Names, tags, descriptions, phrases that have carried with them meanings that were either unintentional or misunderstood or just plain wrong have been around for decades. Situations where politicians have been caught with their pants down, both literally and figuratively, have been reported on for decades.
Let 2010 ring in a new era where truth prevails even over political correctness and stereotypical situations that turn out to be not quite what we thought they were seep into our consciousness.
Beginning with Senator Henry Reid, the Democratic majority leader, and his comment about President Obama. Reid predicted that Obama could become the country’s first black president because he was “light skinned and had no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.” Let’s dissect that sentence, less for grammar than for meaning. Here goes. Reid actually said what many of us thought, especially those of us who supported Barack Obama and voted for him. The country was not ready for an African American who had the posture of say, Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. To America’s credit, notwithstanding the racism that is still rampant throughout the country, the people were willing to elect a Black man to the presidency if he had the posture of an intellectual, if he, in fact, was not a “professional” African American whose mission was to constantly point out the divide between the races. Nor were the American people prepared to have their elected leader talk in dialect, jive, or in jazzed up colloquialisms, anymore than we appreciated George Bush’s relapse into Texas down-home drawl, or Lyndon Johnson’s vaguely off-color comments to female reporters, or Hillary’s lapsing into Christian Right pounding-at-us-sermons when she was on the campaign trail.
Of course, the other examples were all White folks, which made the race issue non existent. Had we elected a Jew to the Oval Office, would we have voted for a man or woman who sprinkled in Yiddish phrases, such as calling Iran’s President, meshuga? My feeling is that Henry Reid said what we all knew—that we were fortunate to have a candidate who was Black, a milestone in American history, without being stereotypical. Regardless of the race or religion of a political leader, if he or she affected the cadence of speech or posture of how the world viewed the typical members of their race or religion, it would not have been endearing to the American people.
Moving on to political correctness trumping truth, how about the lunatic who blew up seven CIA members in Afghanistan? Why does the news media persist in labeling him a “militant” instead of calling him what he is—a terrorist. And, this happens all the time. For years when I covered the Middle East, regardless of the action, whether someone blew up the Alitalia counter in Rome, killing men, women and children, or strapped on a bomb in a civilian market in Jerusalem, killing hundreds, they are called “militants.” Yet, the Ergun, and here’s what really kills me, the Jewish group pre 1948, who committed violent acts including blowing up a section of the King David Hotel, in order to oust the British are consistently called terrorists. Let’s make up our minds. Either call both sides terrorists or both sides militants.
The best story of all since 2010 is that of Mrs. Robinson. This is an all-time first. A politician—Peter Robinson, the First Minister of the Province in Ireland, has left office for six weeks to devote his time to repairing the damage within his family. It seems his wife, sixty-three year old Iris Robinson was caught having an affair with a nineteen year old lad, Kirk McCambley. Not only did Mrs. Robinson live up to her name, but she allegedly spent government funds on her lover. Other than the misuse of government funds, I say YAY for Iris Robinson. It is a welcome relief to watching all the sad-faced wives who have stood by their philandering husbands, bravely keeping up the front that they are “in their corner,” despite the stories of frequenting prostitutes or seducing little boys in men’s rooms or buying their services in South-East Asian countries or Caribbean islands.
Let’s get real.
Men and women cheat whether they are politicians or just ordinary people. Men do not have the corner on bad behavior.
Terrorists are people who kill innocent people in the name of a cause. They are not militants.
Barack Obama probably would not have been elected if he were not a well-spoken, brilliant, light-skinned Black man.
Let the year 2010 forget a bit about political correct phrases and identify the enemy by its correct name. Let this year bring the knowledge that there is equality among the sexes, even when it comes to bad behavior.