Soap Box

This is a very old and a very sore subject for me. I hate political correctness, its smugness, its self righteousness, its deception and the misconception that its application to any subject grabs the high moral ground and covers a multitude of sins, and most politically correct slogans are learned by rote and repeated - whether applicable or not - by people who have never looked behind the meaning of the words, and are just going along with a crowd they consider to be cool.

As in the case of so many social trends and fads I think the original intention of political correctness was honorable, meant to show respect and do away with some of the less than flattering autres noms ignorant people tend to use when referring to other races.

Had it only presented itself as a respectful alternative to improper ethnic and tribal titles it would have been fine, but the politically correct crowd has gotten completely out of hand and insists that centuries old American lexicon be altered to fit their concept of proper social etiquette.

I have nothing against the term African American but, to me, it carries no more respect than saying black, which is a description, not a put down, any more than white is a put down when describing a Caucasian, and besides all blacks did not have their origins in Africa, so the term is not so proper after all.

I've known American Indians almost all my life and never found one who was offended by being called an Indian. It's hardly different from Irishman, Scotsman, German, Russian, Mexican or any other word used to denote origins and heritage.

Now the insanity has gotten so out of hand they're insisting that the name of an NFL football team that has been around for more than three quarters of a century, the Washington Redskins, be changed because they deem it offensive to some Americans. It has never been meant as a degrading term. If Redskins is racist and needs to be changed, should we change the name of the state of Oklahoma? It means "red people" in Choctaw.

This bunch of semantic fanatics really disgusts me. As Jesus said in the Bible, they gag on a gnat and swallow a camel, always dealing with the superficial, the skin deep meaningless little insignificant details and patting themselves on the back for being so compassionate, never even looking at or dealing with the real problems that beset the people who's ethnicity they are so concerned with protecting.

For instance, it would seem to me that it would be much more beneficial to attack the very real problem of drug and alcohol addiction on the Indian reservations around the nation than worrying about changing the name of a football team.

Or wouldn't it be much more humane to draw attention to the myriad of men who scatter their seed around the inner city, father ten or twelve children by different teenage mothers and never pay a cent toward the their support? Wouldn't a campaign to force these creeps to live up to their responsibilities be a much bigger contribution to society?

And wouldn't it be better for the American Muslim community to be subjected to a little scrutiny rather than for our country to suffer another horrible terrorist attack?

And shouldn't police officers who take their lives in their hands every day of the week to protect and serve have the right to stop and question a suspicious acting character who could be carrying an illegal firearm that he could use at any second?

And shouldn't the people who patrol our borders and handle our immigration enforcement be able to use every tool at their disposal to keep dangerous and undesirable people from being in our country?

And shouldn't American citizens be able to walk down the streets of their cities without being aggressively accosted by scary looking street people, many of which look fit and able bodied enough to hold down a job?

Is it right when the best intentions of good Americans are ridiculed and belittled simply because their agenda is not politically correct enough for this self-proclaimed gaggle of do gooders?

Is it right to give a job to a minority citizen simply because of the color of their skin when there is a much more qualified candidate of the majority race available and vice versa.

Can't we all just be Americans? Not African Americans, Asian Americans etc., but just plain old Americans, responsible for our own actions, our own productivity, our own families.

Martin Luther King spoke some words that I wish were part of our federal papers about judging a man, not by the color of his skin, but the content of his character.

Words to live by.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God bless America

Charlie Daniels​