Without the men and women who serve in the U.S. armed forces, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the freedoms many of us take for granted on a daily basis. A typical reaction from an American when they see someone in uniform is to thank them for their service and sacrifice. But recently, one school had a very different reaction.
Last week, Lt. Col. Sherwood Baker stopped by his daughter’s high school to clear up an issue she was having with her class schedule. As he was walking on the campus, he was stopped by a security guard and was told that he could not enter because the military uniform he was wearing might offend somebody.
His wife, Rachel Ferhadson, said that he was given a choice. He could “phone in to the office or go home and change his clothes.” After that, Baker left the school and called the superintendent’s office. Shortly after, a staff member met him the parking lot and allowed him on campus.
The district’s superintendent, Robert Shaner, a former combat Marine, said “the district does not have a policy excluding individuals in uniform” and went on to apologize for the misunderstanding.
Baker accepted their apology, but we shouldn’t just let an incident occur without objection. What is happening in America when someone might find someone else in military uniform offensive?
Although some may not agree with every initiative our military undertakes, we should never be offended by those who put their lives on the line so that millions of people can live their lives in one of the freest countries on Earth.
This isn’t the only recent event where political correctness went completely overboard. At a high school in California, Chick-fil-A was banned from selling chicken sandwiches in conjunction with the football booster club because the sandwiches might offend somebody.
The high school’s principal, Val Wyatt, said that “with their political stance on gay rights and because the students of Ventura High School and their parents would be at the event, I didn’t want them on campus.”
The principal’s decision was backed by the district’s superintendent, Trudy Tuttle Ariaga, who said that “we value inclusivity and diversity on our campus, and all our events and activities are going to adhere to our mission.”
Ariagas’ stance is clearly contradictory. She cannot ban the football booster club’s partner, Chick-fil-A, based upon its founder’s opinion on gay marriage and then also preach that she and her school district are open-minded and “diverse.”
Diversity means being made up of people or things that are different from each other. Some liberals tend to confuse diversity with uniformity, leading to a dangerous attitude of closed-mindedness and exclusion.
If the superintendent really meant what she said about welcoming diversity, she would realize the decision to ban Chick-fil-A from campus was in poor judgment and should be reversed.
We must avoid shutting people down when their opinions don’t completely align with our own. Different opinions offer opportunities to learn from one another. Ben Carson, former John Hopkins pediatric neurosurgeon and potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, described the PC police perfectly: “You need to go out and talk to people. Everybody you know, have a discussion. Don’t let the left shut you up.”
All this political correctness might be acceptable if our education system took neutral stances and taught our children without discrimination and bias. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen.
Last week, a sixth-grade teacher in Washington, D.C., sent students home with a Venn diagram homework assignment where they were supposed to compare former President George W. Bush and former mass murder Adolf Hitler. For this educator to suggest that any U.S. president is comparable to a man who killed millions of people based upon his twisted ideology is downright reprehensible.
We need to reject political correctness and stop choosing to be offended by anything and everything. The Declaration of Independence says that all people are guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It does not guarantee that we will always feel comfortable.
Nick Eagle is a UF economics and political science senior. His columns appear on Mondays.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 9/15/2014 under the headline "PC police are running rampant"]
