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<>_p1III.I.«>IJL Page4 "'-bl. 3 ~ I.ON.lay4, 1994 --------- Tl\(. forrv,u- Svl'Y\OW>'lltlfr; l'I0\,11).. h(,._;,.-Q.;5~,r""'\-~,J.) hori<.or,Wly cl,.o..lltn5tct body co,,,\\io..#;o1.5 orrttil-Gll Afrl<:rico.n Politically correct news story published on processed tree carcass Letter G@ Glli@ Editor AN OPEN LEITER TO cago, lllinois. They were great THE STAFF AND STUDENTS representatives of ACC. OF ACC These areas of study as I recently returned from the well as the advisers and instruc- second of two field trips. The tors of these subjects are not first was with some of ACC's always taken seriously on our journalism students, the second campus. The students I traveled with some of ACC's art students. with have benefited greatly from I'm very proud to have accom- the talented butunderappreciated panied such exemplary instructors and advisers of these cross-sections of our student "non-traditional" areas of study. body on their respective trips to I saw first-hand how these pro- Port Huron, Michigan, and Chi- grams have stimulated the students -- some of whom may not have been interested in a post secondary education if it weren't for these subjects. I hope there will always be a place for journalism, the arts, and other "non-traditional" ar- eas of study at ACC. Sincerely, Mark Ferguson Administrative Technician Alpena Community College BY SNIT REED STAFFWRlTER What does it mean to be "politically correct'!" Thesedays, it seems as though everything we say is not politically correct. But does it really matter? Why should we bother with it? To be politically correct is to be completely neutral in de- scribing something. Although political correctness has been around for a while, we first heard of this term, it seems, when a certain percentage of the population decided they would rather be called "African-Ameri- cans" instead of "blacks." African-American is a more po- litically correct term to use. Okay, I have no problem with that. But then, the political cor- rectness earthquake rumbled through our country with such force, wherever we turned there was a new politically correct name for each person, place and thing. According to The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook, we have no more bald people in the world, we have the "hair disadvantaged." There are no more dead people. They have been replaced with the "terminally inconvenienced." Even "politically correct" is no longer the politically correct term to use. It has changed to "cul- turally sensitive." How important is it to be 100% politicallycorrect?Iwould have to think it's not important at all. I mean, how many people are going to get truly upset if someone uses the word "puppet," disoriented with the processed rather than its politically correct tree carcass delivery person." counterpart, "hand-held Ameri- If we entered a world can?" where political correctness domi- nated our language system, do The 1990s have so far you thinl... anyone would be able blessed us with a lot of socio- logical fads, such as people suddenly remembering they were abused as a child, or claiming temporary insanity to try to wea- sel out of a guilty verdict. But this political correctness fad is for the birds. The whole point of being politically correct, as I see it, is to not be overly judgmental when describing someone, something or someplace. But Jet's face it. There's no way of getting around the fact that however we describe something, or whatever words we decide to use, we are still labeling that object. It is incorrect to call some- one fat, but it is okay to say "horizontally challenged." It is incorrect to call someone poor, but it is okay to say "economi- cally marginalized." I'd just like to say to the person who created political cor- rectness, "Do you honestly think that by changing the name of the condition or description, you'll somehow change the prob- lem?" Let me give you the answer: "I don't think so!" Here's a short, but very politically incorrect sentence: "My airhead secretary was dis- honest with the paperboy." Translated into political correct- ness, that same sentence would read: "My cerebra-atmospheric personal assistant was ethically to understand anyone else"! Here's a little political cor- rectness quiz. I'm going to list five words that are politically correct. See if you can guess what they mean in English: 1 )Temporarily metaboli- cally abled. 2) PWA. 3) Parasitically oppressed. 4) Just happens to be. 5) Guest. There are very few of these politically correct terms I can live with, even if they are still labels. But for the most part, I think life would be a lot simpler if we went back to a time when people were just people. Here are the answers to the political correctness quiz: I) Temporarily metaboli- cally abled means "alive." 2) PW A means "person with AIDS." 3) Parasitically oppressed means "pregnant." 4) Just happens to be means "is." 5) Guest means "prisoner.• If you got all five right, you are too politically correct for your own good. If you got three or four right, you watch too much trash TV. If you got one or two, I hope they were just lucky guesses. If you got them all wrong, congratulations! You passed! You' re nonnal ! ~~n~ral~lali~n~ Incidents effect viewpoint of DUI graduating ~la~~ ~f 1994! BY SHAWN DEMPSEY NEWS EnrroR I screwed up again, and this time, if you can believe it, it didn't even involve the word 'suck'. This time, it was serious and I failed to act. This time, it could have cost a life. A few weeks ago, I left school around dusk to have din- ner in Rogers City with my parents. I hadn't even gone a """'=======•"' block when some jerk pulled The Polemic Staff Adviser .. .. Sonya Tims Layout Editor ... Jen Goodburne Copy Editor ... Denine Konwinski News Editor ... Shawn Dempsey Cartoonist . , ..... Carol Bum~ Photographer .... Linda Simp~on Contributors Jim Ballmer Scott Reed Melody Sharp D011 Fl1arski Jeremy Williams Katie Dilks Angela Beaubien Keudra Jones Jenell Lefevre Kara Boomer Deb Haske The Polemic is published bi-momhy, and is distributed free of charge. Opinion.~ ex- pressed are strictly tliose of the wri1ers. Questions, con- cerm. and other input can be dropped off at The Polemic office in Besser Tech llO, or in our mailbox in BTC. Mail correspondence to: right out in front of me. Luck- ily, I noticed that the moron had no intention of stopping or he would have plowed into the side ofmy car. I swore a couple of times, shrugged it off as a typical iso- lated incident of not looking both ways, and passed the idiot as soon as we turned onto M-23. I drove without a second thought, until ... the jerk started tailgating me, trying to pass me. He had been driving 45 m.p.h.; now he apparently wanted to do 70. And he passed, to go 45 again ... in both lanes. After he drove on the other side of the road a couple of times, it didn't take a genius to realize this guy had had a few too many of something. And it was showing in every passing mile. I was so angry. This !@A&.¥% almost hit me. What right did this person have to en- danger me this way? What right did this fool have to endanger anyone this way? And this is the part where I screwed up. Besides fuming, I didn't do anything about ii. I should have, and could have, gotten his license plate number and called the police. As much information a.'I I could The Polemic have gotten, without endanger- Alpena Communi1y College ing myself, is what they needed. 666 Johit'lon Strct:t With a description of the driver, \. Alpena, MI 49707 the cops could even have gone I~,,_... ...... ,,_...,,_...,,_...=""'"' to his house and questioned him, if they hadn't caught him on the she died. She had a special knack road. for making people feel at ease, Instead, I let the guy keep and that's what she did for me driving. He could have killed when I was new to the area. somebody; thank God he didn't. She was happily engaged to be It's hard to condemn the married to someone she loved guy because I have sympathy for who loved her back. She had him. I have driven after drink- reasons to live. ing, and J have let others drive J am 24 -- I'll be 25 the after drinking. But I'm not go- day this paper comes out -- and ing to do it anymore because of I have things to live for. a tragedy which struck too close Kendra's death pointed this out to home. to me, so I decided never to I wish I could say the trag- drive drunk again. But what if I edy which convinced me not to only had one or two? I recently drink and drive was the 1991 found even just having a few drinkinganddrivingdeathofone drinks can lead to a tragedy, a of my friends. But I can't. tragedy so terrible it made me Bob was about 20 when be swear off drinking and driving died. His was the first open cas- ket funeral I had ever been to. It was so unreal to look at a friend, someone who I cared about, someone who was hand- some, sweet, smart, and funny, just lying there -- dead. We dated a few months be- fore his death. I liked him a lot. So did a lot of other people. He overlooked people's flaws and concentrated on their virtues. My family even liked him! I knew it wasn't finished between us, but I never could have imagined our final date would be his funeral. Bat no, his death didn't af- fect my behavior - it can't happen to me, right? His death was terrible but it was a fluke, something that happens to other people. And it did happen to someone else. In 1993, Labor Day weekend to be precise, an- other tragedy struck which actually did make me change my behavior, at least a little bit. Kendra was killed in a single car accident. She was three miles from home and it was about 10 o'clock in the evening. She had been playing in -- and drinking through -- the Rogers City softball tourna- ments, along with dozens of other people. But Kendra was the unlucky one. Kendra was about 27 when I'm going to North Dakota to visit family for most of the summer. - Traci Haugerud I'm going to work two jobs so I can go to school in the fall. - Tara Rhoads completely. gone, and their accidents were Sue was 29 when she went freak accidents which could to jail. It was Halloween, and she was having a good time, tak- ing it easy, and staying close to home when she wa.<; pulled over. She didn't drink that much, just one drink per hour. I thought that was legal! But it isn't. Sue said going to jail was the most horrible thing she ever experienced. She had to spend the night in a place with crimi- nals. She had to go to court. Her license was restricted to driving for work purposes only. Her car insurance bloomed. The deaths of my friends seemed so unreal. They were just What plans do you have for this summer? Working construc- tion & developing a group support program for separated/divorced men. - Kurt Pokorzynski never happen to me. But Sue sat down and told me about jail, and I realized, HEY, THIS JAIL THING COULD HAPPEN TO MEI I could be with real crimi- nals -- robbers, rapist, and murderers. I would have to tell people I had been an offender. I vowed never to drink and drive again. "Cool," I thought, "I'm safe." But then I saw that jerk driving drunk, and I realized I'm not safe. None of us are safe until we call the police when we see some one driving under the influence. Next time, I will. I don't know, but whatever it is, it's going to be fun. - Richard Jenkins Working extra hours and taking more classes at ACC to prepare for the Nursing Program - Sue Cohoon