The Standard of Liberty Voice
For God,Religion,Family,Freedom
A publication of The Standard of Liberty Foundation
www.standardofliberty.org
August 16, 2005, #7

Scared Speechless?

It was in 1973 when Steve and I were newlyweds that we were staying at my childhood home in Piedmont, California. One day we both distinctly remember we were all sitting around in the living room making fun of the trendy politically correct language. We’d all think up some new application and roar with laughter. “Instead of Manila,” said Dad, a seasoned world traveler, “we’d have to call it Personila! Ha-ha-ha!”

Well, three decades later, it’s not so funny. Don’t forget that language is arguably the singular most influential thing in shaping society; Hitler used it. Clinton used it. Jesus used it. Plato used it. What we thought was a joke has now become a danger. In fact, the control being exercised over our language is now not just a threat to but a systematic annihilation of our culture and freedom.

Let me illustrate. The following banned words are taken from actual sets of guidelines produced by state departments of education, textbook publishers, test developers, educational research organizations, and other interest groups, gathered by Diane Ravitch in her “Glossary of Banned Words and Sterotyped Images to Avoid.” I’ll list only a few.

Banned words: Heroine (banned as sexist, replace with hero), Huts (banned as ethnocentric, replace with small houses), Pollyanna (banned as sexist, replace with optimist), Slave (replace whenever possible with enslaved person, worker, or laborer), Sightless (banned as offensive, replace with people who are blind), Snowman (banned, replace with snowperson),

Banned images: Girls as shorter, smaller than boys, Boys as curious, ingenious, able to overcome obstacles, People of color being angry.

There’s also a long list of banned foods such as ketchup, potato chips, and pickles. Say again??? Although a few on Diane’s list are no-brainers, like banning the word “dummy,” when referring to deaf people (I would hope common decency takes care of that type of thing), most are either ridiculously trivial, incomprehensible, or downright dangerous. It’s totally Orwellian.

Why is this kind of thing wrong? As a writer, I see it as a brutal and arbitrary sterilization of language inhibiting freedom. As a free citizen and a Christian, I see it as a lucky, small group of people taking it upon themselves to reshape our culture through the education of our children according to secular humanism and moral relativism. Their desired result is an amoral, godless nation. In this world there would be no distinction between men and women, neither would there be distinctions between health and sickness, normal and abnormal, right and wrong, good and evil. Rather than being color blind, we would become color conscious. And rather than the majority, minorities would rule the day.

How do we fight the annihilation of our language and culture? I like what Charlton Heston said. “You simply . . . disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely. But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don't. We disobey social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom” (from “Winning the Cultural War”Charlton Heston's Speech to the Harvard Law School Forum February 16, 1999).

-Stephen & Janice Graham


Copyright 2005 by Standard of Liberty Foundation, Inc.

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