Hi,

For the most part, I think it's good to be PC.  I think it shows
respect and sensativitty on the part of the speaker.

However there are those times when people get caught up so much in
wanting or nedding to be PC, that sometimes I feel there using PC as a
way to hide who they are and what they're trying to say.  It's as if
they think I'm going to bite their head off or something if they don't
refer to me in just the right way.

See ya-Gary


On Tue, 6 Apr 1999, Denise D. Goodman wrote:

> Great poem Bobby.  I enjoyed it very much, but more importantly it made me
> think.  Ponder the subject PC names & games.
>
> This verse:
>
> "The name you use to denote me
> Is but a particle of who I be
> So a rose by any other
> Would smell like no other."
>
> I'm glad this is true for you, but I find the name used to denote me can
> change me.  That is to say, if I'm addressed in a cruel way, I find my
> defenses up.  Defenses that wouldn't exisit, if I hadn't been born disabled.
>
> The verse:
> "Geek, cripple, niggers are feeble terms
> Thrown about by ignorant worms
> They should not harm or even bend
> The real live human within."
>
> Again, they SHOULD not harm or bend a person, but I'm afraid they often do.
> It's not the actual name, but the malice behind it.  Most of these words
> started out fine, it was the misuse of them which made them derragatory.
> Would I be who I am today if the doctor didn't flub up a breech birth 34
> years ago?  What would my outlook on life be if I'd skipped all the
> operations, therapy, braces, and humilation of being made sport of throughout
> school?
>
> The truth is, being called "names" during my formative years DID bend me.  I
> learned to BEND, not break.  This made me stronger.  In my own circle of
> friends (who are not disabled) I seem to be the one who can deal with life
> best.  Most of my friends can't handle "curve balls" from life, tradegy minor
> or major.  They do get over it of course in time, but it seems to harm them
> in ways it can't touch me.
>
> Should the use of a name matter?  No.  In a perfect world it does not.  But
> we don't live in that world.  Are the people who use cruel (non PC terms)
> ignorant?  Yes.  That's the point!  If we (as society) are ever going to
> change our attitudes and see the similarties not the differences, we have to
> start someplace.  If people use PC terms in the work-place and the
> class-room, as I said in previous post, it's not going to change the adults,
> but maybe it might change the children.  If children learn from the start
> being different from the dominant majority is fine, perhaps someday, we will
> be closer to a perfect world.
>
> Like I said before, we have come pretty far in a short time.  The disabled
> aren't immediately put in institutions or hidden in attics.  The crop of
> "Strange Fruit" no longer grows on trees in the south.   I hate being PC
> because I'd like to think names don't matter, but they do.  Anyway, I did
> enjoy Bobby's poem very much.  This is a tricky subject no matter what we
> call it.  Take Care- Denise.
>