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I suppose it was bound to happen. It seems that politics invade every aspect of our lives, from the office to which word we use in a given situation. We must be careful that each word we use is politically correct. I wonder if people are as upset over the use of a particular word, according to the media, as we are led to believe. It certainly feels as though there are word police, listening to every public word spoken, to ensure each word offends no living soul or the relatives of long dead souls.

The sad aspect of the politics of words is the fact that grown men and women are forced to publicly apologize for having said "that" word. "Oh no. We do not use that word anymore. It just isn't politically correct. Someone might be offended." What if you meant to offend? Is it okay to use a particular word if your intention was to offend? I have never taken much comfort in an apology that was forced from the lips of someone. What happened to, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me?"

The truth, of course, is that words can sometimes hurt much more than sticks and stones. Words like: fatty, buck-toothed, four-eyes, ugly, stupid, and moron, are words from our childhood days that children used to hurt other children. We did not need a word police because we knew those words were hurtful. We said them because we meant to hurt the person. That is what children do. We were punished whenever someone told on us. Thus, we learned that choosing our words wisely would keep us out of hot water. If we learned this lesson as children, why are adults in the news today being made to apologize for using certain words? Did they not learn to play nicely?

The growing problem appears to be the changing of the meaning of words. Not too long ago, people in polite society could refer to their pet cats as their Pussy. Notice how you cringed as you read the last word of the previous sentence? Perverted people gave a word used in every day language a perverted meaning, rendering it no longer fit for polite society. Gay use to mean "light-hearted, happy or joyful". Queer use to mean "strange or odd". People of dark skin were referred to as Negro, a word that means back. Some people who obviously were uneducated perverted the word, changing it to nigger. The perverting of words is deliberate. The desired outcome is to make a person feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or inferior. Still, do we need word police?

I believe that a person who uses a word that is not politically

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