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When a duck isn’t a duck.

Jan 16, 2012 | 6:29 AM

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a – wait a minute: calling it a duck may be politically incorrect. The 'Society for the Preservation of Ducks Which Aren't ' will send the Quackers Police after you. And don't say 'quacker' because you will offend crackers, especially those which want to be known as biscuits.

Ridiculous? Of course. But it anymore nonsensical than Australians demanding Santas stop saying Ho Ho Ho because it is an insulting word to prostitutes, who are correctly called sex trade workers, in North America?

Is that any more ridiculous than saying happy holidays instead of the traditional Merry Christmas greeting? Who is actually offended? Why don't we hear the complaints from members of other religions, rather than Politically Correct People who are afraid of them, and don't want anyone to stir up other religious groups – as if members of other religions were that touchy?

Wait until the Politically Correct People find out that the word 'holiday' is a contraction of the words 'holy day'. If it is incorrect to say 'Merry Christmas', why is Happy Holy Day correct? If a complainer doesn't want to hear the Merry Christmas greeting they shouldn't put themselves in the way of happiness. Stay home. Turn off the radio and TV. Don't answer the phone, and while at it, why not hide under the bed.

I was severely taken to task by a zealous member of a board for saying “Rabbits are dumb”.
Rabbits are dumb. They can't articulate sounds or language. They are silent. They are therefore dumb.
I wasn't being rude to those who are mentally challenged.

The political correctness is a pain, with no real advantages. Hang onto the Golden Rule:” Do to others as you would have them do to you”. What else do you need? Spending time learning the names and titles that change and worrying about offending some group or another is, to my mind, a waste. If a person is going to be nasty, insulting, bullying or is violent, that person is not going to be changed by telling them it is not politically correct, because political correctness doesn't actually do anything. Some band of folk somewhere have decided on something bothering someone else, when the 'someone elses' didn't know they were bothered or were big enough to ignore it.

If something is unfair or prejudiced to the point of pain for someone else, then it is up to the rest of us to take action. For example: if a non-Christian religious group is being harassed or worse, someone nobly saying everyone should call Christmas a 'holiday' does nothing to help the situation. Talk is too general and really irrelevant. Action is called for and the Golden Rule is the way to go. It calls for action of a certain type to bring about change, but most of all, it calls for action from the rest of us.
Changing the beliefs of people such as rabid racist groups out to smash another group is not going to happen because we say it should, but because we take action to change attitudes.

Haven't we better things to concern ourselves with besides political correctness? When all is said and done and the accusations and demonstrations and letters to the editor are concluded, a duck is a duck. It isn't what you call it that matters; it is whether or not you say it with a shotgun.