Maggie's Farm

Hey Marianne,

I'm with you on donations, but am disappointed to hear about United Way as a few years back, I read that with the Salvation Army and the Red Cross, they were tops. This was before Iraq. I give to Wounded Warriors and Soldiers Angels.

I'm fascinated by your description of political correctness. The 'refusal to make value judgments and stick by them' is so right-on, but I'm stopped by the 'intellectual laziness'. I would call it intellectual fear. But as I think about it, it had to start with something before it morphed into intellectual fear, and my mind keeps thinking intellectual ineptitude mixed with effrontery. No matter, its spread has devastated truth and ethics.

I left teaching because of political correctness. Obviously, there is more to it, but it's a long story told over and over again by many teachers who leave a profession where the administration is so governed by political correctness that they live in fear and sacrifice the welfare of their teachers to keep from offending someone else. A few years ago, a psychiatrist friend of mine just home from the APA's annual meeting told me the number one group of people who seek out psychiatric help is teachers. The number one reason for seeking that help: Lack of support by their administrators. Sadly, parents and students know this and take full advantage of it.

Fear has to be an element of political correctness if not its major by-product.
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