Norway, with a population half that of Chicago, put up spunky resistance to her Nazi occupiers in World War II. In addition to many acts of sabotage, espionage and targeted assassination, the Norwegian Underground passed the word around that, "When the signal is given," the entire nation will rise up against the hated Germans.
On a streetcar in downtown Oslo one day, the bells went wild and rang like mad. A little old lady took her handbag and swung it hard into the face of a German officer. Direct hit. A torrent of German profanity issued from the Nazi officer who demanded to know what-in-hell that was all about. The woman replied, "Beklager. Jeg trodde signalen ble gitt!" ("Oh, excuse me. I thought that was the signal!")
Alright, maybe you had to be there, or be Norwegian, or both, but I was reminded of that little incident by A&E's utter obliteration of "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson as a result of anti-gay comments he'd made in an interview with GQ Magazine. There was no, "We deplore Phil's comments and assure you he doesn't speak for A&E." Oh, no. That'd be like trying to break in a tribe of cannibals on a cold breakfast cereal enriched with riboflavin. To this day, historians are debating the wisdom of insisting on "unconditional surrender" for Germany and Japan. A&E's aim was not to distance itself from "Patriarch" Phil, but to destroy him.
Support the cast of "Duck Dynasty" in their fight with A&E by signing WND's petition.
Something far more dangerous than Phil Robertson may wind up destroyed here! I think the "signal" has been given, and I'm swinging my handbag as hard as I can!
TRENDING: St. Patrick's role on the 'external hard drive'
I remember when political correctness was cute. It was almost like a game of something like "Simple Simon." "They're 'women,' not 'girls.' You take three steps back." "Did you say 'negro'? Get back to zero and start over again!" Over the past four or five decades this blight has progressed like Edgar Allen Poe's tale, "The Cask of Amontillado," in which a man thinks his good friend is playing an after-dinner prank on him that ever so gradually becomes clear is nothing less than his murder.
Until A&E gave us this new Lexington-and-Concord moment, all we decent folk could do was smile, make jokes and play it safe by going along. Who wants to risk a job, a contract, a marriage or even a date for the thrill of referring to a grown woman as a "girl"? The idea that someone could simultaneously oppose homophobia and political correctness never occurred. That notion has now arrived, like massive armies invading a beach protected mostly by the smug notion that nobody would dare land there. In the days before political correctness, jokes were judged by their humor, not their victim.
Back then, if I were to hear a funny anti-Italian joke, I'd run right to the phone to delight my Italian buddy Al Chioda. Or if I heard a good Polish joke, I'd relay it to Beata Pozniak. The rare anti-"square-head" joke (Norwegian!) got funneled to my good friend, Arne Fraas. The good anti-Jewish jokes went to Herb Saltzman or, occasionally, believe it or not, directly to my own rabbi! Those days were free and rich and fun; nobody would suppose for even a heartbeat that you somehow harbored the bigotry allegedly expressed by the joke. Nobody, that is, until these PC-thugs came in the night and took over.
Hard-line defenders of PC may argue that Robertson wasn't just "joking" about gays. Big deal! So what? I'd like to bash through that defense in a Nuremberg-style courtroom where those like the ones who fired Phil Robertson are in the defendants' dock.
I've got a better idea than political correctness. So Phil's not joking. He's judgmental against gays. That, folks, is a once-treasured made-in-America item known as an "opinion." So, can we obliterate Phil because he's a bigot? Not so fast. Bigotry is revealed and measured not by how you feel about a given group, but rather by how you treat members of that group because of how you feel about them. May we hear what vile acts Phil Robertson and any other alleged PC-violating bigot ever inflicted on those his bigotry causes him to disapprove of?
The prosecutor's papers suddenly became a lot lighter to carry.
A huge mistake can end a business, a career, a government, a war. I want A&E's mistake to end political correctness. The longer the petitions in favor of Robertson grow, the greater our chances. Boy Scouts ask themselves if they've done a good deed that day. All together, everybody: Ask yourself, "Did I trample the bondage of political correctness today?"
Here's mine for today: A little Christian girl in Philadelphia got a visit from her grandfather on Christmas morning. (I said Christmas, not "over the holidays." Christmas! Did you get that? Is that such a murderous concept?) The little girl was reveling in her new toys. Grandpa asked her, "Did your friend Rachel get toys as nice as yours this Christmas?"
"Oh, no, Grandpa," she said, "Rachel's not Christmas. Rachel's Chanukah. And Rachel's not Easter. Rachel's Passover.
"But," the little girl continued with a smile, "We're both Fourth of July!"
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