Category Archives: Political Correctness

jeremy traum for the boston globe

When an anti-Muslim activist group organized March Against Sharia rallies in cities across the country in June, it wasnt the first time Americans gathered to fight a suspicious religion from overseas. One August evening in 1834, a small mob gathered with torches and weapons on a dark hillside in what is now Somerville, intent on battling a grave threat: Roman Catholicism. Squinting up at the Mount Benedict Convent of the Ursuline nuns, the crowd swapped stories of outrages committed behind its walls: nuns sexually exploited, novices forced to wear painful corsets, starved, tortured.

These patriots could not understand why their Protestant leaders not only tolerated such evils, but even sent their own daughters up to the convent. The nativists understood they needed to take matters into their hands. So they did. They tore apart the convent, tossing pianos from its upper windows, smashing sculptures, damaging paintings, and scouring the compound for elusive victims. Finding none, they reduced the convent to a smoldering heap, cheered for a while, and went home.

Advertisement

Mount Benedict Convent is long gone. Americas religious tensions are not as officials in Texas showed this summer, when the state became the eighth to legislate against the infiltration and incursion of foreign laws and foreign legal doctrines, especially Islamic Sharia law. To Muslims, Sharia is form of canonical law meant to govern how believers interact with one another and how their society runs; while there are moderate interpretations of Sharia, American media coverage generally deploys the term in connection with the fundamentalist vision of groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda.

As a historian of 19th-century Boston, I see parallels between the anti-Sharia activists and the antebellum nativists who claimed that Irish immigrants were loyal to the pope, not the United States; who saw Catholic parochial schools as evidence of an unwillingness to assimilate; and who insisted that the Vatican was preparing to invade America via a tunnel it was digging beneath the Atlantic seabed.

Just as the rumors of abuse at Mount Benedict proved baseless, theres little evidence that American Muslims desire, let alone seek, the implementation of Sharia law. Critics have thus dismissed the anti-Sharia movement as nothing more than a thinly veiled prejudice, part of our habitual suspicion that certain ideologies, religions, and ethnicities are plotting the countrys downfall.

Global trends toward interconnection, economic growth, social progress, and stronger civil society have not completely bypassed the Islamic world.

Yet our history of conspiracy theorizing and racial paranoia doesnt fully explain the timing of all this anxiety about Sharia. Why has Sharia law has become a mainstream preoccupation now, rather than, say, after 9/11? A history of religious bigotry doesnt explain why the most feared weapon of Islamist radicals has shifted from bombings and hijackings to a theological doctrine.

While the anti-Sharia movements growing profile might suggest otherwise, only a slightly larger percentage of Americans suspect US Muslims of anti-Americanism today than in 2002.

Advertisement

The question is: What has prompted the outcry against Sharia now, nearly a generation after the attack on the World Trade Center, when public suspicions of Islam have increased but little? The case of Mount Benedict suggests that conspiracy beliefs about social minorities often propagate when social majorities themselves become divided. Catholicism became a flashpoint then, just as Islamic law is today, because rapidly evolving standards of politeness were leaving many Americans behind.

As it turns out, shifts within a community for instance, in the way middle-class, native-born citizens treat one another have profound effects on how members of that community view those on the outside.

Get This Week in Opinion in your inbox:

Globe Opinion's must-reads, delivered to you every Sunday.

The link between etiquette and Islamophobia comes into view in a 2016 Pew Research Center survey, conducted just as conservatives were excoriating the Obama administration for denouncing violent extremism instead of the more pointed radical Islamic terrorism. In that Pew survey, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 17 percent in believing that religious teachings, not violent people, bear the greater blame for religious violence. However significant, this partisan gap wasnt nearly as large as that elicited by another survey question: How should the incoming president speak about terrorism carried out in the name of Islam? By a margin more than twice larger, Democrats preferred caution; Republicans, bluntness.

Taken together, the two statistics suggest that Americans dont disagree nearly as much about violence and religion as they do about manners. So what do manners have to do with nativist suspicions? Quite a lot, if we reflect on the Mount Benedict episode.

Then and now, constitutional freedoms were thought to be at risk, and fears of an insurgent foreign faith sometimes combined with reigning norms of chivalry. Nineteenth-century nativists used their version of social media, cheaply printed tracts, to swap lurid tales of oppressed young women confined in both dress and spirit by a sexually repressive faith.

Todays anti-Sharia activists attribute the appeal of a dangerous and unsavory faith to poor education and brainwashing. The 19th-century nativists similarly believed that Catholics needed to be taught to read, and think, and act for themselves, or so proclaimed the anti-Catholic Rev. Lyman Beecher before a crowd on Boston Common, shortly before the Mount Benedict incident.

A conspicuous part of the mob, and that most responsible for allowing Mount Benedict to burn, consisted of Bostons volunteer firemen. Unlike todays professional fire departments, antebellum volunteer fire companies were highly fluid and drew members from many walks of life, from successful merchants to humble laborers. What the volunteer firemen did share was a rowdy sense of culture: They felt at home in an older, rougher masculine culture that revolved around drinking, fighting, and displaying physical prowess.

By the 1830s, that culture was on a collision course with a more feminized bourgeois urban society that increasingly eschewed displays of violence, embraced temperance, and, starting that decade, consumed etiquette manuals by the dozens. As the historian Karen Halttunen has shown, the genteel conventions explained in those manuals struck many Protestants as troublingly akin to Catholic ritual. Protestants understood their own religion as one of sincerity and spontaneous feeling. Catholicism and bourgeois manners appeared the opposite: practices of formulaic incantations that impressed the simple-minded but lacked real meaning.

This helps explain why the mob that pulled apart the convent didnt just commit violence, but rudely impersonated priests and inquisitors before it tore the convent apart. Their choice of target was no accident in this regard. The fancy Ursuline Convent was where the richest Protestant Bostonians sent their daughters to learn the very refined social manners that the firefighters disdained.

Anti-Catholic and anti-Irish sentiment bear the greatest blame for the attack, but not all of it. What the Protestant nativists found so alien in the Ursuline Convent wasnt just the Catholic faith, but the affected mannerisms of so many Americans who suddenly thought themselves members of the middle class. While much of the grievance against the nuns of Convent Hill stemmed from prejudices as old as the Reformation, another crucial trigger was an identity crisis within Protestant society.

Charlestown Historical Society

A wood engraving depicts the aftermath of the riots of 1834. Anti-Catholic sentiment and resentment over changing manners had boiled over into violence.

Todays anti-Sharia movement emerges during a similar crisis of manners. In 2017, the issue is not so much dining or handshaking etiquette, but political correctness. A senior editor at The Atlantic recently offered this unflattering comparison: Political correctness requires more than ordinary courtesy: Its a ritual, like knowing which fork to use, by which superior people recognize each other. Other critics of PC culture go further, comparing its rigidity and abstruseness to a form of religious dogma Sharia law for snowflakes, as one Fox News personality memorably put it.

For its champions, political correctness isnt intended to oppress or exclude, but to encourage acceptance and inclusion. Champions of PC culture thus find its critics not only unjustified, but disingenuous and hypocritical. In their view, conservatives (along with occasional liberals such as Bill Maher) who carp about trigger warnings and tone-policing are ultimately concerned with maintaining a safe space in which to air their own retrograde views.

Yet this dismissal may be too cynical. When cultures adopt new scripts, insecurities bubble up, sometimes within social categories but often across them.

Along with a majority of whites, nearly a third of African-Americans believe that Americans are too quick to take offense at remarks made by those of other backgrounds. In Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness, the anthropologist John L. Jackson found African-Americans unsettled by political correctness, not because it overturns racial attitudes, but because it requires their concealment. When racism was explicit, obvious, and legal, there was little need to be paranoid about it, Jackson explains.

The backlash against political correctness has a social dimension. While popular culture would have us assume that a sense of exclusion fuels conspiracy theories, recent psychological research suggests that such theories are less likely to thrive among solitary, isolated individuals.

Instead, conspiracy beliefs are more likely to propagate when people who feel uncertain about themselves receive messages of inclusion from others with similar concerns. Our polarized society has provided both conditions of late. The specter of PC manners has engendered uncertainty among many Americans, who in turn find inclusion among the like-minded at Trump rallies and other spectacles of anti-Sharia sentiment.

We need to consider that this combination of defensiveness and acceptance may encourage conspiracy beliefs about minority groups such as Muslims, even when the original social suspicions arent especially focused on those minorities. Put simply, the targets of our insecurities arent necessarily their true source.

As one 2015 study on the subject concludes, Conspiracy beliefs actually emerge from social motives namely, a genuine concern for other people that are victimized, endangered, deceived, or otherwise threatened.

The importance of self-uncertainty may be key to understanding the spread of nativist conspiracy theories of the antebellum period and today, and not just in the way suggested by reams of articles analyzing support for President Trump. The Trump phenomenon, most analyses suggest, stems from broad class and racial insecurities: fear of what a black president means for whiteness, or of how Latino immigration threatens white communities. Group status anxiety, according to this view, drives the paranoid style.

martin draper

A period map shows the ruins on Mount Benedict in what is now Somerville.

In fact, the collective insecurity we experience in our encounters with other races may provoke less paranoia than the intimate experiences of our still largely intraracial lives. Whatever comfort racially insecure whites find within the homogeneity of their communities and churches is bound to be lost when their own once-trustworthy white acquaintances start questioning their jokes.

The antebellum experience again suggests a parallel. At the peak of anti-Catholicism, anti-Masonry, and anti-Mormonism, social and economic opportunities were not shrinking but expanding for white Protestant men. Slavery remained relatively unchallenged, and Indian removal made land cheap and readily available. In Boston, immigration did little at first to increase competition for skilled labor; the immigrant Irish took pick-and-shovel jobs or worked as domestics. The relative status of non-elite whites had rarely been better.

Yet even under these rosy conditions, a significant number of white Protestants believed the pope was digging that tunnel under the Atlantic. Others believed that Masons were overthrowing the government. Still others swore that Mormons were kidnapping helpless young white women.

In August 1834, one group of these men, set apart from the mainstream of Boston society not by race, class, or religion, but by their increasingly unacceptable manners, acted out a paranoid fantasy.

None of this should encourage us to deny the reality of Islamophobia or its ultimate foundation in our religious, racial, and foreign policy history. But the recent alarm over Sharia may be more than just a knee-jerk response to unfamiliar forces. It as likely originates in the misinterpreted experience of many Americans: having their speech and behavior judged by to a new and apparently alien code.

Dealing with Islamophobia requires more than just refining our manners. It means the difficult and presently unpopular work of empathizing with those who seem to neither desire nor deserve the effort.

See more here:

How political correctness led to Islamophobia - The Boston Globe

What's Inside? Suing drug companies won't end addiction, Common sense is out the window.

Dear Centennial School Board members, Board Chair and school officials:

First, let me thank you for your volunteerism and service to the Centennial School District and families therein.

I am writing in that I am very displeased with the actions pertaining to the naming of Lynch schools.

This is a solution looking for a problem.

Whoever came up with the idea of renaming the schools needs their own sensitivity training.

As the Oregonian and others have widely quoted, this is a teachable moment." Aren't the schools about education? Shouldn't every child in the third grade learn how their education would be quite different if not for the generosity of the Lynch family?

The schools need attention to real issues and not political correctness.

What next? Ban education on Washington and Jefferson as they held slaves? Rename Washington, D.C.? to just the "District"? Should former Attorney General Lynch be forced to change her name?

Please stop this nonsense. There is enough real work at hand.

Thank you.

Wes Bell

Gresham

I read the July 28 Outlook article about Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury, who wants to sue Big Pharma (the makers of prescription opioid painkillers) to recoup the cost of handling the opioid "epidemic."

Her tactic appears to involve getting a declaratory judgment that such pharmaceuticals are a public nuisance.

That's a legal stretch, especially since she employs a county medical officer who has thereby failed to manage this crisis. Shared liability will kill this lawsuit, were any liability to be found at all.

More to the point, perhaps Kafoury might consider not working so hard to attract so many addictive personalities to this county in the first place. The addicts are the nuisance, not the drug-makers or their product.

George Schneider

Gresham

The Centennial School Board has proposed omitting the name Lynch from two grade schools

because the name is offensive. Educating the public with a plaque on the school about the Lynch family and its land donations for educational purposes would be more appropriate and less expensive.

Educators within the district have told me that school shirts to be issued this fall have already omitted the name Lynch.

So much for public input. Will this silliness ever end?

What would they do If I said I was offended by boys in school with the name Peter or Dick? Are the names Merry or Sonny too cheerful for depressed students to handle? How about Jewish names offending Christians and Christian names offending Jewish people?

We want to be fair to everyone don't we?

What ever happened to common sense? I wonder what the Lynch family has to say about this slap in the face.

Sharon Drew

Portland

Read the rest here:

LETTERS: Political correctness has been taken too far - Pamplin Media Group

Political correctness can be like a nagging cold. Its bothersome and a little painful, but it wont put you in the hospital or kill you.

Take the recent news out of Princeton University, the elite Ivy League institution attended by Woodrow Wilson, James Madison, and Jeff Bezos, to name just a few.

Princeton has just created a new position Interpersonal Violence Clinician and Mens Engagement Manager. The job holders first task will be fitting that unwieldy title on a business card.

After that, he or she will seek out and try to eliminate toxic masculinity on campus. You know, as opposed to wholesome masculinity.

Most people just shake their heads at this college nonsense. It probably wont do much lasting damage. Unless, that is, youre a tuition-paying parent of a Princeton student.

The school estimates that it will set you back about $67,000 a year perhaps $67,150 after this latest hire.

Not to be outdone, the University of Iowas student newspaper has discovered a heretofore unknown and unfair privilege intelligence.

The paper theorizes that cognitive privilege is kind of like white privilege, conferring unearned benefits on people who were blessed by accident of birth.

Again, this is relatively innocuous, and its pretty obvious that whoever dreamed up cognitive privilege has not been affected by that particular malady.

In the adult world, at this very moment progressives are incensed at the Department of Justice. Thats because the DOJ is using the term illegal alien, which is a highly offensive expletive in some circles.

Unfortunately for the easily offended, illegal alien is the very precise and official term for people who are in this country without permission.

They are aliens, and they are here illegally.

Hence, illegal aliens.

But the Chicago Tribune, as one example, claims that the term implies that all illegal aliens are criminals. Thats one of those dog whistles that can only be heard by the Tribune writer and his fellow travelers on the far left.

So, yes, political correctness can be almost comical when it dictates which pronoun is acceptable in polite company or how an illegal alien should be described. Just hearing personhole cover can bring a smile to most of us.

But there are far too many cases where P.C. is downright deadly, as it likely was in the death of Justine Damond. As you know, the 40-year-old Australian woman was shot and killed by a cop in Minneapolis. He was the shooter, but political correctness almost surely was an accomplice.

Ultra-liberal city leaders, desperate to find and hire Somalian cops, pinned a badge on Somalia-born Mohamed Noor, who seems to have been temperamentally unsuited for the job. Noor, who killed the pajama-clad woman as she approached the squad car, has yet to explain why he opened fire.

Then there is Sergio Martinez, the illegal alien who had been deported 20 times and returned to allegedly sexually assault at least two women in Portland. The feds had asked Portland authorities to hold Martinez in jail so he could be deported once again, but that sanctuary city doesnt think much of federal law. The meth-addicted thug was released, Portland officials and many residents were able to feel virtuous, but two womens lives have been altered forever.

Of course, the poster boy for P.C. madness is Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, accused of killing Kate Steinle in the sanctuary city of San Francisco. Like his pal in Portland, Lopez-Sanchez was deported time and again before being released back to the streets of San Francisco.

People died at Fort Hood because Major Nidal Hasans colleagues were reluctant to report his erratic behavior and radical sympathies, lest they be called Islamophobic.

Similarly, Omar Mateen, who slaughtered 49 people at an Orlando nightclub, had been questioned by the FBI about his ties to terrorism. We will never be sure whether the hyper-P.C. of the Obama administration played a role in the agencys decision to remove him from the terror watch list.

The same thing has happened time and again throughout the USA and Europe, where P.C. has pretty much replaced God in the hearts and minds of the cognoscenti.

So, yes, we can enjoy a chuckle at the P.C. police, who rigidly try to enforce their laws and punish any malefactors who refuse to play along. But political correctness all too often leads to genuine human suffering.

Actor and director Clint Eastwood recently said about political correctness, We are killing ourselves. He didnt mean it literally, but in fact people have died because of this scourge.

And more will surely die unless we stop the P.C. madness. It is way beyond being a laughing matter.

Read the original here:

Political Correctness Kills - BernardGoldberg.com

Denton County, a small area north of Dallas, is host to a diverse populationofold-timers and college students. Its also home tolocal sheriff Tracy Murphree, whos been makingheadlines thanks to a history of controversial Facebook posts. Following the May terrorist attack atan Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, for example, he called for an end to political correctness and warned against an enemy with an ideology hell bent on killing you.

The post, in which he declared, The left wants to cater to the very group that would kill every group they claim to support . . . What will it take? This happening at a concert in Dallas or a school in Denton County? If we dont do something quick this country will die of political correctness, soon wentviral. Murphree then went public to defend his remarks, which he stands by, though he refused a recent request for comment. During an interview with Fox Business, hesaid that his words were on target and claimed he was simply voicing the thoughts of many others over the last few years. He also stated he wrote the post with his own children and the citizens he is sworn to protect in mind.

[The response] shocked me, said Murphree. I expected a lot of criticism from the left, from liberals, but I expected that more locally than worldwide. I dont understand why a Texas sheriffs Facebook post has gone worldwide.

But the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, issued a statement following the post calling for Murphreeto reaffirm his commitment to equal justice for all county residentsregardless of faith, ethnicity or national origin.

The guy has a serious anger management problem, and sometimes in certain combat situations thats good, but this guys walking the streets as a public safety officer and its just not good to know that something could set him off that shouldnt, said Larry Beck, an active Denton citizen who started Denton Doings, a blog that covers local events. It sets a poor example for his men, too.

Because Murphree is an elected official with a good reputation in law enforcement, there is not much to be done in the way of disciplinary action other than monitoring the behavior and hoping he does not act on his beliefs, according to Beck. However, this is not the first time Murphree has made controversialcommentstargeting minority groups. And some feel that the possibility of violenceis real, either fromMurphree himself or someone inspired by him.

The fact that hes in a reputable position, county sheriff, saying things like thatit doesnt bode well for the city and it can affect others who have the tendency to actually carry out the actions of what some people say, said Beck. That would bother me;that should bother any citizen.

Beck continued, As long as we keep a level head and keep an eye on him, I think hopefully hell either straighten his act out or hell step over that line thatll probably allow us to take legal action against him. I just hope nobody gets seriously hurt or killed in the process before it happens.

Shortly before his 2016 election, Murphree made a different Facebook post, in which he threatened to beat any transgender women unconscious whotried to use the restroom with his daughter.

This whole bathroom thing is craziness I have never seen, Murphree wrote in a post that has since been deleted. All I can say is this: If my little girl is in a public womens restroom and a man, regardless of how he may identify, goes into the bathroom, he will then identify as a John Doe until he wakes up in whatever hospital he may be taken to. Your identity does not trump my little girls safety. I identify as an overprotective father that loves his kids and would do anything to protect them.

Sharon Kremer, who has lived in Denton County her whole life and relies on Murphree as her first responder, also has concerns about the sheriffs behavior, stressing the importance of having a leader with a steady hand, and a cool head.

As an early senior aged, single female, living on a couple of acres by herself, it doesnt make us feel secure, said Kremer, who feels that Murphree could benefit greatly from counseling. Just because we have a Twitter-happy president doesnt mean that thats a model. . . . Its a piece of erratic behavior, and I think all of us would agree that nobody needs to handle firearms and be erratic in behavior, and unsound in judgment, and reactionary. The third strike must come with some kind of consequences.

Citing his right as an American citizen to weigh in on national issues, Murphree continues to speak his mind.

I think political correctness is one of the reasons that these things happen. People are afraid theyre going to be called what Ive been called: a racist, or islamophobe, or a hate mongerer, he said earlier this year. People dont speak out because they dont want to be called those things, and Im not afraid to be called those things. Im not that, I just speak the truth.

View post:

Texas sheriff's Facebook war on political correctness upsets residents - Salon

Maybe I'm getting a better perspective, or perhaps getting worn down. I don't know. But I'm pretty neutral when it comes to the state flag. If I had an ancestor who had died in the Confederate army, or one who was a slave perhaps I would feel differently. Let's review. The flag was officially adopted after the Civil War in April 1894. The referendum for a new design was soundly defeated by 64 percent of voters in 2012. There has been insufficient support to put it back on the ballot in the 2018 election, although, I understand, it could be removed by the Mississippi Legislature should they risk doing so.

Since the shooting of nine black worshipers in a South Carolina church on June 17, 2015 by a white supremacist, there has been a renewed effort to not only change the flag, but also remove other symbols of Confederate history. First the flag: Mississippi is the only state that displays such a flag. After the 2015 shooting, South Carolina removed a separate Confederate flag that they flew alongside their own state flag. Most of our state's universities have removed the state flag. A court in Clarksdale has removed the flag, as has the state Capitol in Jackson.

Next - other symbols of the Confederacy: In 2010 Colonel Reb was replaced by the Black Bear as the official symbol of Ole Miss. Ironically many believe a black man was the inspiration for the Colonel. From 1896 till his death in 1955 blind Jim Ivy attended and supported many Ole Miss athletic events. He famously said: "I have never seen Ole Miss lose!" The politically correct administration at the university has also discontinued the singing of "Dixie" at games. In New Orleans four monuments of Confederate heroes have been removed from public grounds.

Where will this end? 'Ole Miss' is the nickname for a slave owner's wife. Should that go? A building on the campus was built by slaves. Should that be destroyed? But our first President, George Washington, was a slave owner. Should the Washington Monument go? The architect of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, was a slave owner. Should it be ripped up? What about our history books - surely the Civil War needs to be edited severely we'll soon say. Let's not include Sherman's raids (he was a Yankee) when he devastated such towns as Meridian, burning most houses and stealing food (destroying what he didn't need) in the middle of winter in February 1864.

I was not born in the South. In 1957 I immigrated from England. That country too has lost a few battles. On the bank of the River Thames in London there is a statue of Queen Boadicea who ruled ancient Brits immediately before Roman times. Although flogged and her daughters raped, she led her army against the Roman invaders. Eventually she lost, but her statue remains as a reminder of past bravery and history. Shouldn't Mississippi do the same?

Peter Gilderson is a Northsider.

Original post:

Where will all this political correctness end? - Northside Sun

Submitted by mexia2010 on Wed, 08/02/2017 - 4:27pm

By Roxanne Thompson Staff Writer Some doctoral theses elicit a yawn and collect dust, but the thesis Andy Hopkins is working on may elicit sparks among those who value politically correctness. Hopkins is the son of Gwen Bartsch, who has a home at Lake Mexia and is an active member of the Mexia Lions Club. He spent 21 years in the Army, specializing as a Korean linguist, cryptographer and military intelligence officer. Now retired from the Army, Hopkins works at Wacos L3 Technologies, which provides security for military and commercial customers around the world. Hopkins already had an MBA and decided to pursue a doctorate. His thesis is on political correctness and its corrosive effects on peoples lives, freedom and national security. The United States has a history of embracing free speech, he noted, but as political correctness has grown in strength, free speech has suffered, and Americans now have to be fearful of what they say, write and think. We have to be afraid of using the wrong word; a word denounced as offensive or insensitive, racist, sexist or homophobic, he said. Weve seen other countries, particularly in this century, where this has been the case but we now have this situation in our country; and if you do any research in political correctness and where it comes from, your eyes will be opened.

To read more of this story, pick up a copy of Thursday's edition of The Mexia News. Subscribe online or call 254-562-2868.

More here:

Political correctness: The great disease in this century - Mexia Daily News

In response to the July 30 letter to the editor "Part of history lost," I agree that replacing the names of Confederate generals Robert. E. Lee, John Hood, and Nathan Bedford Forrest on local streets in Broward is carrying political coreectness way too far.

Like it or not, this country fought the Civil War, and those generals are part of our national history. George Washington had slaves, and so did seven other sitting presidents, including Thomas Jefferson, who wrote much of our historic laws and documents. Of course slavery was wrong no one disputes that. But would those local idiots wanting to replace the street names advocate removing these historic names from public places as well?

My forebearers fought in the American Revolution, and my ancestors from Pennsylvania fought with the Union in the Civil War. Many in our family are married to descendents of those who served on the Confederate side. We all love each other and respect our forebearers, who did what they believed in during that time period.

From what I have been told, these days very little American history is taught in schools, so it is doubtful that younger people even know who these generals were with the possible exception of Lee. Lincoln stressed "with malice toward none..." and respect for all. That should apply to our nation's history all of it.

In my humble opinion, the current craze of "political correctness" that is sweeping this country has gone far beyond the point of common sense. Let's honor and respect all Americans and try to focus on working together for the common good.

Kathleen Dempsey, Pompano Beach

Continue reading here:

Renaming Hollywood streets takes political correctness too far | Letters - Sun Sentinel

First they came for New Orleans Confederate monuments. Then they came for the Johnny Reb memorial to Confederate soldiers in Orlando, Florida. The Robert E. Lee statue in Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia, is slated for removal pending a court decision. Now, the forces of political correctness have their sights on the five Confederate monuments that line Richmond, Virginias famed Monument Avenue.

The citys Monument Avenue Commission, established by Mayor Levar Stoney to examine the controversy surrounding the monuments in Richmond, began its deliberations on Monday as the commissions first subcommittee the State of Confederate Memorials Group, which is tasked with reviewing how other localities are handling their Confederate monuments, met to examine the issue.

The commissions three other subcommittees are the Historians Review Group, the New Monuments and Interpretation Group tasked with answering the question if monuments are added, where can they best be erected and interpreted? and the Community Engagement Group. These other subcommittees will all have met by Thursday evening, at which time will be held the first of two public hearings on the monuments.

While the commission is an attempt to examine all sides of the monuments controversy, critics say that the fact the monuments are controversial at all is a symptom of left-wing political correctness run amok.

"Contemporary Americans have a tendency to 'forget who we are' and engage in what has become known as political correctness," said Dr. Lee Cheek, dean of East Georgia State College and a senior fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute, to LifeZette. "The advocates of political correctness want to corrupt history for temporary political gains more than they desire to keep or restore it, and their efforts are, sadly, a disease on the body politic."

One such advocate is a local radical left-wing group The Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, which is transparently calling for the commission to manipulate the odds in favor of removal. Not only does the group wish the commission to declare publicly that it is considering the option of removing them, but it also wants to stack the commission with proponents of removal.

The area NBC affiliate, WWBT, reported: "The Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality are calling on the commission to ... invite Richmonders who have already called for the statues to be removed to be on the commission."

"Put these statues in a museum. Not on public land maintained by my tax dollars for a statue that represents something that I hate with every fiber of my being," Phil Wilayto of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality told WWBT. "As long as this statue is up, we are telling the rest of the world that Richmond thinks Robert E. Lee was a pretty cool fellow and the cause he fought for was noble."

"Mr. Wilayton and others want to destroy an historical consciousness that is necessary for our republic to persevere," said Cheek. "As former Secretary of State Rice argued recently, to 'sanitize' history is to do a disservice to the living and the dead. To so freely and cavalierly dismiss Robert E. Lee, for example, who was a truly great figure in American life, is [to] basically suggest the only important people are those in political favor at present."

Unfortunately, if the now fallen monuments in New Orleans and elsewhere are any indication not to mention the countless other examples of political correctness gone mad Wilayton and his allies may be successful in their anti-Confederate crusade. "The operatives of political correctness in New Orleans and Richmond and in other locales have met with some success of late," he observed.

"With Orwellian irony, they succeeded in having a U.S Navy ship named for a person who hated the Navy (Cesar Chavez) and have imposed 'speech codes' (with the actual purpose of restricting speech) on many college campuses as well as more destructive examples of assaulting First Amendment rights and redefining history," Cheekcontinued.

Ultimately, according to Cheek, an assault upon First Amendment rights is fundamentally at the heart of theLeft's assault upon Confederate monuments. "The greatest threat to Mr. Wilayton and his fellow zealots is an environment in which free and uninhibited discussion and disagreement can take place," he said.

"In fact," Cheek said, "diversity of thought is the opposite of political correctness, and is at the heart of a free society. The advocates of removal are really advocating censorship against free and diverse discussion."

(photo credit, homepage image: Billy Hathorn; photo credit, article image: Ron Cogswell)

See the rest here:

The Fight for the Fate of Richmond's Confederate Monuments Begins - LifeZette

When theBroadway musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 had to replace former Hamilton cast member Okieriete Oak Onaodowan, the producers turned to Tony Award-winning actor Mandy Patinkin. The problem some people had with this casting decision? Onaodowan is black. Patinkin is white.

Patinkin was to join the play for a limited run from August 15 to September 3 to keep the production running after Onoadowans departure. But given the backlash from the theater community as well as social media outrage, Patinkin backed out of the play.I hear what members of the community have said, and I agree with them. I am a huge fan of Oak and I will, therefore, not be appearing in the show, the Homeland actor tweeted when he bowed out officially on Friday.

Show creator Dave Malloy tweeted an apology to those outraged, saying,We regret our mistake deeply, and wish to express our apologies to everyone who felt hurt and betrayed by these actions. Malloy had also explained that the bringing in of Patinkin was an effort to boost profits with star power, as ticket sales were catastrophically low after August 13, the date that Onaodowan is set to leave the production.

But what's most fascinating about this entire story is this: The musical is based on a portion of the Leo Tolstoy book "War and Peace," which has an entirely white cast of characters. Onoadowan had even previously replaced Josh Groban, who is white, in his role of Pierre. No one complained then. Not only that, but in the book Pierre is described as "an outcast. The awkward, illegitimate son of a dazzlingly wealthy Count, he was educated abroad but returns to Russia now [that] his father's health is in decline."

The casting of a white actor and then a black actor and then finishing with a white actor suggests the producers were doing exactly what should satisfy social justice warriors: They weren't thinking about race. They were hiring the best actors for the job. Why should the role be an exclusively black role after a black actor does a run as the character?

Most people arefamiliar with the #OscarsSoWhite debate of the past few years, a legitimate observation that the Academy Awards historically have been almost exclusively rewarding Caucasian performers. That situation is clearly improving, but the theater has always faced a tricky balancing act between available talent and available roles in plays and musicals.

Unlike cinema, however, Broadway productions have a fairly non-representational audience. Industry research published by Quartz last year showed that a full 83 percent of domestic theatergoers are white while 4.9 percent are Hispanic, 4.8 percent are black, and 3.9 percent are Asian. Almost exactly paralleling that, 84 percent of actors in Broadway plays are white 74 percent in musicals while only 11 percent of plays and 17 percent of musicals have black performers.

Related: Attacks on Trump at the Tony Awards Fall Flat

The fact of the matter is, too many people who have never actually attended a play or musical are happy to gripe from the sidelines, whatever the imagined slight or offense. And that's what torpedoed Patinkin's chance of playing Pierre in "Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812" even though the original actor was white in the production and even though the original character in the novelthe musical's based upon is white.

Related: Social Justice Warriors Are Trying to Censor This Show

These are the times we live in, when people look at a tiny facet, a sliver, of a far larger story and make snap, knee-jerk decisions about whether it aligns with their sense of fairness and justice or not. As American humorist Mark Twain once wrote, "Never let truth get in the way of a good story." Perhaps he was ahead of his time.

Dave Taylor, based in Boulder, Colorado, has been writing about consumer electronics, technology and pop culture for many years and runs the popular site AskDaveTaylor.com.

Continue reading here:

How Political Correctness Doomed a Broadway Show - LifeZette

Photo: Kin Man Hui /San Antonio Express-News

A reader calls the effort to remove a tribute to Confederate soldiers from Travis Park a frenzy of political correctness.

A reader calls the effort to remove a tribute to Confederate soldiers from Travis Park a frenzy of political correctness.

Honor the past

Re: Move statue, lest we forget what it means, Josh Brodesky, July 23:

It is time to end this mass frenzy of political correctness. Whats next on the agenda, removing Travis and Bowie from the Cenotaph because they were slave owners?

Where does it end before all stand up and say enough is enough?

Those who fought for the Confederacy were not only white. There were also Hispanics, Native Americans and blacks, and you can bet the common soldier, the basic grunt, didnt own slaves.

He was fighting for states rights, the ability to choose and not be dictated to by an all-powerful federal government.

Councilman Robert Trevio has asked, why dedicate precious space to those who fought against America? Well, for Mr. Trevios information, they were Americans fighting for what they believed in, as their forefathers did.

It is our history and our heritage. Honor it and honor them.

They deserve better than what is now being handed out to them.

James Woolums

Bathroom priorities

It appalls me that our values have dropped so low that elements of our society care more about business income than they do about a wifes privacy showering in a health club or a teen daughters privacy changing clothes in a locker room.

Do you think that 19-year-old men arent going to dare each other to invade these areas? And what I hear from local and state levels is a concern about the impact of the bathroom bill on our business income! What about the impact on our people?

What is wrong with us?

Steven J. Marques

Save the trees

I hope King Abbott will listen to the real people of Texas and not the real estate developers pushing for a ban on city tree ordinances.

The city of Rockport has a very strict tree ordinance, and it is administered very fairly to homeowners and developers.

The reason for our ordinance is obvious to visitors and residents when they see our beautiful windswept oaks that have been here for hundreds of years!

If King Abbott gets his way, visitors may see a 7-Eleven where the Big Tree once stood!

Lloyd R. Mathews, Rockport

Trafficking case

The driver of the tractor-trailer truck in which 10 people died from heatstroke and dehydration has stated that, when he parked in the Walmart parking lot, he could hear people inside.

Why didnt he open the trailer when he heard them?

That action alone tells me he knew all along that he was carrying human cargo.

His barbaric actions demand a charge of capital murder.

Ruth E. Webster

Hes no boy Scout

Donald Trump is deservedly receiving strong condemnation for his vulgar, politicized speech at the recent Boy Scout Jamboree.

Heres the irony: When Scouts gather, they solemnly raise their right hand in the Scout salute and recite the Scout Law: A scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent yet our current president possesses none of these characteristics.

Bill Celaya

How do they sleep?

Dear Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and Rep. Lamar Smith:

When can my family receive the same health care coverage you and your family have, which we taxpayers provide? I was just wondering, as I have been asking this question for a long time now. Its remarkable that you can lay down to sleep with the knowledge that your actions cause such pain and uncertainty.

Add to that the obscene tax breaks your bill would have given to the upper 5 percent.

Wait Im sorry youre all Christian devotees. Never mind.

David M. Adkisson

Beg my pardon!

According to the latest buzz, the White House Occupant is inquiring about whom he can pardon should the need arise, including himself.

So, we shouldnt worry that hes coming unhinged if he is seen talking to himself. Hes probably saying, Pardon me!

Rachel V. Diaz-Kennon

Broader collusion

If the Republican members of the House and Senate refuse to acknowledge collusion between the Trump administration and Russia, despite all the proof presented, does this mean they, too, could be guilty of collusion?

I think it does, and it shows these Republicans are choosing party over justice.

Voters, Republican and Democrat, should not forget those actions when they vote.

Ron Soele

Wake up, America

Questions that need to be answered: Why is Donald Trump so avidly against the Russian investigation. Why is he trying to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller from checking his financial records? What is he trying to hide?

Is he arrogant enough to think hes above the law because hes president? He already has the country off balance with his unpredictability.

Congressional Republicans should get over being afraid of Trump and grow a backbone!

Do something before he succeeds in turning America into a second Russia. And dont think it cant happen here, because it can.

People need to wake up and realize what hes doing to our country.

Leafy Travis

More here:

Your Turn: Aug. 2 - mySanAntonio.com