Free Republic

For now, Pat Samarge is "it." The principal of Franklin Elementary School in Santa Monica became "it" when she banned the children's game of tag--for reasons that included issues of self-esteem--from the playground late last month. To critics, Samarge is the latest example of political correctness run even more amok than usual in a city sometimes referred to as "The People's Republic," for its reputation of excessive governmental regulation and bleeding-heart attitudes. "This is the kind of foolishness that makes wonderful grist for the talk-show circuit," wrote Tamara Silver whose son is a fifth-grader at Franklin in an e-mail to...

A Santa Monica, Calif., high school teacher required his class to write an essay to address this question. Steve Miller, one of his students, attributed three things to poverty -- violent crime, government programs and irresponsible breeding. "In the United States," wrote Miller, "over the last 30 years, five trillion dollars (equated) have been spent battling poverty with no noticeable improvement. . . . Furthermore, according to the same study, when benefits for poor families are increased by one percent of the average personal income, the number of poor people living in a state increases by .8 percent." His teacher,...

Here's a question: Does political correctness kill? Consider the extraordinary memo written three weeks ago by Coleen Rowley, an FBI agent in Minneapolis. Last August 16th, having arrested Zacarias Moussaoui on an immigration violation and discovered his links to radical Islamist groups, the Minneapolis office wanted to search his computer. But to do that they needed the OK from HQ. Washington was not only uncooperative, but set about, in the words of Ms. Rowley's memo, "thwarting the Minneapolis FBI agents' efforts," responding to field office requests with ever lamer brush-offs. After September 11th, when the Minneapolis agents belatedly got access...

<p>If we're going to have an investigation to find out why no one foresaw the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, let's have one that gets at some answers rather than merely points fingers. Last week, Sen. Hillary Clinton cited a New York Post headline that claimed "Bush Knew," and asked: "The president knew what? My constituents would like to know the answer." Mrs. Clinton and other critics backed off when it became apparent that the warnings President Bush received about terrorist attacks were both general and inconclusive.</p>

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - Poet and author Maya Angelou has ended a decade-long stalemate over a slavery monument by adding a single line to her quotation describing the brutal conditions aboard slave ships. The amended inscription for the monument, a bronze statue of a black family with broken chains at their feet, won unanimous approval from the Savannah City Council on Thursday. The wording was one of the final hurdles for black leaders who plan to unveil the monument July 27 on Savannah's cobblestone riverfront, where the first slaves came into Georgia. Though city officials approved the statue last year,...

The University of California at Berkeley won two of five "Polly" awards today for outrageous political correctness, in the fifth annual competition sponsored by the Collegiate Network "to highlight the noxious tendencies of radical faculty and students at the nation's colleges." Berkeley's first award came for a case of what the CN calls "multicultural hooliganism": In February, a group of left-wing students broke into the office of The Patriot, a conservative student newspaper, and stole its entire press run, valued at $2,000. Editors who filed a police report were then met with death threats. The incident apparently was occasioned by...

Political Correctness: The Scourge of our Times Does anyone know of the origins of Political Correctness? Who originally developed it and what was its purpose? I looked it up. It was developed at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany, which was founded in 1923 and came to be known as the “Frankfurt School”. It was a group of thinkers who pulled together to find a solution to the biggest problem facing the implementers of communism in Russia. The problem? Why wasn’t communism spreading? The “answer”? Because Western Civilization was in its way. What was the problem with Western...

Remember the solemn proclamations, in the wake of Sept. 11, that political correctness was dead? That all the loony ‘liberal´ multiculturalist, diversity-mongering tolerance hucksters had lost their influence? And that our nation would now return to a semblance of seriousness about our problems, relegating the socialists, race baiters and mindless, touchy-feely group-hug advocates to history´s dustbin? Sorry, folks; to paraphrase Mark Twain, the report of the death of ‘liberal´ mindlessness was premature: • In Michigan, a 7-year old boy was arrested and charged with three charges of felonious assault for pointing a toy plastic gun at three other boys. Washtenaw...

Death By Journalism? One Teacher's Fateful Encounter with Political Correctness by Jerry Bledsoe241 Pages, Hardcover March 2002 ISBN: 1878086936 This needs to be said from the get-go: there are some genuinely fine people at the News & Record. I’ve come to know many of them over the years. Have worked alongside some of them on occasion. A few I consider sincere friends. Despite what I’ve read in Death By Journalism? I’ll still continue to hold their friendship in great regard. It’s just that some of their editors deserve an extended stint at Andersonville... the way it was during the...