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Who Speaks for the Common Man Person?

by

Bob Hyman

In this age of political correctness, it is easy to offend just about anyone. Any gesture, action or comment is at risk of being construed by someone to be offensive. Even something as innocuous as the title above may be taken as an insult by anyone so inclined. So be it. There comes a time when someone needs to display a little backbone and stand up for what they believe in.

Fairness and political correctness have become the war cry for liberals, feminists, and other so-called "minority" segments of the population in their attempts to re-engineer society to their liking. What ever happened to the concept of treating people as people and not grouping everyone into victim or oppressor categories?

There are some people I like and respect, and there are others I don't particularly care for ... both at work and in my personal life. It has nothing to do with their gender, political affiliation, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, race, religion, or any of the other neat little titles that have become commonplace lately. It has only to do with how I regard that person as a person.

Have we become so fearful of bad publicity and lawsuits that we have lost the capability to think about things in a reasonable manner? Of course there are individuals who occasionally cross the line of what constitutes poor taste or inappropriate behavior. That is human nature. Those cases, when they occur, need to be resolved, appropriately and in a timely manner, with fairness and equal protection to all parties concerned. Our current system offers neither.

Standards of conduct, codes of ethics ... these things are fine if they are equally applied and enforced. Our current policies seem to indicate that there are only a few "protected" victim categories, and if you are unlucky enough to not fall into one of them - well, you must be one of the bad guys, excuse me, persons.

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