The Onslaught of Political Correctness: Out with the Old; In with the Few

You knew it was coming – everything must be politically correct today. More and more people are becoming People Out Of Favor. (POOF)

Now who could be more out of favor than a guy who carried a couple of bullets around in his body for most of his adult life. The reason why is he was sort of tough guy – something missing in our genteel effete society of today – – who had what they called a “code of honor” that when insulted you did not run to the court to get a restraining order but challenged the malefactor to a duel.

He also did something that our soft society pretty much abhors. When push came to shove he was right there shoving away. He couldn’t wait for the chance to get back at the guys who did some evil to him when he was in his youth like slashing him across the face with a sword. No, he did not go into a shell and spend the rest of his life as a victim because he suffered a youthful trauma as is expected today, I guess he couldn’t because the profession of hurt counseling did not exist at the time.

Back where he grew up and when he grew up fights among guys were common. Life was a struggle. Crimes were non-existent when it came to fisticuffs. Dueling was outlawed and some got charged with it but the problem was the jury was made up of a person’s peers – in the real sense not like today when there is as much relationship between the defendant being tried and the jury as there is between a crocodile and a rabbit  — people who walked in somewhat the same shoes as the accused. When 12 men cut out of the same cloth as the person charged with the crime of dueling sat in judgment of him they routinely acquitted so the charges were rarely brought.

This guy is one of the guys who made America into what it became. If these roughnecks did not exist the Native Americans still might own most of the continental United States and most of us would probably never have come into existence since this land of ours would not have been welcoming to all those of our ancestors who came from strange or other lands. But as I said we have little need for them now; we are all to take our grievance before judges most who have avoided any type of physical encounter and are repelled by the idea of one person, never mind punching, but merely grabbing or pushing another, or even, heaven forbid, lying to a federal agent.

American has become sissified. Not all, we still have some tough guys around who protect us in our armed services and state, town and city law enforcement and first responders, the trades and construction guys, and for that we should be extremely thankful, but all those who run the joint or want to run it have little of the courage or moxie to have gotten into a fist fight in their youth or post youth years.

Look at the candidates for president – do you see a warrior among them? Has there been one in the Oval Office since old man Bush?  Perhaps we should pass a Constitutional amendment requiring some degree of toughness from these folks.

This guy they wrote a song about –  it goes something like: “In 1812 we took a little trip; along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip, we took a little bacon and we took a little beans and we met the bloody British at a town called New Orleans.”  So you know who I’m talking about. You probably don’t know that the 5,000 rag-tag American volunteer militia men fought and badly beat 7,500 British professional soldiers. Final count: 13 American deaths; 291 British dead including three generals.

His men loved him for his bravery – they thought he was as “tough as old hickory.” Too bad America forgot the lesson that  people living in a country have a great advantage over the stranger from foreign shores. Not only did we forget that as we go about the world with our military invading other countries; it seems we want to forget it was such brutes as Jackson and his friends that made America into the great country it became.

Now you understand why he has to go and be replaced on the twenty-dollar bill. He is so, so, out of step with today’s society.

To complete the political correctness the new face has to be someone not white or a man. I have no trouble with Harriet Tubman appearing on the twenty – she certainly was as tough as Jackson which I probably should not have mentioned since it may go against her. But why not add her and keep Andrew?

This though, is only the first step in changing our history. There will be more and as we move away from knowing that freedom is not free and liberty has to be fought for. Not just by a few hired persons but by all.

Here’s the problem with rewriting the past. We see that President William McKinley had his name stripped from a mountain. All eyes may soon turn to that  most obvious symbol of white American leadership the carving on Mount Rushmore. Four straight white men carved in granite – Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and the Rough Rider. What kind of message does that send?

I suppose Teddy will have to go first since he was a tough guy but so were Washington and Lincoln. I wonder who we should start replacing them with? Any suggestions.