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by Sharon Hughes
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Culture Wars Article
The PC (Political Correctness) Police
July 12, 2003
by Sharon Hughes
Chairman is now chairperson; Assemblyman is Assembly person. No more using
the words cowboy or cowgirl, landlady, or landlord. The phrase Founding Fathers
has been removed from America’s textbooks and if used at all, is replaced with
“framers.” Illegal immigrants are now referred to as “undocumented immigrants.”
Realtors have been told by the PC police that the term
walk-in closet is inappropriate to use because it discriminates against
“wheelchair-bound persons,” and the term master bedroom infers slavery.
Easter vacation is now spring break and Christmas is
winter break. You can’t sing traditional Carols in our public schools
any more, although you can have your Junior High student take on a
Muslim name, bow down to recite prayers to Allah, and then play Jihad.
If you were to read the "inclusive" New Testament
translation by the Oxford Press you wouldn't find the word "begat" because
it favors fathers over mothers; evil is not referred to as darkness
and light as good because of its racial inference. Parents no longer
discipline their children but "guide" them, and children
no longer obey their parents but "heed" them. And you would
probably be surprised to see all references to God as Father changed
to "Father-Mother," and Jesus no longer called Master but "teacher" only.
Oh, and Satan is gender-free.
According to Webster’s New World College dictionary,
political correctness is: “conforming or adhering to what is regarded
as orthodox liberal opinion on matters of sexuality, race, etc. usually
used disparagingly to connote dogmatism, excessive sensitivity to minority
causes, etc.”
Feminists have “led the way” in the PC movement pushing
past their stated purpose of “equality”…to dominance. A simple example
brought this into focus for me recently with the pregnancies of our
two daughter-in-laws. The baby books now have all references to baby
as “she,” instead of “he” that my generation read. Now, if you’re going
to go to the trouble of changing all the books, and you are truly interested
in equality, then it should read he/she or if you are really insistent,
she/he.
But the PC police are involved in more than just changing
words. For example, in New Jersey, even though there had been patients
across the nation who had been infected by their dentists with AIDS
and then died, NJ health providers who are HIV-positive do not need
to tell their patients that they are infected.
In New York City, children with Hispanic sounding last
names are placed in bilingual classes to learn in Spanish even though
they don’t speak a word of Spanish.
And extreme PC results in tragic consequences such as
the 14-year-old Boy Scout who had become separated from the rest of
his troop in New Mexico. When a search helicopter finally spotted him,
the Forest Service refused them permission to land and rescue the youth,
because "mechanized vehicles are banned from wilderness areas,”
and that "a life threatening situation did not exist." The
young teen spent another night in the wilderness before the Forest
Service reversed its decision.
Where does the UN come in on the PC issue? Well, how
about CEDAW, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women? Phyllis Schlafly reported in
her May 22, 2002 column: "Article 2 reiterates that the treaty
would 'eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization
or enterprise,' including 'customs and practices' as well as all 'public
institutions.' This would include mandating the longtime feminist goal
of a gender-neutral military."
Then there’s the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
which elevated children’s rights above those of parental responsibility.
And in the name of "third-world-equality" the UN puts countries
at the helm of major committees that have no right being there, such
as Libya heading the UN Commission on Human Rights. Libya? Yes, Libya.
Well, what can we do? Charlton Heston in his address
to a Harvard Law School Forum in 1999 said, “You simply…disobey. Peaceably,
yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely. But when told
how to think or what to say…don’t. If you talk about race, it does
not make you a racist. If you see distinctions between the genders,
it does not make you a sexist…’
Language is powerful. And world shapers understand this.
It’s time to take our language back...and it begins with not giving
in to the PC police, as well as turning the light on for others to
see what's going on in this subtle manipulation of speech in order
to shape policies and worldview.
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