Peterman's Eye (so I'm not even politically correct!)

I read the book "How the Irish Saved Civilization". Since I'm half Irish does the world owe me half a favor?

By the way, I call my girl friend my "Aztec Princess". Maybe I should call her my "Aztec Prince" instead.

How does our friend the "Heiress" feel about just being an "Heir"?

Since I served in the U.S. Marines perhaps I can really say I'm one of the "Fighting Irish". I'll drink to that....but then I can't really do that unless a hot cup of Earl Grey tea is acceptable. Although being American maybe it should be "iced tea".

My point? There are words that can be said that imply or express hatred. They shouldn't be spoken. But to changed words to be politically correct because someone is offended (who probably isn't even a member of the group they think is being offended) sounds like a page out of Orwell's 1984.

What worries me most about politically correct language isn't that it seeks to obfuscate the English language, it's that it teaches us to be offended on behalf of others. I have a wonderful Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman joke, as well as several that make fun of the Welsh. Several times I have told them in bars. Someone would invariably lean over and say that they were offended by the joke. I would ask "Are you Welsh?" If they said yes, then I would apologize, but if they said no then I would tell them they have no grounds to be offended, and go on about my business. Apparently most have never encountered this fallacy, and it leaves them sputtering.

What also bothers me is how it becomes not only linguistic revisionism, but historical revisionism as well. I can't count how many times I've been corrected for saying "garbage man" when the fellow in question was indeed a man. The founding fathers were all male. Why deny that fact? Sure, I consider it very important to confront the assumptions of racism, sexism, and all that, but I think the way to do that is by actually confronting them. Erasing any mention of the old assumptions is merely sweeping them under the rug. If you ever want to teach how far this country has come in overcoming racism, sexism, and classism, you need to be willing to admit that this country was founded by rich white men.

To: Mr. Roush

Well said. I'd don't mind jokes that make fun of stereotypes that make fun of my heritage. (see my comment above). There's probably some historical basis for the stereotype anyway. For example, the Irish were often called "Cabbage Heads" because the supposed cure for a drunk Irishman was to eat a cabbage. There are parts of cities called "cabbage town" where Irish immigrants lived. The basis could have been true, satirical or dislike. Who cares. The key is to laugh and then through your actions disprove the stereotype.

But since I'm an "almost" rich white man" my point of view doesn't matter.

You know I agree with some politically correct statements, but others are just retarded... opps I mean mentally handicap. For instance, I am not religious by any means but having schools call their Christmas break, winter break because some people don't celebrate that holiday is silly... we might as well call it Chirsmahanakwanzica to fit everyone in. America as a nation has gotten to sensitive and that sensitivity has weakened this country. Speaking your mind and telling it how it is was the very foundation of our nation. If we didn't speak up and tell the Brits what we thought about them and what they were doing we would still be apart of British territory, the land were the sun never sets. I am very bad about being politically correct and considering my future career in public service I might need to work on that. I can't very well walk up to the microphone in the capital building during my State of the Union and say, "My god, look at the freaks in here."

Everyone is so easily offended these days by seemingly the most mundane things, and yet things that people should be offended by seem to just roll off them. Perhaps because the big stuff is just so overwhelming we turn to the little things. I think our energies would be better spent towards getting upset over the big things, like genocide, war, pillaging and raping, being held and arrested without due process, etc.

Being if Irish lineage, I would like to thank the University of Notre Dame for their mascot. The little leprechaun guy with his fists in the air is a great symbol: The Fighting Irish. It represents the strength and determination of a group of people, and celebrates their spirit. The same can be said for The Fighting Sioux of the University of North Dakota. If anything, we need MORE university and team mascots like this.

We lose sight of culture when we sanitize everything, and delete our genealogy from the picture. For example, Stanford University used to be "The Indians." Now they are "The Cardinal." No, not the bird, the color called "cardinal." That's like naming your team, "The Purple," or "The Slightly Ecru." How lame. If North Dakota changes their team name to something like, "The Hunter Green and Rosy Pinks", then we I ask why we even bother giving teams a name at all? How about just a number, like a SKU, or a License Plate? That would be the ultimate in name-sanitation. If political correctness goes any further, the next time you're at a football game you might be yelling, "GO DEE TWELVES!" or "GO FIFTY-THREE BEES".

I feel that Santa has mostly been effected by political correctness. "Ho Ho Ho" says Santa Claus. Not any more. This jolly laugh now refers to black, sorry, African American women in rap songs. Goodbye to Ho Ho Ho in the malls at Christmas.

Poor Santa cannot even say "Merry Christmas" anymore. It must be "Happy Holidays" to cover the many religious groups.

And now Santa needs to lose some weight. Apparently some group with too much time on their hands has stated that Chris Kringle sets a bad example for our ever expanding younger population.

What the f**k is happening. Have we all gone freaking MAD!!!

By and large, I agree. The gentleman who advocates courtesy and sensitivity has a point but, almost by definition, these attributes must be voluntary. They should not be imposed by an outsider.

One important note, however:

"I think the real irony is that Political Correctness has become the thing it was supposed to correct. It would all be a joke if it wasn't so dangerous to free thought, free speech, common sense and, yes, progress."

Although, in the context we are discussing, this is essentially true, one historical fact should be noted:

The phrase "politically correct" was first coined in the Soviet Union under Stalin. Halting free speech, common sense, and progress is EXACTLY what it was meant to do. And the concept of political correctness predates the actual phrase. Consider Reinhart Heidrich: Instead of saying "We'll exterminate all the Jews," he preferred to say "The final solution to the Jewish problem."

At the end of the day, political correctness is simply the use of language to say what you don't mean.

And another thing..! Look what PC has done to English grammar. One now has to construct the sentence to read, "EveryONE take out THEIR book..." The generic HE and HIS is definitely not PC so we have to tear up the ol' English grammar book and come up with all sorts of constructions that my sophomore high school English teacher would definitely NOT approve of... of which she would not have approved. I think we have really painted ourselves into a corner if we can't even construct a proper sentence because we are trying to keep things so inoffensive. I am offended by the necessity of throwing out proper English construction just to keep from offending some insecure female somewhere. And I'm a female!