Intolerance

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Yesterday when Jim and I were painting we heard a really absurd conversation between two people on the radio. The hot topic was the Swine Flu, of course. So this one person says..."I have heard they are trying to find a better name for the swine flu as many Muslims and others who find pork distasteful are complaining. (What? A deadly disease should have a lovely name?) The other person says,"I did hear that and they considered calling it the Mexican flu but that would offend many as well."

Are these actual truths or were these people kidding? Please tell me they are kidding. Please? Maybe we should call it the "politically incorrect flu or PIF for short?" Is PIF ringing anyone's chimes? Pretty soon we won't be able to say anything!

This whole thing of political correctness has gotten to be so funny. Of course we should respect and honor others but we are all different and that is OK. It is part of the plan. Some of the old adages and idioms need to be brought back like..."You cannot please all of the people all of the time, no matter what you do."

And, come to think of it, I really hate that my astrological sign is called "Cancer!" It offends me....can someone fix it? I am sure that at least 1/12 of the world's population agrees right off the bat and that we could persuade many of the rest of you to join in our cause. As far as I am concerned terrible diseases should not have lovely names and lovely people should not have nasty diseases as their own personal astrological signs. Let's get something going, people! Who will volunteer to find the person in charge of making these crackpot decisions so we can protest? We could hold up some signs and march around.....oh well, on second thought...never mind, we would surely offend someone in the process and might even get pelted with something distasteful from an open car window! And that would offend us big time, right?

What is a person to do..... in a world where everyone is different and acts like they want to be the same to be politically correct? Or acts like they love being different and never want to be the same, so they stir up contention at every turn? It is all so funny and bizarre, and non-productive and as ancient as the family of man. But I do think it has gotten worse, much worse, don't you?


P.S. The New Name of the Swine Flu is...

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency had expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to ban pork products and order the slaughter of pigs.

"Rather than calling this swine flu ... we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A," Thompson said."

If this new name offends anyone... they should see a shrink!

**Flowers and photo by Laurascoop