America’s New “C” Word

America’s New “C” Word
I guess the first time I remember hearing about a word by it’s first letter, was in the 1960’s and it was the infamous “F” word. The next instance became what is commonly referred to as the “N” word, which of course needs no explanation. I’m told a very large no-no is the sexually degrading “C” word, which one fellow told me got him struck on the head with a frying pan, for angrily saying it to his wife. He told me “Do not ever call your wife that word” and I can honestly say, I haven’t.

Now another C word is getting diabolical status and I’m going to call it “the new C word”. This C stands for crime, but not in the sense we are used to. The new “C” word is launched as a call for action by legal authorities anytime someone uses a microphone. It’s ultimately a form of censorship.

What has happened to America? Someone says something on the radio, TV, in a stand-up comedy club, into a hidden microphone somewhere, or even to their own child on a telephone answering machine and someone somewhere wants to have them charged with a crime. Crime? Criminy!

Self-proclaimed civil liberty advocates, Internet Bloggers, Hollywood celebrities and talk show hosts suddenly start using the new “C” word by phrase. “They ought to be charged with a Crime”! Hollywood Superstar and Saturday Night Live darling Alec Baldwin goes into an outrage on a private telephone line and curses his own child and guess what? “He ought to be charged with a crime”!

Alec must have been raised like the majority of us Americans…but to hear it, he is a monster! When I was a kid, talk like that happened fairly often (and I was the one listening) and it always ended with the belt. Geeze, Louise, I grew up fairly normal with no lasting mental scars. To hear Alec’s detractors, he should be horse-whipped and denied visitation rights. Hooey!

Radio personality, political satirist, current events commentator and part time mumbling shock-jock Don Imus blurts out that a tattooed women’s basketball team look like “nappy-headed hos” and by jiminy, he is all but strung up by his nappy head. Never mind that he was joking and if anyone has ever listed to Imus in the Morning, it’s readily evident the man blabs stupid stuff almost from the time the show starts till it finishes.

I guess this part of his bio didn’t really interest all those folks who called for his head: In 1999, Imus and his wife founded the Imus Ranch. The Imus Ranch is a charitable organization for children with cancer, as well as siblings of SIDS victims.

”Imus helped raise over $6 million toward the Center for the Intrepid, a Texas rehabilitation facility for soldiers wounded in the war in Iraq. Considered to be the largest technological center of its kind in the country, it is designed to help treat disabled veterans and help them with their transition back into the community. More recently, Imus took on the cause of the living conditions at the Walter Reed Army
Medical Center”. Quoted from Wikipedia

Rosie O’Donnell can call the President of the United States an “idiot”, which as far as I remember is a level of mental retardation and no one bats an eye. Never mind that thousands of soldiers, Marines, Sailors, airmen, Coasties and millions of civil servants take orders from him. Rosie openly infers George W. Bush is complicit in the 9-11 terrorist attack. Rosie told the whole world a few years ago, “…if you do own a gun, I think you should go to prison”, thereby calling for gun ownership to be a crime. Never mind the US Constitution gives you the right to bear arms. But, of course, Rosie O’Donnell is a comedian, so it’s okay.

Senator John McCain, the maverick Republican and Vietnam War hero, basically says what he wants, when he wants and although he is a straightforward all-American, the ACLU folks are waiting with baited breath to label his remarks as criminal and irresponsible. I’ve taken a real interest in John McCain and read five of his books. He’s as golden as the day is long, but in my opinion, he will not be elected. He’s just not dishonest enough to carefully sanitize his speech. He doesn’t sugarcoat his words, so the Pablum-demanding leftists will kill him on radio, TV, the Blogs and the elections.

Never mind he loves America and endured five years as a POW in the god-forsaken Hanoi Hilton. He will be made to “look the fool”, just like his fellow prisoner Admiral James Stockdale was, when he was Ross Perot’s running partner.

I haven’t even mentioned freedom of speech in this column, because that term has long been distorted and misrepresented and nowadays, folks no longer are sure what it even means. It has become more important to say the right thing, not offending anyone, leaving out all the “letter” words and if, just if, a political candidate, someone with a lot of money, or, shoot-fire, a microphone, says anything that can even remotely offend 3 people out of a million…throw them in jail and charge them with the “C” word!

America, America…where have you gone?