"It Is, What It Is!!"

What does honesty mean to you? I believe honesty is straight dealings and straight talk when we deal with all people. Umpires and referees are supposed to be honest in their professions; you know, “calling it like they see it” in all situations. If a ballplayer misses a throw, or bobbles a ball, they call it an error; if a lineman jumps before the hike, he is called off-sides. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen an official in any sport apologize for a call or for “hurting the feelings” of a player.

In the world of law enforcement, we seldom see a police officer apologize to a rapist or armed robber for the words they exchanged during the course of an arrest; after all, a felon is a felon, no matter how one may try to “sugar-coat” that fact.

In America, we take great pride in a free and honest press, where we always hope to hear the true facts in all reporting without any tinge of “political correctness”. Wouldn’t it be awful to live in a place where the truth took second place to editorial opinion?

Jesse James was a train robber, John Wesley Hardin was a gun-man and killer, John Dillinger was a bank robber and killer and Charles Manson was a killer. I don’t believe I could get much of an argument about the above statements from anybody; these are all statements of truth without any “political correctness” or editorial opinion involved. I believe the press of all of those eras would agree with all of those statements as true representations of those men mentioned.

Most of us have heard of the Associated Press; it is a “non-profit news agency” based in New York City. We have seen A.P. listed on the by-line of many news stories of all of our local newspapers for many years. We have learned to accept the words of A.P. as “gospel”, reporting that has integrity without editorial opinion or political correctness. The organization was formed in 1846 by Moses Yale Beach and has had a reputation for honest reporting for many years.

This week the Associated Press has made the decision to stop using the term “illegal immigrants” in their reporting. They decided it wasn’t appropriate terminology and prefer the term “undocumented” as more fitting. We now have political correctness usurping the integrity of the press. We now have the compromising of principles invading truthful reporting of the news. Perhaps we can now call NAZIs “misguided German politicians” or pedophiles as “overzealous child lovers”. When does the idiocy of political correctness end? When do we start being honest about what people are and what they are doing?

Crossing the border at night and trying to sneak into America is ILLEGAL; it is a CRIME, punishable by arrest and incarceration in prison. Those who commit this CRIME are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, not “undocumented immigrants”. These people that committed this crime are ILLEGAL, and are subject to all laws and punishment which this crime merits.

It is too bad that an organization like the Associated Press has decided to sacrifice its integrity for political correctness. I urge all of you who see an article in your local newspaper with a by-line from A.P. to be careful of how much stock you put in its truth; it may just be “POLITICALLY CORRECT!”