Enough Politically Correct Nonsense!

November 27th, 2015

Opinion by Rep. Rob Sampson

This Veterans Day I was again reminded of just how connected we are as a community by our love of this country and the principles it was founded on.  Thanks to what some would describe as our traditional American upbringing, we share a language, history, and culture, a notion of right and wrong, and a little common sense too.

I said in a speech on the town green yesterday – “Our freedom is the most important and defining characteristic that makes us Americans – and without it, we are without self or purpose – or a future.”   I am proud to have said that as it speaks to why I do what I do, and why it’s so important.
There is surely ruthless and physical evil in the world (such as terrorism) that needs to be combated.  I am so thankful to live in America where our way of life and our safety is willfully guaranteed by the sacrifice of the men and women of our armed forces.


There is also a less obvious kind of evil, one that doesn’t use bullets or bombs but is just as deadly to our freedom and security.  It’s the kind that intends to divide and manipulate us, to damage our culture and beliefs, and take our liberty.  This is the kind of evil that permeates politics.

Recent events illuminate the result of the breakdown of our culture caused by those who promote authoritarian control, class warfare, and so called social justice.  Without personal responsibility, there is entitlement and bitter envy.  Without consequences, there is anarchy and unchecked, unrestrained wickedness.  Consider those pushing for more and more gun control who continue to use the lives of those lost at Sandy Hook and other tragic events across the country to advance their spurious agenda – not to mention self-promotion.  Or the people of Bridgeport who just elected a mayor who was previously imprisoned for using the very same office “to enrich himself.”

Only through pure disinformation, dishonesty and an ignorance of history can some things be possible.  There is a man, for instance, running for president openly campaigning as a socialist and there are huge crowds attending his speeches.  Terrorist organizations across the globe continue to grow unchecked as our president fumbles seemingly clueless to the danger to our citizens, and potentially our way of life, that it presents.

The world is so upside down that college administrators across the country back down in the face of ridiculous protests of manufactured outrage and ultimately choose to stifle one person’s freedom of speech out of respect for another’s.

At Yale, an email was sent around the campus by a faculty member before Halloween asking students to consider not wearing costumes that would be culturally or racially insensitive.  Then another faculty member, Erika Christakis, in a rather respectful way, suggested that perhaps there is a place for free speech in Halloween revelry.  Amazingly this was received as an intolerable outrage that caused numerous students to call for the resignation of both Christakis and her husband, also a Yale employee, for challenging their right to “safe space.”

But that isn’t all they want now.  They are demanding that all Yale undergraduates have an ethnic studies requirement, and a department of Ethnicity, Race and Migration be created.  They want a $2 million increase to the cultural center budget, and increases in mental health counseling.  They also want the Calhoun College renamed because it is named after the slave-owning former Congressman and Vice President of the United States.  Their final demand – a monument created on the Cross Campus that acknowledges that Yale was founded on stolen indigenous land.

These students, with their grotesque confrontation of Nicholas Christakis, caught on camera for the world to see, disgrace themselves, and trivialize real and large racial issues and tensions in this country and elsewhere.

Sure I get it, people are sometimes offended and have the right to say so but to go so far as to ban the speech of any contrary opinion and to use mob rule to intimidate those in charge to bend to your will…  what are they teaching these kids?  Perhaps, we should start by explaining that free speech rights apply to everyone.

Democrat candidates for president (and other offices) have lost their way so irretrievably that they have joined the chorus of “black lives matter” – an organization whose leadership’s mission is to fuel racism and bigotry against non-blacks and especially and nonsensically the very police officers that risk their lives to keep us all safe.  Uninformed and sympathetic people, many of them white and who feel guilty about their own success, will tell you that this is a proper movement aimed at ending racial tension and wiping out white on black racism once and for all.   This is an understandable and positive goal.  However, an ounce of common sense should tell you that separating whose life does and does not matter based on color is not the proper way to achieve that end.

It is amazing that candidates running for office are now afraid to utter the words “all lives matter” as it has become so politically incorrect that it’s considered a racist statement by many.   That is madness.  It is time to push back against this nonsense.

I was taught (I believe properly) to I treat others based on merit alone with no consideration for the color of one’s skin.  I would say it’s about time we got back to that.  Not to mention respecting the right of others to disagree without resorting to violence, threats or intimidation.
All of these issues find their source as evil political manipulation and dishonesty, pushed by those who benefit by strife and unrest or a weak America.

I pray this madness doesn’t continue unchecked.  We need strong leaders who remind us of history, tell us the truth, are an example of pride and respect for others, show true tolerance of ideas, and are unafraid of informed and courteous debate.

I enjoy very much hearing from you.  If you have a comment about this column or anything else for that matter, you can write me at rob.sampson@cga.ct.gov.