Hello crazy people,
I've been AWOL from blogging for awhile. As you've undoubtedly noticed, I sort of run hot and cold. Anyway, don't think that I don't love you just because I don't write very often.
As most of my friends and acquaintances know I love cops. I'm a police chaplain for two different law enforcement agencies. I am pro-cop all day, every day. However, I have a bone to pick with the PIOs (for you newbies that stands for Public Information Officer) who represent the various police agencies when they are called on to explain a situation to the media. Let's say there has been a holdup at a convenience store. The PIO will look into the camera and say something like this: "At 3:15 AM this morning a gentleman wearing a black hoody and red tennis shoes walked into the 7-11 and held up the cashier at gunpoint. He not only shot the man, he also kicked the guy's dog, and keyed his new car on the way out. However, someone called 911 and the gentleman was apprehended two blocks from the scene of the crime. The gentleman is now in the city lockup awaiting his hearing." Gentleman? Really?
Maybe you are thinking, "Mike has finally lost it. He's over the edge." OK, this may not be the most important subject in the world but it bugs me to hear our language misused in this way just for the sake of political correctness. I agree that on the TV News they don't have to say out loud what the guy really is. There might be children present. In reality, a guy who would do such a thing is a low-life, scum-sucking, bottom-dweller with a sloped forehead and no morals. Granted, the PIO probably shouldn't say that. However, he or she also doesn't have to go the other way and call the cretin a "gentleman." That's just PC out-of-control. Call the guy a "suspect" if you want, but please, don't call him a gentleman.
If you look up the word "gentleman" in the dictionary you will discover that it originally meant a man born into a family of high social standing with large land-holdings who because of his independent means did not need to work for a living. It also came to mean a courteous, gracious man with a strong sense of honor. Today, however, the word can apparently be used to describe any homo sapien with male gonads, regardless of how worthless he might be. That just burns my bacon.
However, it goes right along with the trend in our society of changing the definitions or using euphemisms to avoid telling the truth. After all, we wouldn't want to make anyone feel bad or diminish his/her self-esteem in any way. For example, there is a whole long list of words we're not allowed to use anymore to describe human deficiencies and defects. We want to make everyone feel like a winner, even if he's never accomplished anything, so we give prizes for participation. We don't keep score because then we'd have to say that one team won and the other team lost.
Even in many churches preachers avoid ever using the "S" word. They'll say that we should admit our mistakes, acknowledge our lapses in judgment, and own up to our less than perfect choices. However to come right out and say that we are all worthless "S'ers" in God's eyes? No sir, we wouldn't want to offend anyone, in spite of the fact that the Bible clearly says that "All have S'ed and fallen short of the glory of God." And it also says, "The wages of S is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life." So even though the Bible declares that we are all gentlemen S'ers we'll just keep that our little secret because we don't want to sound judgmental and narrow-minded and turn folks off.
GENTLEMEN, my foot! We need to tell the truth, the whole truth, whether people like it or not.
Mike
