KEN: Political correctness and what many call “wokeness” now — being woke — has brought our culture to its knees, figuratively and literally. Think about it. It\u2019s bringing the country to its knees. It\u2019s making thinkers idiots. The people that think, now they back off a little bit. Think about all the teachers and the managers and the CEOs and the people that they knew how to think.<\/p>\n
They knew how to use their brain, they knew how to make decisions for themselves, and then wokeness enveloped them and political correctness. And then they realize before they said, “Well, that doesn\u2019t make any sense. Why don\u2019t we do this?” Now, they go, “Uh, you know, what happens if someone\u2019s offended?”<\/p>\n
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Well, first of all, it doesn\u2019t matter if someone\u2019s offended because offending someone is not illegal or unethical. It\u2019s not unconstitutional either. We bought into it, though. We bought into it. We\u2019ve been buying this ridiculousness from the left for too many years. “You hurt my feelings! I\u2019m calling the police.” Grow up. That\u2019s the problem.<\/p>\n
But people have stopped thinking. “What if they email me crazy stuff?” Well, then don\u2019t become a talk show host. There\u2019s a high school in Portland, Oregon. They have postponed changing their mascot to the evergreen tree after a committee member raised concerns of racist connotations. An evergreen tree. It\u2019s the Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School.<\/p>\n
Now Ida B. Wells-Barnett is the Pulitzer Prize winning African-American journalist who reported extensively on and protested against lynching and that horrible era in our history. This according to the Portland Tribune. Now, Ellen Whatmore is on the mascot committee. She\u2019s a member and a teacher at the school, and she said, “Evergreens are characterized by the life-giving force of their foliage, the strength of their massive trunk, and the depth of their roots — in an individual tree and as a forest of trees.” Now, I have never heard a mascot so eloquently described and thought about.<\/p>\n
But then someone else said, “Well, don\u2019t they bring lynching to mind?” and, you know, it went south from there. So how do you listen to what that woman said and said, but with that rationale, we would have to redefine and eliminate everything. This is how crazy things have become, and it wasn\u2019t a Millie anything liky thing.<\/p>\n
The committee didn\u2019t just say, “How about a tree?” No. She had a beautiful definition, eloquence for a mascot built around journalist who is African-American. I mean, it\u2019s just… To me, it just made total sense. But again, I\u2019m not woke, and when you\u2019re woke, nothing makes sense. Here\u2019s Rush.<\/p>\n
RUSH: FrontPage magazine. “Trees are America\u2019s newest racist symbol.” To who? Who thinks trees are racist? “Trees are America\u2019s newest racist symbol.” Who thinks this? I would submit to you nobody thinks it. Somebody with a fax machine and a logo sent out something that they\u2019re offended by and the Drive-Bys pick it up because it fits a narrative they\u2019ve already established. Okay, ready? You can\u2019t think of why a tree would be racist. Wait \u2019til you hear this, then. If you\u2019re really dumbfounded. This is not a joke.<\/p>\n
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“Mickey Fearn, the National Park Service Deputy Director for Communications and Community Assistance – made headlines when he claimed that black people do not visit National Parks because…” Because… of the trees. “The trees remind them of their slave ancestors being lynched by their masters.”<\/p>\n
“Jellystone, (sic) the first national park, was created in 1872 in Wyoming. Slavery was over by then and no one had ever been lynching slaves around Old Faithful anyway. But false claims of racism die very hard. Now Alcee Hastings, an impeached judge, and a coalition of minority groups is demanding increased ‘inclusiveness\u2019 at national parks. And high on their list is the claim that, ‘African-Americans have felt unwelcome and even fearful in federal parklands during our nation\u2019s history because of the horrors of lynching.'”<\/p>\n
Now, why is it only trees in our national parks where there wasn\u2019t ever any racism or slavery? Why is it only trees in our national parks remind African-Americans of their ancestors being lynched? Why doesn\u2019t every tree remind them of that? You African-Americans in the audience — and I know that there is a beaucoup bunch of you out there — I bet you, not a single one of you has the slightest reaction like that when you see a tree. You talk about a constructed media narrative.<\/p>\n