# I'm in favor of capital punishment for this kind of felonious political correctness **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 4, 2001, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800 "2001-04-04T17:10:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/1 "2001-04-04T17:10:27Z")
From [foxnews.com](http://foxnews.com/fn99/national/040401/uga_monument_osborn.sml): > [@](#): > > For generations, faculty, staff and alumni of the University of Georgia have served and died in the U.S. military — some as far back as the war of 1812. > UGA political science professor Loch Johnson thought it fitting, then, to build a memorial on campus naming those American soldiers. It would be a tribute, he explained, to honor those who answered their country’s call and paid the ultimate price. > _\_ > But to the surprise of many, the idea came under attack. > > The University Council’s Executive Committee, a group of faculty and students, rejected the idea, saying it would be unfairly exclusive. > > Laura Chason, a graduate student on the committee, said the memorial as originally proposed would have unfairly excluded many minorities, women and foreign students who were not allowed to serve in the military at one time or another. > > “What are you going to tell international students whose families might have been affected by American military intervention in their home country?” Chason asked. The monument, she said, should include people who performed other kinds of service like the Peace Corps or the diplomatic corps. > > Professor Johnson, along with many others, sees this issue differently. > > “Perhaps those other countries can build their own monuments to people who gave their lives for their countries,” he said. “But this monument will be for the people who served the United States.” OK, I don’t want to post too much more from the article. I urge you to read it. There’s plenty more to be outraged about. How 'bout a monument to your lost-in-combat, politically correct asses after I put my boot upside them? Fucking **lunacy.** As the professor notes later in the story, war and death don’t discriminate against gays, women, minorities, etc. Given the chance, it will take them all. Apparently being a UGA student and dying in wartime for your country in the military isn’t a good enough qualifier for being on the memorial for some of their students. It’s not “inclusive” enough. “Can we stop the D-Day landing, please? We don’t have enough vegetarians and People of Color.” That they don’t recognize that these people fucking **died** - said goodbye to their families, their wives, children, friends, lives that made them happy, futures - never to return, so that these students and faculty can be free to be the naive idiots that they are, is the biggest irony of all. Fucking wankers. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/2 "2001-04-04T17:19:14Z")
I agree unreservedly. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/3 "2001-04-04T17:22:11Z")
Oh good lord! What genius thought this one up? For crying out loud, it’s a monument to the war of 1812. It’s no different than Trafalgar Square, or the Arc de Triumph, or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/4 "2001-04-04T17:46:24Z")
Actually, it’s for all who died in all wars as far back as 1812. And you’re right. This extreme of PC is just beyond extreme and into the fucking ridiclous. Dumbasses ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/5 "2001-04-04T17:50:56Z")
This is one of the reasons I’ve drifted centerward in the last 10 years. Not this specific incident, but the general instransigence of the “all men are created equal and stay exactly that way or else” crowd. This is the same philosophical argument that’s being used to steal the black berets from the US Army Rangers and give it to everyone: because it’s too “exclusive”. God forbid that someone could actually be considered to have **earned** an honor or distinction! We have to **give** it away to humanity as a whole so nobody’s feelings will be hurt, regardless of the fact that they have no right to that honor or distinction. Understand…I’m a gay agnostic/pagan with unconventional tastes in literature and music. I fall into a whole lot of minority categories myself. And I was a liberal gay activist in college 10 years ago. But I saw enough stuff done by my side of the debate to make me realize that the Left is no better or more honorable than the Right, and drifted away from that extreme. I’m not venting from a standing position right next to Franco and Mussolini here. This is just common sense. Blah. jayjay ---
**Author:** ![Profane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/6 "2001-04-04T17:57:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Milossarian \* > Fucking **lunacy.** I had nothing to do with it I swear! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist it.) > [@](#): > > “What are you going to tell international students whose families might have been affected by American military intervention in their home country?” Chason asked. I have to agree that the whole thing is preposterous. What international student would be offended by a war memorial? That would be like me saying, “I’m English, and I find this Revolutionary War memorial offensive! Tear it down!” What a bunch of idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/7 "2001-04-04T18:06:45Z")
One more point I want to note from the article: > [@](#): > > Committee members responded to the controversy by drafting a new proposal — with slightly changed wording. The initial version of the proposal said the monument would honor those who “gave their lives to preserve liberty.” The new version reads “gave their lives in service to the U.S. military.” > > Why the changes? Some committee members found the words “in service of liberty” objectionable, saying not everyone on campus believes that all U.S. wars were fought “in service of liberty.” What a slap in the face to those killed soldiers and their families. I think the U.S. was wrong to be as involved as it was in Vietnam. I don’t for a second, however, think that the soldiers who died there died for anything other than our country and what it stands for. They sure the fuck didn’t die to serve the U.S. Military. Also, as the professor who supports the monument notes, people of any minority you can think of - race, gender or sexual orientation - have bravely given their life in our service during wartime. The PC fascists are simply showing off their own ignorance on this one. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/8 "2001-04-04T18:16:47Z")
Memorials and monuments are exclusionary? Ain’t that the fucking idea? I guess we gotta rip down the Washington monument, along with all other presidential memorial structures, now. After all, the U.S. President has to be a natural-born U.S. citizen. This obviously excludes the many foreign-born residents of this country. And that just wouldn’t be _fair_ … ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/9 "2001-04-04T18:26:31Z")
Well why don’t we just have another monument to those that chickened out, crapped their pants, and ran away? ---
**Author:** ![Wartime\_Consigliori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@Wartime\_Consigliori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wartime_Consigliori)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/10 "2001-04-04T18:47:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*Well why don’t we just have another monument to those that chickened out, crapped their pants, and ran away? \*\* I’ve already got the design-- a bronze statue of General Patton smacking the shit out of them. What a goddamned disgrace. Those opposing the monument ought to be ashamed of themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/11 "2001-04-04T18:49:02Z")
I believe they prefer to be called “persons of apprehension”, Scylla. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/12 "2001-04-04T18:52:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Committee members responded to the controversy by drafting a new proposal — with slightly changed wording. The initial version of the proposal said the monument would honor those who “gave their lives to preserve liberty.” The new version reads “gave their lives in service to the U.S. military.” > > Why the changes? Some committee members found the words “in service of liberty” objectionable, saying not everyone on campus believes that all U.S. wars were fought “in service of liberty.” While I agree wholeheatedly with the OP - and _believe_ me, I do - I have a small quibble with this. No, I don’t agree with the replacement at all, but the phrase “gave their lives to preserve liberty” seems a bit too pretentious, a bit too political, as such it belittles the sacrifice of the fallen. I’d prefer it to say “gave their lives in the service of their country” or “in the service of the American people”. But then again, it may be a cultural thing. After all, i’m used to seeing monuments honoring those “who fell in defence of the motherland”, which wouldn’t really work in this country. ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/13 "2001-04-04T19:26:44Z")
No disagreement here. For some other local coverage, check [http://www.redandblack.com/stories/033001/new\_0330010003.shtml](http://www.redandblack.com/stories/033001/new_0330010003.shtml) It appears that a “compromise” proposal was reached also see… [http://www.redandblack.com/stories/040201/new\_npromemorial0001.shtml](http://www.redandblack.com/stories/040201/new_npromemorial0001.shtml) You can search the redandblack site for other stories ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/14 "2001-04-04T22:51:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*Well why don’t we just have another monument to those that chickened out, crapped their pants, and ran away? \*\* Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the William J. Clinton Memorial Library and Waffle House already under construction? ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/15 "2001-04-04T23:24:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Milossarian \* > \*\*Some committee members found the words “in service of liberty” objectionable, saying not everyone on campus believes that all U.S. wars were fought “in service of liberty.” \*\*Well, they **weren’t** all “in service of liberty.” The Mexican-American War was fought mainly to steal some prime real estate from Mexico. The Spanish-American War was fought mainly to steal prime real estate from Spain. And what about all the wars and skirmishes fought against the original inhabitants of this continent? “In service of liberty” my ass. You need to brush up on your American history, **Milo**. **FallenAngel** : Refusing to serve in an unjust war, as Clinton did, is not cowardice, not in my book. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/16 "2001-04-04T23:27:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LunaSea \* > \*\* > I have to agree that the whole thing is preposterous. What international student would be offended by a war memorial? That would be like me saying, “I’m English, and I find this Revolutionary War memorial offensive! Tear it down!” What a bunch of idiots. \*\* I don’t think fear of potential offense to some international students is reason enough to abandon the project, but in fairness this memorial would be including wars considerably more recent than the Revolutionary War. I know some international students from Japan whose grandfathers served in the Japanese military during WWII. At some other schools there may be students from Korea or Vietnam with parents or grandparents who served in those countries’ respective conflicts with the US. I doubt many such students would be terribly offended by a war memorial (if only because people with hard feelings towards the US are unlikely to want to study here), but it’s not impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Sapphire\_Bullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Sapphire\_Bullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapphire_Bullet)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/17 "2001-04-04T23:43:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Max Torque \* > \*\*I believe they prefer to be called “persons of apprehension”, Scylla. \*\* **This** is just _another_ reason I love you, Maxxie. [sub]Of course we need to do something about that damned hockey team of yours…Lubbock Dustbunnies or some such, right?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2001, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/18 "2001-04-05T00:12:09Z")
Further to jab1’s comment, at the time of the 1812 war, **we** didn’t especially appreciate American attempts to “liberate” us. Especially not the Québécois, who were still rather torqued about that “Stop being nice to the French” clause in the Declaration of Independence. Not that you shouldn’t put up memorials to whatever wars you like. But there are always two sides to the story, and the other side may be closer at hand than you think. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2001, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/19 "2001-04-05T00:29:44Z")
> [@](#): > > at the time of the 1812 war, we didn’t especially appreciate American attempts to “liberate” us **matt\_mcl** , as I recall you guys showed your appreciation by setting fire to the White House! We had to re-paint and everything!:mad: But to the OP, I have to agree that this PC thing has gotten WAY out of hand! There is a line between requesting that people do not purposfully behave as assholes and taking away their freedom of speech… it’ll be interesting to see what happens to PC speech in the next decade or so… ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2001, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800/20 "2001-04-05T04:24:22Z")
> [@](#): > > ## quote: > > ## _Originally posted by Milossarian_ Some committee members found the words “in service of liberty” objectionable, saying not everyone on campus believes that all U.S. wars were fought “in service of liberty.” > > \*\*Well, they weren’t all “in service of liberty.” The Mexican-American War was fought mainly to steal some prime real estate from Mexico. The Spanish-American War was fought mainly to steal prime real estate from Spain. And what about all the wars and skirmishes fought against the original inhabitants of this continent? “In service of liberty” my ass. > > You need to brush up on your American history, Milo. \*\* And you need to brush up on what’s a quote from me, and what’s a quote from a news article, jab1. So, what did those soldiers die for, then, jab? Do tell. I’m not interested in the political wheres and military whyfors, what or who did the _soldiers_, the regular folks who ended up toting guns, die for? I’m somewhat in agreement with Alessan, “in the service of their country” is a better way of putting it. And as soon as you show me a society somewhere that didn’t displace or usurp the power of somebody else to be there, I’ll get all outraged at my country like you are, jab1. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-in-favor-of-capital-punishment-for-this-kind-of-felonious-political-correctness/60800.md?page=2)