Oooooh, the Irony

We recently had a PC ruckus. One of our members, an Idealistic Young Man, thought he would help break the monotony of our daily routine by posting a "this day in history" in our e-mail during the working week. So, he suscribed to an internet service to get his daily information from. Which worked nicely for the past month. Until July 13th. Apparently not much has happened on the 13th, historically speaking. So there was a lot of filler. Including the birthday of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Which IYM didn't give much thought to. A lot of other people did. For noting the birthday of Gen. Forrest, IYM got a visit from the equal opportunity NCO, since she received many visits shortly after the post went up. Now, from a personal perspective, I don't see much point in getting riled on noting the birthday of someone who, from my point, isn't particulary admirable. There's a difference between noting an event, and approving of something the event led to later. Shall we airbrush all the picture of NBF out of textbooks next? How about R.E. Lee? Or the founding fathers, since many of them participated in a system the civil war ended? (disclaimer at end of post, in case you're one of those people just looking to be offended)

But this is the military. So after a long lecture on sensitivity, IYM was allowed to go on his way, suitably chastened.

But why is the ironic? IYM spent a week of his personal leave time campaigning for Obama. He can't tolerate any display of racism. And he's a hard-core leftwinger.

I wonder if he's learned anything about the price PC costs all of us. I doubt it.

(For the record, as we've come to this these days: I'm neither a racist nor a bigot. I DO NOT believe in inherent superiority/inferiority due to melanin content, continent of origin, or cultural background. I'm in favor of judging (yes, judging) individuals on the merits I find of value, such as honesty, fair play, integrity, and the desire to better one's self. And if you think that's wrong, I don't much give a damn about your opinion)