>I continue to attribute it to "PC police" and oversensitivity to the combination of words "black" and "abortion" and "crime rate".
>I continue to feel that if the same words had been uttered by someone like President Clinton or Jesse Jackson there would be no indignation and outrage.
>I continue to feel that the outrage and indignation is shown because that is the EXPECTED reaction in a politically-correct environment, with failure to do so earning the label "racist".
>
>The guy had a point he wanted to make and I'd say he deliberately used the factors he used to make the moral reprehensibility of the whole idea CLEAR AS A BELL.
>The guy has a long history of opposing abortion. The guy was making his way to the point that the "Freakonomics" postulation that legalized abortions resulted in a lower crime rate was as silly as (my analogy) New Orleans' levee breaks being the work of God to punish hedonistic New Orleans a la Sodom and Gomorrah.
>
>Just because a person is hypocritical and dislikeable is no reason to have the PC police designate the person as racist. It is high time, in fact, for the PC police to find something legitimate to do and leave people alone!
>
>I truly hope that this "incident" (in quotes because it is entirely fabricated) puts an end to political correctness once and for all.

Jim,

One thing that I've always believed is that "political correctness" is an issue that wastes far more time than it's worth. I'll give a couple of examples. One that was worth it, and one that isn't.

There's a town in southern Illinois named Pekin. The name comes from the fact that it's on the same parellel of longitude as Beijing (formerly Peking) China. As with most towns it has a local high school. In the mid-1960's the team nickname was the "Chinks".

That's one case where being "polically correct" was wholly appropriate. Now let's look at the other side.

The University of Illinois was recently cited (along with 17 other Division I schools) as having an "abusive or derogatory" team mascot or nickname by the National Collegiate Atheletic Association (NCAA).

Admittedly, the mascot, Chief Illiwek, is meant to be a native american. The costume that he wears was presented to the school by native americans.

As far as the nickname (the Fighting Illini) goes, there is no association with native americans other than the name of the state. The state gets its name from the Illinois river. The Illinois river was so named (it's the French spelling) because of a group of tribes referred to as the Illiniwa that lived along its banks.

The name "Illini" is simply a foreshortening of the state's name that was first coined by the student newspaper over 140 years ago. The "Fighting" part is a reference to those alumni that fought in World War I.

Of course, there's always the argument presented by the PC police that there are never any references to white people. No??? How about the following:

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish
The Minnesota Vikings
The Michigan State Spartans
The University of Southern California Trojans
(and my favorite)...
The Purple Paladins of Furman University.

There are more. Some rather obscure references, but references nontheless.

Don't we have better things to do?