Contributors
Sharon Hughes- Contributor

A researcher, writer and public speaker Sharon is the President and Executive Director of The Center for Changing Worldviews, a non-profit corporation founded for the purpose of increasing the conservative, pro-family voice in a predominantly liberal society. Sharon produces and hosts Changing Worldviews TALK Radio which is the media outreach of The Center, and is heard Monday, Wednesday and Friday on KDIA AM1640 San Francisco/Vallejo and online daily at Oneplace.com. Sharon has worked to promote civic responsibility on the grassroots level since 1992 through various organizations such as Eagle Forum, so that America will continue to be a land of liberty, respect for human dignity and family integrity, as well as public and private virtue. For further information on Sharon and The Center go to www.changingworldviews.com or contact her at sharon@changingworldviews.com [go to Hughes index]

The PC Police
Political correctness dominates the culture…
[Sharon Hughes] 4/8/04

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.

Extreme PC can result 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...an example of the effects of the "EC" (environmental) police.

And what about the UN and PC? Well, CEDAW, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women's treaty would "eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization or enterprise," including "customs and practices" and "public institutions." This would, of course, include mandating a gender-neutral combat 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. Does anyone remember its atrocities?

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. CRO

© Sharon Hughes 2004 - Used with permission

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