I'll admit it - I've made fun of political correctness.
But I read a thought provoking article today over at CCN entitled Political Correctness and Ft. Hood Killings written by Tom Kenniff that made me take a second look at some of my thoughts. Kenniff is a legal analyst, a criminal attorney, and a veteran of the war in Iraq where he served with JAG. He made the point that political correctness is not the problem, that political correctness has led to good things such as African Americans serving in the armed forces and desegregation in the military.
The problem is that we avoid certain issues and do not openly look at events and ask relevant questions.
There is no recent event where this was dramatized before our very eyes more than the Fort Hood killings. Considering our country's recent history - the horror of 9/11 and the fact that we have since that fateful day suffered suffered multiple attacks at the hands of Islamic extremists, including the Army sergeant who killed two officers and injured 14 others in a premeditated grenade attack in 2003 - it is reasonable that any potential acts of terrorism should be investigated. Investigation does not mean to jump to conclusions, but it does mean to very seriously look into the details.
In this recent Fort Hood situation we knew for a fact that this Army officer had committed violent acts at one of the largest military bases in our country against unarmed soldiers and civilians. There was not a discernible motive aside from death and destruction. Yet almost all of the the media avoided asking the obvious questions about if indeed this event was an act of terrorism and if it was motivated by religious fanaticism - why? How could any thoughtful, honest, look at these events refrain from questions about the motive?
In the aftermath of Fort Hood, as more information is discovered, it gets way worse. It would appear that it is not only the American media that has problems with openly dealing with problems. The Fort Hood tragedy occurred on November 5th, on November 12th CNN released this report written by Brian Todd and Ed Lavandera that details numerous claims made by classmates of Hassan that he was a subpar student with militant Islamic views. As I read through this report I kept asking myself if this man should have been allowed to continue in his residency and become a psychiatrist. I wondered if his supervisors were uncomfortable and didn't want to seem anti-Muslim so they chose to not look as closely at him as would have been appropriate - it's hard to say.
But I can say that for life to work we have to be OK with being uncomfortable, we have to ask questions and look honestly at situations.
What are your thoughts about if we're letting our political correctness cause us to avoid asking all the pertinent questions?
Observations I have observed
18 hours ago
14 comments:
Amen! So true.
"The truth will set us free" but we must have access to the truth, first.
Blessings and prayers, andrea
That was a sad event...You just wonder why no one who was with that man had taken any step to really look at potential ill motives. Even our government ignores this...the reality of religious war. May God help America and its people.
Not to pick on RCUBE, but I find it ironic that one would invoke god to help us while also talking about the realities of religious war.
Anyway, I too think we should not shy away from investigating religious motives, including when Xians are involved. We can't take for granted that certain adherents of any religion will necessarily act in any specific way, including only committing good acts. Just as we shouldn't regard all Muslims with suspicion, we should not turn a blind eye to Xian extremism and violence.
If you think about it, Walter Reed knew of his fanaticle views. They just didn't want to be the scape goat so they passed the buck to Ft. Hood thus costing many innocent lives.
Political correctness. All that does is put a nice name on the ugly fact. You can call a thorny rose by any other name but it is still a thorny rose.
i've read the recent news..it must be hard especially to those who had a tragic experience during the 9/1 attack..hope things will get better
Thanks for sharing.
Just a thought, but what if this was the opposite of political correctness? This man was obviously mentally ill, and instead of getting that out in the open and wanting to deal with it, they did the whole non-politically correct thing of "men are tough and mental illness is something you just deal with."
I find it ironic that one would invoke god to help us while also talking about the realities of religious war.
Might I ask you to examine today's entry over at my blog entitled "What if Jesus Had Never Been Born?"? There is a (brief) comparison to Christianity and Islam. It's a reprint of a 2001 Washington Times article.
I've read numerous articles on the massacre that occured at Ft Hood. So far, I think that Charles Krauthammer summed it up best.
"the popular story line was of an Army psychiatrist driven over the edge by terrible stories he had heard from soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
They suffered. He listened. He snapped.
Really? What about the doctors and nurses, the counselors and physical therapists at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who every day hear and live with the pain and the suffering of returning soldiers? How many of them then picked up a gun and shot 51 innocents?
And what about civilian psychiatrists -- not the Upper West Side therapist treating Woody Allen neurotics, but the thousands of doctors working with hospitalized psychotics -- who every day hear not just tales but cries of the most excruciating anguish, of the most unimaginable torment? How many of those doctors commit mass murder?"
Link to the entire article.
It's hard to imagine that anyone is capable of the tragedy at Fort Hood regardless of any beliefs. In some situations it's probably hard to know what to ask whether with political correctness or not.
Amen!
Thank you for sharing a prayer with me on my blog this week, too! The outpouring has been amazing and we've seen great results.
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"Really? What about the doctors and nurses, the counselors and physical therapists at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who every day hear and live with the pain and the suffering of returning soldiers? How many of them then picked up a gun and shot 51 innocents?"
This is a bad argument, but I expect that from Krauthammer. Stress affects different people differently and it only takes one outlyer.
JD,
I'm still finding it ironic, especially in light of the article.
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