Posted on 08/18/2005 8:17:17 AM PDT by 4CJ
Americans are the thinnest-skinned creatures on the planet. Seems everything offends someone around here these days, and the reactions of "the offended" sometimes make me wonder if our nation has simply lost all of its collective common sense.
First, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, better known as the NCAA, has decreed that every college and university with an Indian-based mascot will not be allowed to host post-season events since such use is degrading toward native Americans. This ban includes Florida State University.
The fact the Seminole Tribe of Florida's governing council unanimously approved in mid-June a resolution in total support of FSU's "Seminoles" nickname apparently doesn't matter. "That the NCAA would now label our close bond with the Seminole Tribe of Florida as culturally 'hostile and abusive' is both outrageous and insulting," FSU president T.K. Wetherell said.
Welcome to 2005, Mr. Wetherall, where the NCAA inexplicably considers itself a proper organization to dictate political ideology as well as act as an arm of the PC Taliban. It has boycotted the state of South Carolina for five years because of a Confederate battle flag flying over a soldier's monument there, as well as the state of Mississippi for having the same battle flag in its' state banner - even though the overwhelming majority of citizens in that state want it there.
Anyway, I suppose following this line of reasoning, the states of South and North Dakota, as well as Illinois and Delaware, will not be able to host NCAA events given the fact that each are named after a tribe of Indians.
Can't be hypocritical now, can we?
Of course the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame aren't mentioned since they have the NCAA in their hip pockets - but that's another story.
Again, as is the case with most political correct madness, where will all this stop? Once this wheel gets rolling, PETA could quite possibly convince them to ban animal names, too. Why not? Can't have people having bad thoughts about our furry or feathered friends just because they are the mascot for some stupid college team, can we? There go the Bulldogs, Tigers, and Gators. Arborists will stop the use of plants names. Bye-bye Cornhuskers and Buckeyes. Satanists will protest the abuse of Devils and Demons. Pretty soon teams will have names like Ralph, Chartreuse, or Concrete - which, by the way, is offensive to brick layers.
Meanwhile the NCAA turns its head and ignores Nike and others who essentially use slave labor to make equipment many of their athletes wear. I guess there aren't enough small orphan children from the Far East who have enough say in this country to make that an issue. Couldn't be that Nike pays the NCAA too much money for such to become an issue, could it?
Of course not...silly me.
And then you have Hanover County, Virginia, where the word "Dixie" has been banned as unacceptable for public use, and Memphis, Tennessee, where the city council has decided that Davis and Forrest Parks there have to be renamed since they were named after Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest respectively well over 100 years ago.
Yes, you read it right - the word "Dixie" has been banned in Hanover. Cecil R. "Rhu" Harris Jr., Hanover County Administrator, said the word "Dixie" offended people and demanded the word be banned from use in the county.
No, I am not kidding. You can't make stuff like that up.
Never mind that Dixie refers to a region of land. I guess "southern" is next on the hit list, since that's what Dixie is. Just a matter of time before "down south" will have to be changed to "not north," and "Southern fried chicken" will be changed to "Sherman torched chicken."
Does anyone else see the lunacy here?
And Memphis. Never mind that historians from all sides of the issue have preached over and over again how important each man was to the development of Memphis (a city, by the way, named after the ancient city of Memphis, Egypt, which also was founded upon slave labor), or how Forrest was actually a champion of civil rights in Memphis after the war (look it up if you don't believe me) - the council has been unbending. Further complicating matters is the fact that General Forrest and his wife are actually buried under a monument to him in his park.
That should warrant some kind of consideration, right? Wrong. A prominent Memphian lawyer has offered to pay to have the monument removed and bodies of Forrest and his wife dug up.
If you ask me, that's about as low as it gets - even for a lawyer.
Will banning words and literally digging people up from their graves somehow cleanse history - especially when it is evident those making the decisions will conveniently ignore historical facts in preference to accepting popular myth and untruths? Is banning Indian mascots by the NCAA going to erase the guilt associated with the brutal treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government?
No and no.
We all better watch this kind of thing, because if "the offended" decide to inflict their witch hunt mindset on literature, Shakespeare and the Old Testament could go the way of Beavis and Butthead quicker than you can say Joseph McCarthy.
To be sure, these aren't issues of liberal vs. conservative - they are of those who have agendas against the world vs. those who have a modicum of common sense.
The late, great Shelby Foote, a Memphian, said it best, "...the South has some sins on its soul that it will never be able to get clear of, but so has the nation. And quite often the attempts to correct those sins leads into still greater sins through the method which they are supposedly corrected."
Will wonders never cease? Maybe common sense exists after all.
Of note is there 'new' Historic Brochure (it seems that they still want tourist dollars, with scenes from the WONA as inducements, but are attempting revisionist cleansing): 
To contact County Administrator Cecil R. "Rhu" Harris Jr:
Email: rharris@co.hanover.va.us
Phone: (804) 365-6005, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. EST, Monday - Friday
Postal Mail: Administrator's Office, P.O. Box 470, HANOVER VA 23069
Americans don't have thin skin, liberals do!
You want to see really thin skinned? Come to Canada.
"A prominent Memphian lawyer has offered to pay to have the monument removed and bodies of Forrest and his wife dug up."
Great idea - and let's make sure the lawyer and his judge masters take Forrest and his wife's place immediately thereafter - alive of course.
See - I believe in a fair trade.
I think that's Mr. Young meant, but was polite enough to give liberals the benefit of a doubt by including them in the term 'American'. Of course, he might have penned this column before some of the moonbats escaped and began protesting in Crawford.
I wish all the teams that win and get to the NCAA finals do have indians names and simply don't show up to the finals and the NCAA looses all its tv revenue.
You do NOT have the right NOT to be offended...
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True, but the entire liberal base is built on "rights" that don't exist, just like their form of "reality" --- it is invented also.
Just tell the lie big enough and long enough, and it will become fact....PASS THE KOOL-AID PLEASE!!!
Yet, during the regular season it perfectly fine?
Americans are no more thin skinned than they were in the past. They have learned that being offended equals $$$ in litigation settlements.
The more money you can get from a lawsuit is directly proportionate to how offended you pretend to be!!
Hmm, no Utah, Utah State, Oklahoma, Alabama, N&S Dakota, Nebraska, Massachusetts,...
I'd like to visit again, but even our liberals won't move up there ;o)
Spot on. The problem is that the liberals cannot fathom the concept.
Are you allowed to drink Dixie Beer in Hanover County?
I do believe you possess the wisdom of Solomon.
I hope that ONLY teams with Native American names make it to the BCS championship, and play anyway.
but only targeting a select few
Seems the Native American Sports Council loves their warrior image in sports
http://www.nascsports.org/
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