Pass the Midgets
Pickles, Small
A mother from the “midget” state, literally, has taken taken great offense at the calling of pickles “midgets”. Rhode Island’s Chelley Martinka has a no doubt lovely daughter Adelaide, born with dwarfism. This fact apparently underlies her crusade to stop purveyors of small pickles from referring to them as, well, you know.
It seems that Ms Martinka has here-to-for led a life of cucumborial bliss ignorant of the crushing degradation meted out to innocent gherkins and dills. Her new found situation affords her the platform from which to make war on words she finds offensive. She actually caused one weak-kneed vendor to drop the word “midget” which, the last time I checked, meant something “much smaller than usual.”
Next up in this linguistic campaign of fascist terror: “half-pint”, “itsy-bitsy” and “teeny-weeny”.
Will that be black or white?
Hitler’s Health Care
Meanwhile, over in Flint, Michigan, Hurley Medical Center seems to have “honored the wishes” of a “swastika-tattooed” man to not have black nurses care for his child. Hospital staff posted a note in the chart saying,’No African American nurse to take care of baby.’
In Flint, the hospital operates much like a confectionery where you pick your chocolate from the many varieties available. We hear that where chocolate is concerned, some whites pass for black and vice-versa.
Who can seriously claim that we live in a post-racial environment when an admirer of Herr Hitler dictates the color of his nurse, and gets away with it?
Scene at the Signing
Howard Chandler Christy
Emory’s Wagner Invokes the 3/5 Clause
Emory University’s President James Wagner wrote a column last week lauding the constitutional clause counting 3/5 of the slave population for purposes of apportioning congressional representation. He was using it as an example of compromise.
Wagner has spent the rest of the week at a Georgia “wood shed” as he wrestles with being defined as a racist. He has referred to his writing as, “a clumsy and regrettable mistake.”
Wagner, to the best of my knowledge, does not advocate slavery. According to the New York Times, students and faculty have labeled the article as “insensitive.” (They should hang out at the Hurley Medical Center for awhile.)
The truth is that Wagner cited the kind of “hold your nose” compromise necessary to create America. Being called out on it makes about as much sense as dropping “midgets” from that jar of gherkins.
Forest for the Trees
Sensitivity around human dignity seems to be about as sloppy as making our Constitution. The “midgets” and “Wagner” stories give rise to the thought that correctness, in its many idiotic shades, will win out over the once adult requirement to view and think about things in context. It is not a political correctness because it lacks a clear political definition.
Do we now live in a society where anyone, courtesy of technology, can cry foul at a word or a thought and demand change or retraction? It seems so.
“You Tube Culture”, Facebook, and the “Walk and Text” world now facilitate information at the expense of wisdom as the actual evils of racism, discrimination and hate march steadily along.