Today you have to examine every word six ways from Sunday to see if it will offend the other person before you say it. Example, I was in the supermarket and there was a lady in a wheel chair ahead of me in the isle. Her path was blocked by an empty shopping cart that was sitting cross ways in the isle. There was no room for her to go around it and it looked like she was having trouble trying to reach it to push it out of the way.
Naive me, I said, " I'll move it out of your way". Well, she darn near jumped down my throat! Looking ready to fight, she said , " It's in EVERYBODY'S way !". It would have been in everyone's way , if there had been others there but at the moment it was just the lady in the wheel chair and me .
It was in her way more than mine for I could easily move it whereas she could not. I figured that I must have said something politically incorrect by offering to move the cart out of her way but I was at a loss to know what I said that had offended her . So, I just moved the shopping cart without responding to her outburst and went on my way, thinking to myself, "she can move the next one herself ".
I talked with a man who worked for the Post Office. All postal employees had to attend a sensitivity training program where they would learn what was safe to say and what could get them a sexual harrassment lawsuit. He said he had learned that it wasn't safe to tell a coworker that she looked nice, or that her dress was very becoming, or any thing that a reasonable person would take as a compliment. In today's workplace he said, the big thing he learned was to just do his work and keep his mouth shut for that was the only safe way. Best not to talk to any female coworker, he said.
A man I talked with recalled having his grandchildren in a fast food place and one of the young ones was acting up and ignoring granddad when he repeatedly told him to settle down. He said, " I spanked him once on his bottom and it suddenly became very quiet in the resturant and everyone in the place was looking at me". The granddad then said in a loud voice to everyone in general , " Don't anyone say a word", and they didn't. Spanking an unruly child is not PC in todays world.
The granddad was lucky he didn't get hauled off to the pokey for child abuse by today's standards . Having raised four children, I can attest to the fact that sometimes it takes a smack on the bottom to make the kid behave.
Well, enough about being politically correct with every word ... Saturday , July 11 is the meeting of PRA Chapter 1 and we will talk about gyros and the upcoming gyro fly-in and we won't worry about being PC.
If you're near to the El Mirage dry lake in So. Ca. (30 mi. East of Palmdale), and have an interest in gyros, come to the meeting. You can email me at ddakota@earthlink.net for directions .
Till next time.
Marion Springer
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