Rosefirewalker’s TeaGarden

The term “PC” has come to mean politically correct, although from what I’ve seen of politics and politicians they are neither correct, nor even politically intelligent when they use this term. What people usually mean when they use this term is that they don’t want to be polite or compassionate about how they relate to other people.

When we were kids we were taught an old adage that goes like this “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”.

That is a really stupid thing to say considering what emotional and verbal abuse can do to people! For years after an unkind thing has been said to you, it can cause real pain and do damage to one’s self esteem, especially from people we care about. Even off-hand casual remarks can be taken as insults, and when it comes to racial epithets, it is downright rude and meant to hurt the other person’s feelings.

There is no reason to call people names or refer to them in an uncaring and unkind manner, even if we don’t agree with their politics, religion or opinions.

I think PC should come to mean Polite and Compassionate; when a person is polite they are considerate of another person’s feelings and when they are compassionate it means they do care whether their words will injure another person.

Let us always be polite and compassionate on this network, let us care about and think about whether our words are insulting or unkind (this goes for how we name our posts as well).

Sure, sometimes people will post a thread without thinking about whether they are being insulting or hurtful, even couch the insult as being humorous, but if you were being used as the butt of a joke, you wouldn’t think it was funny.

I want us to be cognizant of the power of our words, especially since this is a writer’s group.

Sincerely Yours (and, I might add, at the request of one of our esteemed members),
Diane Tegarden
WPWU Network Leader