Yes, We Do NEED to be Politically Correct

While U.S. Army Basic Training was almost 30 years ago for me now, I CLEARLY remember when one of our drill sergeants started using very derogatory racial slurs during a classroom briefing.  Rather quickly he asked how that made us feel and the lecture made a sharp turn to how this kind of verbal behavior is not allowed in the Army.  He drilled the point home that the Army could not get inside anyone's head and make them think a certain way, but that the Army sure could punish you severely for things you say.

I know this fact first hand after being part of an Article 15 (the general "punishment" umbrella used in the service) investigation while serving in Desert Storm for a sergeant after he crossed this line in front of myself and a couple of other soldiers and proceeded to make a few very clearly discriminatory statements.  In my opinion, he got off pretty easy although I'm sure he didn't agree with me and unfortunately, this probably only more deeply reinforced his belief system.

I'm a realist and do accept that the Army is just part of America and that insane activities such as described in this "Racial Thursday" article do happen, but it still pains me to the core.

I'm writing this article as there are so many people in my US of A during this 2016 political campaign who are so proud to think, and worse yet say, that is is OK to let the little racist voice that unfortunately lives in all of us to be clearly heard.  They believe this will somehow make America greater (I don't say "great again", as I do believe we have MANY problems, but we are still a GREAT place to be fortunate enough to call our home) by creating more rifts and divides in a nation that itself was based on a melting pot concept.  What that behavior does is to further enhance our sense of being different at an expense of hatred, not at the benefit of being diverse.

I must be clear on my stance on this one.  Do not fall into this incorrect belief that the march toward "political correctness" is a bad thing.  Yes, you should be honest and yes your opinion is important, but do you really advocate an America that is going backward, not forwards, on how we handle differences & diversity?  It easily take hundreds of years for humanity to march forward and accept our differences, but significant setbacks can be made in moments with hate-filled racist (or other discriminatory) comments.

Remember, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.