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  When I was a child, there was a common saying: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.” I’m not sure that children today have ever heard that expression and certainly the adults don’t seem to know it any longer. Special interest groups tell our country’s citizens that they should be easily offended by simple words or suggestions. By taking umbrage so readily, people shift the discussion from the subject matter to the person making the comment, which is a desirable thing to do only if you don’t have a good argument. This is also a good way to keep people at one another’s throats constantly so they can’t form a united front and deal logically with the many real issues facing the nation. Individually, Americans need to choose to be the bigger person, overlook offense, and be willing to have candid discussions about volatile issues.

  There have been many stories recently about the bullying epidemic that seems to be occurring in our public school system. We should not be terribly surprised by this because children emulate what they see adults doing. One does not have to look at television for very long or listen to the radio for an extended period before one sees supposedly rational and mature adults vehemently attacking one another, calling each other names and acting like third graders. I have grown used to dealing with people who resort to name-calling at the drop of a hat by saying, “Now that you have had an opportunity to engage in a gratuitous attack, is it possible for us to return to the subject matter at hand?” I refuse to engage in the grade-schoolyard tactics of name-calling and mean-spirited comments when we have so many important issues to solve. We can help our nation quite a bit if we refrain from getting into our respective corners and throwing hand grenades at each other, and instead try to understand the other’s viewpoint, reject the stifling of political correctness, and engage in intelligent civil discussion.

  A suitably thick skin, common sense, and manners are of limited use without education. I’m always fascinated by some of the “man on the street” episodes on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno or Watters’ World on Fox, where Jay or Jesse asks people for very basic information regarding the significance of a particular day or some historical event and many of them have no clue about the right answer. Our nation’s founders felt very strongly that our system of government could only survive with a well-informed and educated populace. They understood that if the populace reached the point of not being able to critically analyze information, it would easily fall prey to slick politicians and unethical news media. All citizens need to arm themselves with a basic knowledge of American history and stay abreast of current events, analyzing them with respect to history. Knowledge is power and at a time when the people are becoming increasingly impotent while the government grows larger and more powerful, it is vital that we arm ourselves with knowledge.

  Finally, each of us must have courage. I have encountered countless thousands of Americans, as I’ve traveled around the country recently giving speeches, who resonate very strongly with the concepts that I’m putting forward but who have been beaten down. They have mistaken the false unity of political correctness and submission for the true unity that comes with liberty, justice, and responsibility. This unity doesn’t succeed without some conflict, but it is far healthier than silence and is worth the fight. I’ve been spreading the word that we must have enough backbone to stand up to the secular progressives who insist on fundamentally changing America into something that we would not recognize as our hard-won government of, by, and for the people. Because there are consequences for standing up for your beliefs in the current distorted version of America, one has to be very courageous when standing up to malicious influences or even while engaging in healthy dialogue with our neighbors about important issues.

  The bottom line is that our country is in the process of undergoing fundamental radical changes while rapidly moving away from the “can-do” attitude that made us the most prosperous and beneficent superpower the world has ever known. If each of us sits back and expects someone to take action, it will soon be too late. But as of today, it is still not too late to join the battle to save our nation and pass on to our children and grandchildren something we can all be proud of.

  POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

  Those who love to talk will experience the consequences, for the tongue can kill or nourish life.

  PROVERBS 18:21

  When I was a teenager, my neighbor had a dog that appeared to be quite vicious. If anyone walked near that home, the dog would come running toward the fence, barking and snarling, sending the passerby rapidly along his way. His ferociousness actually changed the behavior of people in the neighborhood, who began to avoid walking down the alley when the dog was outside.

  Feeling that the dog should not be ruining the neighborhood, I began reading books about dogs and their behavior to see what I could do. I discovered that dogs tend to react to the reaction of the human or other animal it is trying to frighten—if the person they bark at shows fear, the dog decides its antics are effective. If the person shows no fear, the dog will give up.

  It took a lot of courage, but I decided to repeatedly walk by the fence and completely ignore the dog. It took about a month before the dog realized that I would not react, but eventually he stopped trying to frighten me and would simply lie down quietly as I walked by.

  Today’s political correctness operates in the same way as that dog. Self-appointed political correctness police (PCP) have set up speech guidelines that go far beyond the requirements of kindness, good manners, education, and tact. They forbid the use of the word slavery by conservatives, the mention of Nazism by conservatives, or the mention of homosexuality in anything other than a positive context, to name a few of their rules. Going even further, they continually grow their list of terms they believe are offensive, tripping up innocent people with their increasingly strict speech code. By bludgeoning people who violate these rules, the PCP establishes a chilling control over the speech of a nation that was founded on the principles of freedom of speech. Intent on managing the national conversation, they mock and belittle anyone who violates their tenets of speech or behavior with such ferocity that few people will dare trespass their boundaries. For example, a few years ago, Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard, mentioned that men and women might be wired differently. His comments drew a fierce attack from the PCP that may well have influenced his decision to resign his position.

  I had my own run-in with the PCP when I said that I thought Obamacare was the worst thing in our country since slavery. My point was that we the American people were turning over to the government control of our most precious resource—our health. The implications of such a shift of power (where we have no choice but to purchase the only prescribed product—Obamacare), are profound in a society that is supposed to be free and centered around freedom of choice. Once we give the government this kind of power, it is naïve to believe that they will stop here in their quest for total control of our lives. The PCP wanted to immediately divert the argument away from this fundamental truth, so they said I thought Obamacare was an evil equal to slavery, when I was merely pointing out that this particular attempt at health care reform takes us the first step away from liberty.

  Many well-meaning Americans have bought into the PC speech code, thinking that by being extra careful not to offend anyone we will achieve unity. What they fail to realize is that this is a false unity that prevents us from talking about important issues and is a Far Left strategy to paralyze us while they change our nation. People have been led to become so sensitive that fault can be found in almost anything anyone says because somewhere, somehow, someone will be offended by it.

  To stop this, Americans need to recognize what is happening, speak up courageously, avoid fearful or angry responses, and ignore the barking and snarling as we put political correctness to bed forever. This is the reason why I choose to continue speaking out despite the many efforts of the secular progressives to discredit and silence me. It is also the reason why I continue to encourag
e Americans to stand up for the freedoms that were hard-won and must be preserved if we are to remain a free society.

  Political Correctness Stifles Dialogue

  Open discussions of political and social issues are key to healthy unity. Society works very much like a marriage in the sense that open communication facilitates harmony. In almost all marriages that end in divorce, there is a serious breakdown in communication, followed by false assumptions and outright warfare. One of the first things a marriage counselor does is get the warring parties to sit down and open up to each other. Two people may perceive the same event very differently, and gaining an understanding of the other person’s perspective can be the first step to healing a broken marriage. If fear or anger prevents either person from expressing his or her perspective, there is no hope for the relationship.

  In our country today, we act much like those warring spouses who want nothing more than to get rid of each other. Political correctness has thrown a veil of silence over our important discussions. Rather than asking those with whom we disagree to clearly state their case, we set up rules of political correctness that mandate that their perspective must be the same as ours. We then demonize those with whom we disagree and as a result fail to reach any consensus that might solve our problems.

  The only people who can resolve this problem are “we the people.” We do not have to yield to pop culture, Hollywood, politicians, and the media who are the primary enforcers of political correctness. We need to simply ignore the “barking” and act like mature adults who can tolerate hearing something about which we disagree and still remain civil and open-minded.

  Who Benefits from Hypersensitivity?

  While most people buying into the PC code are well meaning and just want to get along with everyone, the ones who bark and snarl the most are those on the Far Left who cultivate political correctness in order to forward their own agendas. In his famous book, Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky, an activist and organizer of the Far Left, makes it clear that leftists trying to effect change are to have no conversations with their opponents, because open discussion could lend credence to their opponents’ arguments and humanize them in the sight of the public. He argued that activists must demonize their opponents and get the larger society to recognize the activists as the ones who will deliver society from the demons. As Alinsky suggests, cultivating hypersensitivity to perceived slights by conservatives is a convenient way to halt important conversations and to demonize opponents.

  Unfortunately, hypersensitivity is not limited to those on the Left. Conservative politicians have also adopted the strategy of feigned offense. The Right tends to be hypersensitive about blaming Bush for economic problems and the double standard of the media. Even though these problems are real, hypersensitive conservatives sometimes see bias where it doesn’t exist, defend Bush when they don’t need to, or even shut down a discussion because of a perceived slight.

  While we all have a tendency to say “See, they did it too!” in order to justify wrongdoing, we must start focusing on what is right or wrong and not on what someone else did. It is imperative that each of us, whatever side we are on, begins to act like adults who can find real solutions instead of pointing the finger at others or running away crying because someone disagreed with us.

  It’s Not All About You

  When talking about hypersensitivity in our society, it is important to distinguish between those who are truly sensitive to comments and those instigators and manipulators with feigned sensitivity and outrage. To the first group I would say it’s time to grow up and start thinking about what you can do to contribute to society’s well-being instead of choosing to be a victim of speech that is sometimes intentionally cruel and at other times completely innocent. The best way not to be easily injured by others’ speech is to step out of the center of the circle so everything is not about you. By thinking about others and looking at things from other people’s perspectives, there is much less time to feel that someone is picking on you or your interests.

  In a previous book, I mentioned that when I was an intern at Johns Hopkins back in 1977, the sight of a black physician was decidedly rare. Often when I would go onto a hospital ward while wearing my surgical scrubs, a nurse would say, “I’m sorry, but Mr. Patient is not quite ready to be taken to the operating room yet,” assuming that I was an orderly. After many years of hard work to achieve the title of doctor, many might say that I would have been justified in reacting angrily to the suggestion that I was an orderly, especially given the racial overtones of the misunderstanding. However, I tried to look at things from the nurse’s perspective. The only black males she had seen come onto that ward wearing surgical scrubs were orderlies who were coming to pick up or deliver a patient. Why would she think differently in my case? A highly sensitive individual would have created a scene and everyone would have felt uncomfortable. I would simply say in those situations, “I’m sorry that Mr. Patient isn’t ready yet, but I’m Dr. Carson and I’m here for another reason.”

  The offending nurse would often be so embarrassed that I actually felt sorry for her or him and would say, “It’s quite all right and you don’t need to feel bad.” I would be very nice to that person, and I would have another friend for life. That was a whole lot better than having someone who would always feel ashamed, embarrassed, or hostile when they saw me.

  Some might say that by allowing ignorant slights or insults to go, I capitulated to the racism of the day, but that’s not the case. Instead, by realizing that the nurse’s statement really wasn’t a reflection of careful judgment about me, I was able to remain calm and gently correct the offender. I guarantee you that both the nurse’s mistake and my response reduced the lingering effects of racism in her mind just as well, if not better, than an angry outburst on my part would have.

  Political correctness aside, people do say ignorant, insensitive, and even malicious things. However, most of our public fights over racism, sexism, and every other “ism” could be easily resolved if the injured party expected the best of the offender and corrected the offensive statement in a kind and rational manner. We all have choices in the way we react to the words we hear. Our lives and the lives of all those around us will be significantly improved if we choose to react positively rather than negatively.

  Faux Hypersensitivity

  To the second group of hypersensitives, those who are feigning hurt to make a point, I would say you need to decide where your priorities are. Are you interested in the unity and our nation’s well-being or is it more important for you to further a political agenda that is not consistent with the founding principles of unity in this country? Political correctness and hypersensitivity blocks discussion of important social issues while they are being changed—exactly the time when it is most important to discuss them.

  An excellent example of how these people work occurred about a month after the National Prayer Breakfast when on national television I was asked about my opinion regarding gay marriage. I immediately stated that I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and that no group has the right to change the definition of marriage to suit their needs. By way of example of groups that engaged in nontraditional sexual relationships, I mentioned NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) and people who engage in bestiality. My point was to emphasize that marriage is a long-standing tradition and there is no necessity to change the definition now, regardless of which group wants to change it.

  The secular progressives seized upon the opportunity to distort the meaning of what I said and deviate the conversation away from the definition of marriage by instead focusing on me and trying to paint me as a homophobe who thinks that gay marriage is equivalent to bestiality. Nothing could be further from the truth. I appeared both on CNN and MSNBC to explain that I didn’t think that there was equivalency between the groups mentioned in my answer and to state unequivocally that I had no intention of offending anyone, but I still believe in traditional marriage. The objective media fo
und that explanation satisfactory, but the secular progressive media continued to state that I think that gay marriage and bestiality are the same. This is a very instructive example of how they distort words and meanings, and then cling to the created lies in an attempt to destroy enemies.

  Around the same time, a group of gay activists at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine began their mission as instigators, accusing me of being a homophobe. I was scheduled to be the commencement speaker at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine as well as at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, but decided to withdraw because of the controversy the instigators had successfully created. After years of hard work by the students, I did not want their graduation ceremony to be about me rather than about them and their achievements.

  I received several messages from students who were very disappointed that I would not be speaking at their commencement. Some even threatened to protest if I did not speak. The thing that saddened me most was the fact that many of them indicated that they were afraid to speak out because of potential repercussions from the administration. I certainly like to think that these fears were unfounded, but the fact that they exist at all is troubling. Like so many thousands of Americans I have encountered across the nation, these students had been beaten into submission by secular progressives who have no regard for such fundamental American principles as freedom of speech when that speech is not in agreement with their philosophies. Political correctness has effectively removed their point of view, as well as their rights, from the debate.