Viv.

It’s not my intention to offend anyone. I have discovered however that it’s very difficult to speak to a large group of people these days and not offend someone. People walk around with their feelings on their shoulders waiting for you say something that offends them. They can’t hear anything else you say. People focus in and completely miss the point of what you’re saying. 

We’ve reached the point where people are actually afraid to talk about what they want to say because somebody might be offended. People are even now afraid to say “Merry Christmas” at Christmas time, it shouldn’t matter the religion of the person you’re talking to, that’s a salutation of greeting and good will. We have to get over the sensitivity. We need to forget unanimity of speech and unanimity of thought and we need to concentrate on being respectful to those people with whom we disagree. That’s when we begin to make real progress. 

I’m very compassionate and I’m never out to offend anyone but political correctness is dangerous. Some of the founding principles of this country was freedom of thought and freedom of expression. Political correctness muffles us, it puts a muzzle on us and keeps people from discussing important issues while the fabric of this society is being changed. We cannot fall that trick. What we need to do is start talking, start talking about things that are important, things that are important to the development of our nation. Unanimity is constrictive, challenging opinion is constructive.