Honk, If You Like Rush

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         Not too long ago, I had a bumper sticker that says, "HONK IF YOU LIKE RUSH."

         My family got a big kick out of the honkers on the freeway and side streets occasionally but one incident stood out from the rest of those fun times.

         On my way home from work one night, a driver pulled alongside to my right as we stopped for the red light. He rolled down his window and poked his head out and shouted,

          "Do you like Rush?" I did not quite hear what he was saying, so, I rolled my window all the way down and said,

          "Excuse me?"

         He repeated, "Do you like Rush?"

         I glanced at him again and with a smile, I said, "Yes, I do."

         "He’s a racist," he charged. I didn’t want to encourage our conversation under the circumstances, but he seemed to want to hear my reply. And the fool that I was, I yielded to the temptation and I replied,

                "That's O.K. We are all racists. Don't we all have preferences?"

         "I am not a racist," he declared. Then went on,

                  "Are you Filipino?"

          "Yes," I replied. What I really wanted to say was, No, I am not Filipino. I am Filipina. It's the difference between he and she. But I let it go with that.

         "Rush Limbaugh is a racist," he insisted. And went on, "I don't like him."

         "That's fine too. You are entitled to your opinion as well as I m entitled to mine,” I countered.

         At this point, I was ready to drop the subject but he persisted with a follow-up question,

                "Are you educated?"

         Now, is he getting worked up or what?  But I knew exactly what he was getting at, so, with tongue in cheek, I replied,

                "No."

         "I didn't think so," he gloated and then as if spreading his wings, added,

                "Well, I am."

         He said a lot more but this last comment got me going. So, to counter his onslaught, I said to him,

                "If you are not a racist, as you claim you're not, and you are so oblivious to cultural ethnicity, you would not have noticed the color of my skin, the color of my hair, or the way I talk. Why did you ask me what my national origin is? And if you are educated, as you declare you are, you would have known that people have differing viewpoints or perspectives that are all protected by the Constitution. I could have sworn that I am in the USA, not Russia or Czechoslovakia or Cuba or some communist country outside of the USA. Educated people do not rudely point out other peoples' ethnic backgrounds or level of education as you just did. Where did your so-called, "education" go?”

         He shook his head sidewise in disgust, ready to lambast me more, but the light turned green, so, we parted.

         I narrated this incident to my husband and children when I got home.  Funny, they all chorused, "All that said at a stop light?"

         "Yes, two minutes of waiting for the light to turn green and I ran into trouble," I said.

         The following day, I retold this incident to my co-workers as well. They reacted the same way my children and husband did. My superior, the judge, chuckled and said, "Only in America." Later on that day, he poked his head in my cubicle and said, "That teaches you not to have a bumper sticker and to keep your windows closed."

         In a way, he was right and I respect his point of view. However, it told me that I cannot express myself freely or else my life would be in danger. Is this not tantamount to the curtailment of my privilege to display a message that I like to share? Where did my freedom of speech go?

         Ah, political correctness. The question is: Can we enjoy freedom of speech and be politically correct given the backdrop of diversity? I suppose it was easy for the founding fathers to promulgate the Constitution of the United States of America ensuring that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness be safely protected because of the tyranny, oppression and curtailment of their freedom to worship who they want to worship under the British Empire. Thus, I reason that it was purposefully embodied prominently as Amendment 1 of the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, so that no one can miss it and claim ignorance of this provision. They may not have dealt with the multitude of ethnicity during their time but they did foresee the kind of conflicts and challenges that transformed the citizenry of the United States today.

         This puts us on a wheel spin as the question remains, "Is there harmony between freedom of speech and political correctness?" Today, the media is saturated with political correctness using euphemisms to sugarcoat realistic down-to-earth, descriptive words and phrases. We hear word substitutes such as "pleasantly plump" for fat or obese; "gay" for queer or homosexual; "sanitary engineers" for trash and garbage collectors; "mentally or physically challenged" for retardation or handicap; "senior citizen" for old folks, "sexy senior citizen" for a dirty old man. In fact the Welfare Dept as we knew it is now "Dept of Human Services" because the word "welfare" has a negative stigma to it, they say. And more recently, Congresswoman Sheila Lee Jackson proposed retiring the word to “transitional living fund.” My personal opinion is it would be more apropos to call it “permanent living fund” instead as welfare has become a cradle to the grave entitlement.

         Be that as it may, the activists for illegal immigration, on the other hand, do not like the term "illegal" and prefer to call them "undocumented" immigrants. Of late, the word "terrorism" has been stricken from White House vocabulary and replaced with "isolated extremists" or similar description removing the tint of Islamic terrorism all together.

         These are but a few examples.  Subtly, we are made to accept that there is no black or white, no right or wrong - just a gray area. In short, we cannot open our mouths if it appears to offend someone or some interest groups.

          The concept has run out of control, so much that even at my choir practice, when one member jokingly commented, "We are better than the sopranos," the lady sitting beside me said, "We cannot say that. We have to be politically correct."

          I couldn't pass that up, so, I whispered in her ear, "I thought that's for politicians only. We are not politicians. We can say what we want to say!"

         I was being facetious, of course. But the reality is although it might not cost one a political career to say something that is sincere, honest or straightforward, it could cost one a friendship, a job or even a life! We are running scared for our lives nowadays. It doesn't take much for anybody to openly assault a person who speaks his or her mind.

         What can we do about this problem? The truth is that freedom of speech and political correctness are in conflict with each other. Being politically correct curtails the very freedom that allows us to say what we mean and mean what we say. We have sacrificed sincerity for the sake of pacifism. Personally, I would readily accept sincerity rather than dishonesty and phoniness in our relationships with friends, co-workers and family. Politicians are a different breed. Their goal is to appease interest groups to win the most votes at election time to achieve power and to stay in power. Sounds to me that they have mastered Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People as they go out of their way to sell their soul to keep their power and position secure.

         Therefore, let's be honest with ourselves and each other. We can happily and peacefully co-exists amid cultural and religious diversities if we ground ourselves with God-given compassion and caring for each other

         (P.S.: Hey, Rush, are you listening?)