Lexicon of PC

I commented during lunch today that the current administration has provided me with no end of items to write about, to which I received several guffaws. It’s true! Where do I start?

Let’s see, because I’m an Evangelical Christian, according to the latest Lexicon of Political Correctness, this makes me a right-wing extremist. This would mean I am a subversive. In a word – I’m a terrorist.

Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, has been stumbling along in recent days making one egregious misstatement after another. Napolitano said that the 9-11 terrorists entered the United States through Canada. Besides the fact that this is patently false, it has understandably upset our neighbors to the north. No meaningful apologies from Ms Napolitano as yet. You have to admire her sticking to her guns even after being proven wrong! Mercy! We wouldn’t want to confuse the lady with the facts now, would we?

The other noteworthy blunder from this person who is responsible for our safety and security on the home front was to openly state that our military personnel returning from overseas combat zones are “susceptible to recruitment” by right-wing extremists. Hmmmm . . . Let me see if I’ve got this right. Is she referring to the same people who voluntarily joined our military to “protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic”? The ones who come home from the battles of Iraq and Afghanistan waking up each night in a cold sweat after having relived in a nightmare the death, carnage, and horrors of combat? The same people whose lives are forever changed because they believed our freedoms were worth defending? The same warriors who would return to the war zone in a heartbeat because they love this land and its people? The same young people who put on hold their plans and dreams to serve us, the American people, sacrificing their lives willingly, if called upon, so we could go about our daily activities unmolested? The same people who would “take a bullet” for her? I’m stupefied by the ignorance and arrogance of such a person who holds so lofty a position within our government.

Here is the height of bombast! To impugn the character of all military personnel in so off-handed a manner is irresponsible to the extreme. Does this not sound like the reincarnation of John Kerry, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Murtha, et al? I can fully appreciate why there is a growing number of people discontent with Ms Napolitano, who are openly calling for her resignation.

Further, it has been suggested by those in this administration that if you do not agree with the President concerning his policies then you are a racist. Excuse me? Whatever happened to openly disagreeing with each other? I do not agree with most of this administration’s policies. But how does this disagreement on public policy make such a giant leap to characterizing me as a racist?

I was remembering back to the weeks immediately following 9-11 when many neighborhoods had American flags flying from their homes, freeway overpasses, cars, and large ones erected in the flatbed of pickup trucks. Lapel pins were common (but not by CNN news anchors and others), as well as American flag-designed ties, and all sorts of clothing articles. This exuberant display of patriotism was refreshing! But I feared then that we would quickly forget that we had been viciously attacked by an enemy that still wants to see every American dead.

As a Vietnam vet, I can never forget that our government leaders failed to finish what had been started in that Southeast Asian country. Those of us returning from there were castigated as war criminals, baby-killers, and a host of other unflattering descriptions. In an atmosphere of déjà-vu, the current administration is attempting to place war-crimes responsibilities on those public officials from the previous administration who prosecuted the War on Terror. Amazing!

Ah! But according to the powers that be in America today, I am in error here. The latest change to the Lexicon of Political Correctness no longer refers to terrorism as terrorism. According to Ms Napolitano terrorism is now to be referred to as “man-caused disasters.” Call it what you will – a terrorist brings terrorism against unwitting people. They are thuggish. They are not heroic. They are not freedom fighters. They are not revolutionaries. They are not liberators. They are despicable human beings who use violence and fear to enforce their will. We must be prepared to stop them at every turn.

General William Tecumseh Sherman had this straightforward description of patriotic duty that he delivered to an audience of 5,000 Civil War veterans in 1880: “The war is away back in the past, and you can tell what books can not. When you talk, you come down to practical realities just as they happened. . . . There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell. . . . I look upon war with horror, but if it has to come – I am here.”

You need not fear the military veterans for they are patriots. Instead, you should fear the terrorists.

The Lexicon of Political Correctness may well be in a state of continuous change and flux. But the intentional manipulation of words does not change the heart of a patriot.