Students and faculty at California State University, Northridge are campaigning to kick ROTC off campus because they say it is militarizing the campus and targeting Hispanics in its recruitment drives, reports the Ventura County Star .
The students are upset about ROTC’s so-called Hispanic Access Initiative, which targets Latino recruits. They say it is racist, but military officials say it is merely an effort to right past wrongs.
"The under-representation of Hispanics serving as Army officers was the catalyst that made the military want to provide additional access to Hispanics," said Maj. Michael Berry, vice chairman for Department of Military Science at UCLA.
Jose Moreno, a CSUN Chicano/a studies graduate student and co-founder of The Committee on Raza Rights said, "Having the ROTC [here] is militarizing the campus."
Fur Fight
Black bearskin caps worn by the Queen’s Foot Guards in England and dating back to the battle of Waterloo might be replaced with synthetic versions following complaints from animal rights activists, reports London's Daily Telegraph.
The foot-high caps, made from the skins of black bears culled in Canada, are used by about 2,500 soldiers, most prominently those stationed outside the gates of Buckingham Palace in London.
Complaints to the queen about the hats have led to a search for synthetic alternatives, but army officials say the faux furs just don’t stand up.
"It either doesn't hold its shape, or it cannot withstand the weather, or it fails to retain the right color, or it stands up in a very surprised manner in the wrong electrical conditions," Lt. Col. Peter Dick-Peter said of the more politically correct fake fur hats.
Cultural Insensitivity Defined
Comments by a Texas state lawmaker that government aid for illegal immigrants is an idea spawned in Communist Russia have been dubbed "culturally insensitive" by her Hispanic colleagues, reports the Houston Chronicle .
In an interview with the El Paso Times , first-term Rep. Debbie Riddle, a Republican from Houston, said America should be worrying about feeding and educating American-born citizens first.
"Where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education, free medical care, free whatever?" she said in the interview. "It comes from Moscow, from Russia. It comes straight from the pit of hell."
Democratic State Rep. Pete Gallego, chairman of the Mexican-American Caucus, said he found her comments hurtful.
The Truth Hurts
Students at Michigan State University say a series of pro-Israel ads running in the student paper there are racist toward Palestinians and are demanding that the campaign be quashed, reports the State News .
The ads, part of a campaign by Campustruth.org, incite negative feelings toward Palestinians and unnecessarily vilify an ethnic group, said student David Mitchell, a member of Students for Economic Justice. He called them "openly racist."
The first ad featured a comparison of the impact of a suicide bomber's attack on his Israeli victims versus the impact on the bomber’s Palestinian family. The second showed Palestinians celebrating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks juxtaposed with Israelis mourning the attacks. Both had the text, "There are two sides to every story, but only one truth" printed at the bottom.
More Tile Trouble
An Arizona couple who wanted to have the words "God bless ..." etched on tiles at their children’s school was told that to do so would violate the separation of church and state and were refused, reports the Arizona Republic .
Paul and Ann Seidman, whose children attend Pinnacle Peak Elementary in Scottsdale, Ariz., paid to have the phrases "God bless Quinn" and "God bless Haley" on the tiles. Quinn and Haley are their son and daughter.
But school officials in charge of the "Tiles for Smiles" program said "nyet." The Seidmans are now suing.
"This is another example of using the so-called separation of church and state to silence people of faith," said Gary McCaleb, their lawyer
Acts of Intolerance
Student complaints about a visa program that allows international graduate students to work in the United States are racist and ignorant and may violate the University’s Acts of Intolerance Protocol, reports the Stanford Daily .
The students passed out fliers around campus complaining that the H1B and L1 visa programs are allowing foreigners to take jobs that would otherwise go to native Americans.
Graduate Student Council Financial Officer Jeff Catalano called the fliers "acts of intolerance" that "will probably be investigated by the University."
29 Pages, No Less
Members of a Canadian infantry battalion are being criticized as insensitive toward people with stress disorders for making a parade float that makes fun of soldiers with stress disorders, reports the Toronto Globe and Mail.
In a 28-page report titled "Off the Rails: Crazy Train Float Mocks Operational Stress Injury Sufferers," the ombudsman of the Canadian forces criticized members of the the Second Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry group for the derogatory float.
"This is normal behavior that took place there, and it needs to be made clear that this is not acceptable," the ombudsman said. "It's not an isolated incident."
The float resembled a train, with a young soldier wearing pink lingerie inside a pink cage with a sign that said: "Next stop, north side." The "north side" is where soldiers with stress illnesses go for treatment.
Can't wait until next Monday for more snippets of politically correct nonsense? Head over to the daily edition of Tongue Tied at the Tongue Tied Web Site.
Mailbag
Cliff A. in Pittsville, Wisc. writes:
Taking a group of high-school kids to Hooters doesn't show a problem with Political Correctness — it shows a remarkable lack of common sense.
Certainly a person entrusted with the education of our children should be expected to know that a chain whose claim to fame is the amount of flesh displayed by the wait staff is not an appropriate place to take students.
What's next, an X-rated movie and a beer? Given the stupid things some school districts do, I hate to say it, but I agree with them this time.
M Hyman writes:
Having gone to elementary school in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the 1950s, I find it absolutely hilarious that a present-day teacher chooses to ban a book concerning pigs.
The student population of P.S. 135 in 1957 was about 90 percent Jewish, five percent Italian, three percent Black, and two percent other. Keeping this in mind, I do remember Mrs. Plutzer (one of my teachers) reading the "Three Little Pigs" to us.
And guess what? All the Jewish kids survived 'the ordeal' — in fact, I still have a storybook from the period with the "Three Little Pigs" included in it. The book was written in Yiddish!
Dan M. writes:
I am NOT a person of color and 20-30 years ago professors treated myself and every other student with disdain. Color had nothing to do with it.
The issue is not color, it is elitism. I was called up before the dean a number of times for getting up in class and calling the professor an egotistical tenured employee whose [foremost] care in the world was [not] students, but rather their next publication.
I was not their favorite student to say the least.
Bradford F. in Chicago writes:
While I think it was wrong that the teacher made everyone write an anti-war letter, I don't think it would have been wrong if the teacher had made the students write a letter that was the opposite of their view.
Speech class is partly about learning to express a view whether or not you personally support that view. The teacher should have polled the students on their views and then had them write a speech (and not a letter to Congress) that supported the opposite of their view.
Brian W. in Abilene, Texas writes:
You know, it's funny how someone could claim to be diverse and multicultural and remove a religious symbol from a school because of it.
The trend among those who wish to be PC is to be tolerant. Tolerant, that is, of everybody except Christians. Somehow they have decided that since the majority of US citizens are Christians that it is OK to be intolerant of us.
Every time I see something like this I laugh because I know that in their actions they are completely contradicting the whole point of being "diverse." Like just about everything in this PC world we live in, it is not only contradictory, but absurd.
Our Founding Fathers (yes, I said Founding FATHERS) would be ashamed.
Mary A. writes:
Of course, I would not ban the expression "confined to a wheelchair," but I do see the problem with it.
A wheelchair is actually something that allows people with certain disabilities to get out among the rest of us. One is not confined to a wheelchair; one uses it as a piece of equipment to have more freedom than if stuck in a regular chair or bed all day.
I like the expression, "uses a wheelchair." My son uses a wheelchair and I am glad he has it. It gives him and us more freedom of mobility.
G.W.H. writes:
You think you guys over at GOP news could ever tell your audience about the wrongs done by the pro-war crowd, most notably your teenage boy-in-chief, W.? Or is it only, "We Distort, You Comply"? And boy, do they — like sheep going to the slaughterhouse.
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