By Jim Bailey
Anchor / Managing Editor / WJHL
Published: November 23, 2009

I get lots of e-mail, frankly more than I will ever have time to read, so when something comes in that seems like a waste of time I usually just hit delete.  That’s almost what I did today when mail arrived from PETA, but my curiosity got the better of me.

Amanda Schinke from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wanted to remind me not to talk about having a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, or to refer to being more “stuffed than the bird.”

Why? Well Amanda, we must be old friends because she addressed my by my first name, believes it leaves out all the vegetarians who chose not to eat turkey. At first I passed it off as another public relations e-mail trying to get the name of the organization paying her bills into a newscast.  I even made light of it on Facebook.

Then I opened the message, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I became. 

“Perhaps this Thanksgiving, you could do for vegetarians what the phrase “Happy holidays” (sic) has done for people who do not celebrate Christmas—simply take care to be more inclusive during your broadcast,” my old buddy Mandy suggested.

Another attempt to censor what people may say on the ruse that someone else may be offended.  That’s something I find offensive.

I have no objection to someone skipping the meat for reasons of conscience, or waistline or their arteries.  May they live long and prosper.  I also have no desire for anyone to feel excluded, or feel offended, although I’m a little perplexed why you feel excluded because I talk about my dinner. 

I do have a big objection to another attempt to dampen speech, especially in the media.  George Orwell predicted this cleansing of the language in his novel “1984”.  What he called “Newspeak”, was a language cleansed of references to individual liberty.

His oppressor was a totalitarian government, but is it any less dangerous when the watchdog of government endorses political correctness?  Once that watchdogs voice falls silent, government has a free hand to codify political correctness, and criminalize the incorrect. 

Orwell was a journalist.  He understood full well that removing words as offensive leaves a freedom loving people less than free.

So enjoy tofurky on Thanksgiving if you can, but if you feel left out when I talk about my turkey dinner,  remember you are free to choose whatever meal you want, and I to talk about mine.  I wouldn’t want it any other way.