'The pendulum of political correctness'

Once again, the pendulum of political correctness has swung to the absurd under the banner of “Let's Rename Negro Creek.” I was not aware the word, negro, was racially insensitive, so maybe we should inform the families that have Negro as a surname that their last name is no longer convenient for us, and it must be changed. Then we should contact the countries where negro, is used in their language to describe the color black and inform them that this is no longer acceptable. But, let's not stop there. The issue of slavery has always been a black eye, excuse me, bruised eye, on our past, so perhaps our history should be re-written to exclude it and no one would have to feel uncomfortable. If we did that, then there would be no need to mention the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement or the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It is mentioned in the article that a possibility would be to find out what the Native Americans called the creek and name it accordingly. Then I would assume that it is realized the Native Americans were here before us, and that some Native American tribes feel that this land, America, was stolen from them. In the spirit of political correctness, would anyone be willing to give their land back to the respective Native American tribes that claim it as their own? I didn't think so.

Golda Meir, the prime minister of Israel from 1969-1974 said, “One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.” I'm afraid if political correctness is allowed to run rampant, someday someone will re-write one of the classics in American literature such as Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" so that it does not reflect the time period in which it was written. Oh wait, someone already did that.

Jim Piacenti

Ladd