I HATE PEOPLE WHO ARE OVERLY POLITICALLY CORRECT!!!

I am probably the least politically correct around. This is not because I am racist, sexist or any of the other "ists" that you can think of. I am just tired of worrying about which group of people I might offend next.

Being a person who has worked in the mental health field, I have had political correctness thrust down my throat for a long time. I can remember when it was OK to use the word retarded. Now before any of you jump down my throat, I want you to think about the facts...

Retarded means - Occurring or developing later than desired or expected; delayed.

Really doesn't seem so bad now does it? People, however have given the word a derogatory connotation which really wasn't intended when the word was coined. The next politically correct (PC) term that was used to describe people with mental disabilities was mentally handicapped.

Handicapped means - A physical or mental disability making participation in certain of the usual activities of daily living more difficult.

Seems spot on to me. But to some, this too was offensive. From there, the PC term was changed to mentally disabled. Once again, the excessively thin skinned among us thought that this was also offensive. The term then went to mentally challenged, developmentally challenged, then to mentally delayed and finally to developmentally delayed. While I agree that some people have made the word retarded a rather ugly word, I wonder why we let it become so. As for the rest of the terms, have we become such a sensitive culture that is necessary to censor any word that might, in some minute way make someone feel bad? By censoring the words, doesn't that give them more power, not less? Besides, pretty soon we're going to run out of words that we are allowed to say.

This brings us to the "N" word. Now this is a word that EVERYONE (including me) finds offensive. New York City council recently backed a motion that would ban the use of the "N" word in the city. Do they really think this will make people less racist? It is just a word, after all. What ever happened to

"Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me"

Maybe we should change it to

"Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me unless they are particularly foul and politically incorrect"

What does this teach our children?

What about Michael Richards' tirade. Was it uncalled for? Absolutely! But we have people out there who are calling for the guy's throat. Now Richards is known as the biggest racist in Hollywood. His career is probably over and he will forever be apologising for saying those words. Don't get me wrong, Richards said some very racist things. Does that mean he is a racist? Not necessarily. He was very angry and hurt and tried to hurt the audience members by saying the most profane things he could think of. I am not excusing Richards' actions, but I don't think it is right for him to be stuck apologising for what he said for the rest of his life. Maybe we should just paint a big scarlet red R (for RACIST) on him so that he can carry his shame forever. It is funny that we can forgive our stars for assault, drug use, theft, drunk driving, even murder.... but saying that "N" word, now that is really bad! What about Mel Gibson's anti Semitic statements? Seems to me that APOCALYPTO got pretty good reviews and Mel seems to have been forgiven by his fans. Is Richards' "N" word so much worse?

It is upsetting to me that I have to choose my words so carefully these days as to not offend anyone. The biggest problem I have is knowing what is PC (I guess in reality, my biggest problem is not caring what is PC). If I was to say that someone was Native, would that be PC? Maybe I should have said first nations, native Canadian, I am pretty sure that the term Indian isn't OK unless you are speaking of East Indians (people from India). How about my African Canadian friends? What if they have never been to Africa? Is calling someone black or coloured OK, or should I say dark skinned? If I say dark skinned, however, that gives me the mental picture of a white guy with a tan. Is it even OK to call a white guy a white guy? Maybe I should be using the term Caucasian.

Now that I am good and riled up, I better stop before I say something that is REALLY politically incorrect and get everyone calling for MY throat.

All definitions taken from dictionary.com