"This is my late Veterans' Day / PC dislike / I love America but every country has its problems" Post

Living in a foreign country sure makes me glad that I'm an American with certain unalienable rights.
When I think about all the men and women who have fought to make and keep our country free, I'm incredibly overwhelmed with thankfulness and pride. I want to believe that not one has died or been injured in vain.

I try to keep up with the news from my native land as much as possible. I watch the news on TV almost every night. I check out foxnews.com and knwa.com and other news sights frequently. Some of the news that comes across, though, is disturbing. It seems to me that so many basic rights are being snatched away, especially from students, in order to be "politically correct." I asked google to "define: political correctness." Here is an example of one of their definitions:

• Politically Correct claims to be non-offensive speech for all people It is lies, deceptions, or slanted opinion designed to hide the truth and morality. A better name would be Truthfully Deceptive.
  stobie.home.sprynet.com/work/oxymorons.htm

In one school in California, a boy who flew the American on his bicycle in honor of his Veteran grandfather, was asked to remove it because "the Stars and Stripes could spur racial tensions on campus." (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/12/school-reverses-course-ordering-student-remove-flag-bike/) He was later allowed to put it back up after many parents and locals were outraged.



A school in Chicago was honoring "Ally Week," where students could show their support of gay students and rally together to promote anti-gay bullying, which has been a problem in schools all over the country.  A couple of boys wore t-shirts that said "straight pride" and quoted a bible verse. Some students were offended and school administrators had the boys remove the bible verse. The next day a couple more boys did the same thing and they were asked to completely cover their "straight pride" t-shirts. The school has since agreed to host a forum in order to work out what should be done in these types of situations, because according to one administrator "“The important thing is, even if someone is on the opposite side, you need to respect their opinion.”  (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/12/chicago-high-school-uses-straight-pride-shirts-rights-education/?test=latestnews)


It seems to me that the majority of mainstream society is overly concerned with not offending the minorities of mainstream society, while the minorities of mainstream society have every right to offend and be offended by the majority. I don't understand it!


Bryn has a real life example of this type of double standard I feel is upheld in our country. She is taking a class this semester called Anatomy of Human Sexuality. She always comes home with the most interesting stories. In her class there are people both gay and straight, men and women, young and older, married and single, with and without kids, black and white and brown and every other color out there, so it is a diverse learning environment. Last Wednesday when she got out of class she came to pick me up from work, absolutely steaming. She had gotten into a debate with a self proclaimed young man who was gay. Apparently, he is often overly vocal and often pushy when it comes to their class discussions. The teacher had posed the question "should homosexuality be presented as an acceptable lifestyle to publish elementary and middle school children?" No one said anything for a few minutes, which Bryn said was pretty unusual. Then she spoke up. "No, it should not be...I do not want my children to be taught that homosexuality is ok, especially from such a young age. When you are in middle school and elementary, you are beginning your path to self-discovery and sexuality. That kind of lesson plan could be extremely harmful to children, especially those who are already attention seeking or self destructive." Well this guy flipped out on her. He said that homosexuality was the future and basically called her small minded for not realizing that. But she stood up for her point. I'm very proud of her for that. If she had called him small minded for his opinion, I think he would have gone even crazier on her. 


I'll leave you with the First Amendment from the Constitution of the United States of America:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The point of the that amendment is to ensure freedom of speech for everyone, the "offensive" majority and "offended" minority alike.