Retire the Label.
Written by Alfie Kohn to
The New York Times Book Review,
August 8, 2004.

To the Editor of the Book Review:
It has become increasingly clear that “politically correct” is an epithet whose purpose is to allow the intellectually lazy to denigrate anything they don’t like—usually some sort of criticism of the status quo —without having to offer a reasoned objection. Conversely, to say of a work that it isn’t politically correct is to recommend it as courageous and refreshing.

Anyone who wondered where this style of discourse was heading need only read Barry Gewen’s review of a book about Benjamin Franklin (August 8). Gewen heaps praises on Franklin but then adds, “The politically correct would most likely hector him if they could. For Franklin was a slaveholder.” Now, apparently, even opposition to slavery, or criticism of slaveholders, qualifies one as P.C. Perhaps it’s time to retire the label.

—Alfie Kohn
—Belmont, MA

Sidestepping Childhood Poverty
in Mississippi
Written by Erica Crabtree to
The Clarion Ledger,
Jackson, Mississippi,
February 8, 2007.

To the Editor:
After reading about the recent bills passed in the Mississippi Senate regarding abortion, I have to say that I am sorely disappointed with this state. As a new resident, I hoped I would find accepting, intelligent citizens in my new home but in the case of reproductive choice, I have been deeply let down. I find it ridiculous that we would waste time, energy, and money on preposterous laws that require health officials to offer women seeking abortion the chance to see a sonogram or hear a heartbeat of their fetus.

To legislate this trivial “offer” is beyond me.
It all comes down to allowing women the decency and maturity of choice. We do not need legislators to be our proverbial fathers and decide what tactics might push us into making the “right” decision as a parent would use psychology on his or her child. Instead, we need legislators fighting for those who are fully living, breathing humans who are without healthcare, insurance, decent housing, education, and nutrition. These issues face the hundreds of children living just down the street ... not the unborn who are hosted in a woman's body.

I am so upset that Mississippi legislators would rather focus on a non-issue than having the fortitude to address the issues that truly affect my new home state: the inequities of already-living children. Mississippi! Get out of my ovaries and womb and into the streets of this great, and greatly in need, state.

—Erica Crabtree
—Ridgeland, MS

EDITOR’S NOTE
“The basic needs of over half the children in Mississippi (51 percent) are not met. Mississippi has the third highest child poverty rate in the country: 24 percent. Twelve percent of children live in extreme poverty.” —Save the Children