Age, Race, Sex, Religion and the "Thought Police"

I have the greatest respect for Tom Tryon from the Sarasota Herald -Tribune. In his column, "Age-based stereotypes go unchallenged as campaign unfolds", Tom comes to the defense of Senator John McCain.

As a conservative and supporter of Senator McCain I appreciate that. Thanks, Tom.

However, as an America I am not concerned by comments made by late night comedians about Senator McCain's age as I am about them not being able to talk about Senator Obama's race. Why can't late night comedians make stereotypical jokes about Senator Obama being black? The answer: Political Correctness.

David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, once said, "The test of democracy is freedom of criticism." This is the problem. Don't get me wrong. I do not want hate speech or name calling. Certainly not cursing. Rather I want "freedom of criticism".

There are groups in America that have made any public criticism about them off limits. These groups include blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals, Muslims, and others. We have seen well known talk show hosts like Don Imus fired because of one critical statement about black women. We have seen a Senator not reelected due to a joke using the word "macaca". We have seen people of honest background and with good intentions called racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, and bigots.

What we have in America today are "thought police". The "thought police" invoke their "code of silence pogroms" on those that criticize them. A pogrom means to "to wreak havoc, to demolish violently". That is what the 'thought police" do. They destroy the critic by invoking the pogrom of "political correctness".

It is forbidden to say Radical Islamist but it permissible to say dirty Zionist. It is just fine to produce public art that displays Jesus Christ's image in urine but it is forbidden to desecrate the Koran. It is alright for journalists and commentators to to curse the President of the United States but journalists and commentators cannot identify the killer of a mother and unborn child as a black man or the child molester of a 8 year old boy a homosexual when writing or reporting a story. It is applauded when we joke about Jews, Christians, Evangelicals, and Red Necks but forbidden to joke about Allah, print cartoons of Mohammed, or punish those that curse America from the pulpit. It's just not politically correct.

Tony Perkins wrote an article on how our neighbors in Canada have created their own form of "thought police" and named it the Human Rights Commission. Here is the sad and shocking story of political correctness gone amuck:

"Nowhere have politicians more miserably failed that test than in Alberta, Canada, where the gatekeepers of political correctness--the Human Rights Commission (HRC)--have sentenced a pastor to a lifetime of silence. The case was initiated in 2002, when Rev. Stephen Boissoin published letters to the editor opposing same-sex "marriage" in the Red Deer Advocate.

At the time, Canada was embroiled in a debate over whether to legalize counterfeit marriage across the country. When Professor Darren Lund of Calgary read Boissoin's editorials, he filed a complaint with the Alberta HRC, alleging that the content of the articles was "hateful." The Commission appointed a tribunal to investigate Boissoin, led by an unelected bureaucrat Lori Andreachuk. Last November, Andreachuk found Boissoin guilty of discrimination and, without the benefit of his testimony, forbade him from uttering "anything disparaging about homosexuals."

Notice that Andreachuk does not ban him from speaking about anything "illegal" but bars him from any negativity toward gays and lesbians. The official punishment, issued without so much as a public hearing, includes everything from personal emails to congregational sermons. As if the lifetime speech ban were not tyrannical enough, Andreachuk also ordered Boissoin to compensate Professor Lund, who was not a victim of the so-called "hate crime," $5,000. Under the terms of his sentencing, the Reverend must "cease publishing...remarks about homosexuals" and submit a written apology to Lund for publication in the Red Deer Advocate.

Ezra Levant, who is under similar scrutiny for printing cartoons about Mohammed, notes in a new column, "[Boissoin] has to publicly humiliate himself, by publicly declaring his contrition--a contrition he does not feel--and his abandonment of his deeply-held religious beliefs."

With all respect Tom I really wanted you to say that so long as the discourse is civil all topics are on the table. With freedom of speech comes the freedom to criticize without retribution.

Tom, as a journalist, you should be more worried about the limits put on you and your fellow journalists by the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage.

What America has is not "freedom of criticism" but rather "political correctness".