By: Laura Miller

Contributing Writer

Every year since I was nine or so, I’ve been in at least one December music recital. Also, every year I’ve had to hear someone’s misplaced anger or self-righteous proclamation in a debate about whether said concert should be of the holiday or Christmas variety. After eight years of this, eight years of carols, “authentic” folk music, green cookies, and red Santa hats, I intend to end this argument with a sharp jab to the perpetrator’s gut with my elbow and an irritated “does it really matter?”

In the past decade, a lot of things have changed - gas prices, our Presidential candidates, our philosophy in big business, to name a few. As a nation, we’ve also become enamored with the idea of being “politically correct”. Instead of Black, we’re instructed to use African American; instead of a Christmas concert, a holiday concert; homosexual instead of gay. The main instigators in this most recent fad seem to be those who are actually least likely to be offended in the first place - that is, middle class white Christians. The general concept of being politically correct is actually a great idea - to refer to everyone in non-offensive terms. However, in retrospect, it compares to communism in the aspect that while good on paper, it just never really works out in real life.

What happens when someone is politically correct all the time? Life becomes awkward. Instead of sounding educated, a person starts to seem painfully aware that they’re pointing out a cultural or personal difference. “That janitor… the African American one,” was a description once used by one of my peers. The room became still. A young man in the back of the class spoke up; “Why not just say black?” People don’t indentify themselves in politically correct terms, simply because these terms are odd, straining the difference between cultures more than usual. But maybe this is more than political correctness; at this point, the tension had been brought to the attention of the Supreme Court. The Florida public school system is currently involved in a case over whether or not to let kids in music classes play religious music, due to the threat of offending atheists or members of other religions. Since when has America become so obsessed with not offending anyone? As a melting pot, we sure seem reluctant to let our ingredients even touch.

If these dramatic conventions of non-offensive terms continue to infiltrate our lives, soon we will just give up speaking entirely. So next time you go to a concert, why not just enjoy the music? That is, after all, the entire reason for the performance. Don’t let these secular, Clorox terms wash away every bit of personality you have. Enjoy all the unique, rich aspects of-

Oh, wait. Rich?

I meant economically gifted.

Sorry to have offended