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In George Orwell's chilling novel "1984," Newspeak is a method of controlling the people's language in order to keep them under Big Brother's heavy hand. It is a devious, diabolical system using brainwashing and mind-control to allow only certain "approved" words and ideas to be used.

We have the same thing in our society today. It's called "political correctness."

So-called "political correctness" (pc) is a social phenomenon which urges people to avoid "offensive" words and actions. At best, pc is annoying and unnecessary. At worst, it is blatant censorship and represents a dangerous affront to one of our most cherished and important freedoms: the freedom of speech.

Examples of pc abound. The greeting "Merry Christmas" is now supposed to be "Happy Holidays," which sounds empty and ge-neric, like getting a letter addressed to "Occupant." A university in Illinois ordered that students not chant "USA! USA!" during football games because such a chant might be offensive to Muslims. Newscasters on ABC were told not to wear American flag pins because they might offend some viewers. And the list goes on.

This whole concept of pc should be resisted for at least two reasons.