As we grow up there are things people are
going to say that will hurt our feelings.
It’s an inevitable fact of human existence. In the America where I grew up, if anybody said
something that hurt your feelings, you were taught to ignore it. You weren’t supposed to let the words
someone said to have power over you. We
were taught when hearing hurtful words to instantly turn toward
our tormentor and say “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will
never hurt me.”
Sticking
out your tongue or turning around and patting your behind was also an acceptable response when combined with the sticks and stones
phrase. This often took away the
emotional power of the tormentor and the person being tormented learned how to
not let things bother them.
It
appears that government officials in Seattle have never heard of the power of the sticks
and stones phrase. They may have heard
it, but understood it to say “Stick and stones will break my bones but the government will
not permit you to say anything politically incorrect that could cause the
slightest bit of emotional discourse for people who can use it in the media to gain
attention.”
This
is a bit a mutation from the phrase that I learned. I suppose the original has lost some of its luster through the years.
Here is an excerpt from a story that was run on
Foxnews on August 2, 2013.
Government
workers in the city of Seattle have been advised that the terms
"citizen" and "brown bag" are potentially offensive and may
no longer be used in official documents and discussions.
Citizen and brown bag are “potentially” offensive
and can’t be used? Huh? (Sarcasm Alert) I’m certain that
every person who has served in the military to protect and defend the Constitution
of the United States feels wonderful about a government entity in our country banning
words. I’m certain that Seattle
government officials would ban the vast number of expletives I could use to
describe their stupid behavior. It gets better.
“For
a lot of particularly African-American community members, the phrase brown bag
does bring up associations with the past when a brown bag was actually used, I
understand, to determine if people's skin color was light enough to allow
admission to an event or to come into a party that was being held in a private
home," Elliott Bronstein, Seattle's Office for Civil Rights said.
According
to the memo, city employees should use the terms "lunch-and-learn" or
"sack lunch" instead of "brown bag."
If I were to meet Elliott Bronstein I would look him
squarely in the face and ask some very important questions. “Are you nuts? Are you addicted to some type of an illegal
substance? Have you recently suffered a
traumatic brain injury? Were your
parents actually brother and sister?”
Only a positive response to one of these previous questions would
explain something so ridiculous. A
member of the African American community responded to this article by bursting
out into laughter. I would’ve joined him
if I didn’t feel like screaming until my lungs gave out.
Oh, it gets even better. Elliott was just getting started.
The
word "citizen" should be avoided because many people who live in
Seattle are residents, not citizens. They
are legal residents of the United States and they are residents of Seattle.
They pay taxes and if we use a term like citizens in common use, then it
doesn't include a lot of folks," Bronstein said.
All I heard when I read this quote was “Blah, blah,
blah, I’m Elliott Bronstein Seattle's Office for Civil Rights, blah, blah,
blah. I’m emotionally needy and not too
smart so I have to do something to make myself important. Blah, blah blah, I’ll ban some words and
provide the illusion that I’m being sensitive to others as a way to justify my
excessive government paycheck so blah, blah, blah.”
If there are people in Seattle who feel their
government officials lack the most basic understanding of reality more than any
other government officials in the country; they’d be wrong. When it comes to having government officials
who are completely devoid of commons sense, it appears that New York is number
one.
The
New York Post reported in March 2012 that the city’s Department of Education
avoids references to words like “dinosaurs,” “birthdays,” “Halloween” and
dozens of other topics on city-issued tests because they could evoke
“unpleasant emotions” among the students.
Dinosaurs,
for example, conjures the topic of evolution, which could rile fundamentalists
and birthdays are not celebrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Halloween, meanwhile,
suggests an affiliation to Paganism.
Officials
said such exclusions are normal procedure, insisting it’s not censorship.
“This
is standard language that has been used by test publishers for many years and
allows our students to complete practice exams without distraction,” a Department
of Education spokeswoman told the newspaper last year.
I don’t know if doing that really prevents evoking “unpleasant
emotions” among students. I’m sure banning
those words does evoke some real strong emotions from people who are upset when
blithering idiots in government positions are permitted to make stupid
decision that are ludicrous. It’s bad enough
to have to live with these stupid decisions.
It’s even worse knowing you’re a taxpayer who is providing the funding for it to happen.
So you want to ban words? How about cracker? As a white person this is often used as an
offensive term. I want that word banned
in all government documents and employees are to say they’d like some really
stiff bread with salt for their soup. I
also want enchilada banned. It is a Spanish term and I don’t speak Spanish.
I’m tired of being ridiculed because I don’t speak a foreign
language. I want the term cross dresser
banned. It makes me feel the person is
dressing in the shape of a cross and as a Christian I find that offensive. My last name ends in “ski” and I want all
references to skiing to be banned so you government types can avoid offending me. I want government employees to only refer to this
winter activity as “sliding down snow on long pieces of fiberglass.”
Hey, you people in the New York Department of
Education, Elliott Bronstein and everybody who thinks like them, I was actually
kidding. I know what I wrote in the
previous paragraph probably made sense to you, but I was actually being flippant.
When I discussed my views about this with a person of the
liberal persuasion, they let loose expletives and nasty personal
attacks. I just looked at them and said “Stick
and stones will break my bones, but words from an emotionally needy pathetic
loser like you will never hurt me.”
I know it’s a little different from when I was a kid,
but I guess sometimes you just have to change with the times.
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