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In this country, both left and right, feverishly claim to defend the right of free speech, but that obviously only applies when what is written or said neatly fits inside the party lines. I challenge you to think beyond the limitations of what we have been taught is acceptable. I challenge you to speak unfettered, unfiltered, and without regard for the fear that is induced by clinically imposed political correctness. I was recently reminded by our friendly commentation that we are all free to speak our thoughts as long as they don’t offend anyone. I still think that I learned everything I need to know about life while in kindergarten. In this case, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”   

What is a disease? Main Entry: dis·easeFunction: nounPronunciation: di-'zezEtymology: Middle English disese, from Middle French desaise, from des- dis- + aise ease1 obsolete : TROUBLE 2 : a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs normal functioning : SICKNESS, MALADY3 : a harmful development (as in a social institution)

 What’s harmful to one may be just a revolutionary’s dream to another, so let’s look a little deeper. Critics of political correctness claim it to be a Marxist-inspired effort targeting all Western values.  

Peter Hitchens wrote in his book The Abolition of Britain, "What Americans describe with the casual phrase ... political correctness is the most intolerant system of thought to dominate the British Isles since the Reformation."

 Critics argue that political correctness is censorship and endangers free speech by limiting what is considered acceptable public discourse, especially in university and the political forums. University of Pennsylvania professor Alan Charles Kors and lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate, connect political correctness to Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse, particularly his claim that liberal ideas of free speech were, in fact, repressive, viewing this "Marcusean logic" as the base of speech codes formulated in American universities. Some conservative critics of political correctness argue that it is a form of coercion rooted in the assumption that in a political context, power refers to the dominion of some men over others, or the human control of human life; by this argument, ultimately, it means force or compulsion. So, it’s okay to argue against Bush and his Patriot Act, which aim to limit a number of civil liberties, but it isn’t okay for a television anchor to say “illegal aliens’ instead of “un-documented workers.” Sounds like a double standard to me, but I didn’t go to Harvard and I don’t call myself a hyphenated-American either, so what do I know? They claim that by silencing contradiction, their opponents entrench their views as orthodox, and eventually cause it to be accepted as true, as freedom of thought requires the ability to choose between more than one viewpoint. Now, our friendly but smurfishly-blue enough commentator will no doubt disagree with me on this one, but I think we should each revolt against this forced Orwellian utopia.  To be fair, the left doesn’t monopolize this new dogma. President Bush has an abyssmal approval rating now, but let’s re-visit March 10, 2003. It was the height of post 9/11 patriotism and one only need to cite the millions of yellow ribbons on automobiles as proof of a different political climate. During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, several weeks after their Grammy success, the country band the Dixie Chicks performed in London at the Shepherd's Bush Empire theatre.  

The band introduced their song "Travelin' Soldier", during which Natalie Maines, a Texas native, was quoted by The Guardian as saying, "Just so you know, [...] we're ashamed that the President of the United States [ George W. Bush ] is from Texas." Though this is the official circulation of the comment, the full text of the statement Maines made was as follows: “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”

 Does anyone remember the uproar over the comments? My point is that freedom of speech is much like the right to bear arms; we may not agree with all that it encompasses under the Constitution, but that does not grant any of us the right to tailor it at the expense of another. Political correctness is about control. It is not about promoting equality and it surely does little to advance it.  

'Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don't seem to see this.' ––Doris LessingHow ironic it would be if the conquest of world Communism were only to result in its revival in cultural form, as a kind of psychological deprivation that perceived the self as a spiritual nullity. What a triumph for the forces of totalitarianism if, by a mere verbal substitution of the word 'incorrect' for 'subversive,' they could retire the familiar apparatus of social repression (intimidation, imprisonment, torture, murder, blackmail, exile) and implement an invisible censorship to promote the Marxist worldview. The police state would no longer require vast bureaucracies of agents and informants, Gulags and labor camps, to suppress dissent and achieve its utopian social goals; it need only indoctrinate men to police their own thoughts. --William B. Fankboner

 Another example of the hidden assault on your freedom of speech:U. S. Congresswomen Pat Schroeder's complained that current specifications for the cockpits of fighter aircraft conformed to only 85% of the general population. Fighter cockpits should accommodate 95% of the population, insisted the stalwart egalitarian. Aeronautical engineers patiently explained that an ejection seat designed to hurl a 250 pound man clear of a mach 2 fighter, would toss a 100 pound woman into the stratosphere. If you carefully read the example above, you can begin to see a practical exercise in the futility of political correctness. If engineer’s listened to the politician, then the safety of many female pilots would have certainly been endangered, but at least they would have been treated equally. See, that is but one of the problems with having political spokes holes such as the Sharptons and the Gores of the worlds. They scream loudly as advocates of what will make them look good in certain circles, but without care for the very real impacts that they will have on the rest of us. With those excellent examples of over-hyped do-nothings, let’s mention the great debate on GLOBAL WARMING.  First, I’ll be fair to say that Al Gore bores me to tears. The only thing redeeming about the Clinton presidency seems to be that Al Gore never took over. On the other hand, we all remember Dan Quayle. Back on subject; it remains to be seen whether or not global warming has been sufficiently proven, but one thing seems to be painfully clear every time I visit my grocer. The growing of corn that is used for ethanol production has greatly impacted the food supply on the world market. I really wish that we will more slowly examine the possible ramifications of accepting something out of mass hysteria in the future, when the next Gore-like figure claims to be the absolute authority on any subject. 

An invention of the educated elite, political correctness is essentially a class phenomenon, i.e. designer morals for yuppies of uneasy conscience.Socioeconomic groups informed by the stark exigencies of survival have shown little interest in the hair-splitting subtleties and scholastic quibbling of victim taxonomy.  --William. B. Fankboner 

Political correctness is the triumph of sensitivity over truth; but it is more than and less than that. The following editorial appeared on May 5, 2003, in The Desert Sun, a newspaper of the Gannet chain located in the Palm Springs area: 

Those who use Indian names for mascots or sports teams probably don't intend to offend anyone, but the point is that they do. As a state, it's time to reassess our thinking and the pay heed to the sensitivities of American Indians. The tool available to begin the sea change in act––and attitude––is Assembly Bill 2115. The proposed legislation aims to protect tribes from having names traditionally associated with Indians such as "Redskins" or "Braves" used for mascots or teams names by the state's public schools. There are those who trivialize the issue, saying tribes should be more concerned about unemployment, health care and poverty on the reservations than about sports team caricatures. But this issue transcends a distorted cartoon. For any student of history, it is apparent such caricatures are rife with racism. It is that simple. The bill has support from a broad range of educational and Indian organizations, and rightly so. According to the March issue of Sports Illustrated, 83 percent of Indian nationally want professional sports teams to stop using Indian Names. How many times and in how many ways do they need to deliver that message? The time has come for sports teams in California to stop turning to Indian-themed mascots to generate cheers. It brings shame to the teams and to the schools. It's time to take the issue to a higher plane.

The education of America has become a lightning rod for PC revisionism. As America continues to slide further down the list on science and math scores as compared to other industrialized nations, this is what we are concerned with? Johnny may not be able to read and write so well, but at least he’ll be able to know the politically correct and appropriately hyphenated term for his classmates. Hurrah! 

The latest cause célèbre of the victims' revolution is cash reparations for the descendants of American slaves. With an unerring instinct for lurid controversy unmatched even by the tabloid press, Harper's Magazine conducted a forum in its pages called, "The Case for Reparations." One would have thought that the casualties of the American Civil War had gone a long way toward the cancellation of that debt. Perhaps a visit to America's Civil War cemeteries would appease the twice- and thrice-removed 'victims' of nineteenth century slavery. But in a movement that is about the here and now, historical amnesia is the order of the day, and explains why PC partisans have never bothered to deal with several inconvenient facts surrounding Negro victimology. Consider, for example, the curious affinity of African-Americans with Islam and Muslim names. It was not Christian missionaries, but North African Arabs and Berbers who organized and ran the black slave trade in the African interior. Similarly, there is no linguistic evidence that 'welshing' on a debt is a slur on the inhabitants of Wales (the verb originated in the resistance of Welsh school children to English language instruction), yet its use is forbidden by the PC handbook. When the coin of the realm is moral indignation, historical truth is a devalued currency. -- William. B. Fankboner

 I leave you with this excellent speech from the recently deceased Charlton Heston: 

…As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated. For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr.King in 1963 - long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist. I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe. I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite. Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.

From time to time, friends and colleagues, they're essentially friends from Time Magazine, say how dare you speak your mind. You are using language not authorized for public consumption!" But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys - subjects bound to the British crown.Let me read a few examples. At Antioch college in Ohio, young men seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process from kissing to petting to final copulation ... all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive. In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDs --- the state commissioned announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not..... need not..... tell their patients that they are infected. At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team "The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name. In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery. In New York City, kids who don't speak a word of Spanish have been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely because their last names sound Hispanic. At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students. Yeah, I know ... that's out of bounds now. Dr. King said "Negroes." Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March said "black." But it's a no-no now. For me, hyphenated identities are awkward ... particularly "Native-American." I'm a Native American, for God's sake. I also happen to be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife's side, my grandson is a thirteenth generation native American... with a capital letter on "American." Let me tell you a story. A few years back I heard about a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called "Cop Killer" celebrating ambushing and murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Police across the country were outraged. Rightfully so-at least one had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black. I heard Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned some shares at the time, so I decided to attend. What I did there was against the advice of my family and colleagues. I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer"- every vicious, vulgar, instructional word. "I GOT MY 12 GAUGE SAWED OFFI GOT MY HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFFI'M ABOUT TO BUST SOME SHOTS OFFI'M ABOUT TO DUST SOME COPS OFF..." It got worse, a lot worse. I won't read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. The Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that. Then I delivered another volley of sick lyric brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing two 12-year old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore. "SHE PUSHED HER BUTT AGAINST MY ...." Well, I won't do to you here what I did to them. Let's just say I left the room in echoing silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps, one of them said "We can't print that." "I know," I replied, "but Time/Warner's selling it." Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warner's, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk. When a mugger sues his elderly victim for defending herself ... jam the switchboard of the district attorney's office. When your university is pressured to lower standards until 80% of the students graduate with honors... choke the halls of the board of regents. When an 8-year-old boy pecks a girl's cheek on the playground and gets hauled into court for sexual harassment ... march on that school and block its doorways. When someone you elected is seduced by political power and betrays you...petition them, oust them, banish them. When Time magazine's cover portrays millennium nuts as deranged, crazy Christians holding a cross as it did last month ...boycott their magazine and the products it advertises. So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobedience's of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God's grace, built this country. If Dr. King were here, I think he would agree.