Pocket Change

Pocket Change
by Diane Alden

"Political correctness is just tyranny with manners. I wish for you the courage to be unpopular. Popularity is history's pocket change. Courage is its true currency."
- Charlton Heston (in a speech before Arizona's House of Representatives.)

When I was 12 and growing up on Minneapolis' northside, I walked 4 blocks to St. Bridget's Catholic school every day in good weather and bad. My kids tease me, "yeah, we know mom, you pulled a wagon up hill both ways with no wheels in a blinding snow storm."

Maybe it was never that bad. But, I knew I had to be at mass by 8:15 every morning. I better be on time, with my uniform in good shape, my shoes polished and my homework done. It was a good idea to be at school early on Mondays and Wednesdays so I could go to the school store and pick up pencils, a school souvenir, or get a book for sale about martyrs for the faith with pictures and the details of dying in a horrific manner. Some of the books had to do with living for the faith as well. Just the other ones caught my eye.

God forbid we should be late to homeroom where we gathered before lining up to go to church. With our classmates we would march like soldiers and take our places and quietly hear mass for the next 45 minutes. You didn't dare be late because under the watchful eye of principal Sister Gregory, who was 5 feet nothing and weighed 90 pounds. She was a woman who could stir more terror in a kid than a visit from the IRS.

It was in 6th grade I had the good fortune to be taught by Sister Mary Eusebia, OSB. To you none 'catlicks', that means Order of St. Benedict. I liked the Benedictines, they were cerebral and often times harked back to the tradition of their founder St. Benedict, the hermit, intellectual and keeper of the flame of Western thought and philosophy.

Sister Eusebia required us to memorize the preamble to the Constitution, the first part of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the poetry of Robert Frost, Longfellow, and the Gettyburg Address. In my one year in "catlick" high school we went on to memorize some of the words of Shakespeare, classical writers, poets and great thinkers. I can still quote Portia's speech from Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice." Portia -- to those who never went to Catholic school or a good public school, was one of the first woman libbers of all times. Like Joan of Arc she had a penchant for taking on the establishment. In any event, memorization for Catholics was part of the training. Just like figure skaters were once required to do compulsory figures in their quest for the gold -- Catholics memorized the best in Western tradition as part of their compulsory figures.

You ask, is she getting senile talking about her youth? Perhaps, but in the days before political correctness became the new religion, memorization was part of the drill. Diversity training was a geography lesson on the peoeple of Baffin Island, a study of kids in the Congo, India or China. In addition, you better know where it was on a map, the capitols and economic structure. In addition, tether ball on the playground was more important than how to put a condom on a cucumber.

Self esteem was something we got when Father Donahue read the report cards in each and every class every six weeks. Praising you when you improved or made an effort. Or through the force of his gentle personality, making you felt like a nickel waiting for change if your conduct mark was a D, or that you spent more time on your batting average than homework. Hardly anyone but the hard cases ever wanted to see the look of disappointment in Father Donahue's blue eyes. Because that would would mean no story about his youth on Prince Edward Island, Canada. No hard candy he might pass around to classes which had the most improved students. Then there was always the firm but gentle admonition, "My job is to make you girls and boys understand how important education is, your job is to do your best."

In New Jersey, recently, some African-American state senators complained because the bill before the state senate would require children to memorize part of the Declaration of Independence. After all they maintain, wasn't that a document drawn up by southern white men who owned slaves. Fair enough I suppose. Though I don't think Ben Franklin, Ethan Allan or others owned them. But political correctness and a pathetic education being the rule these days, bigotry has become a crime worse than murder. Additionally, the evil prevalent in a bygone era seems to negate every good thing about the culture and the people who lived in it.

What the senators from New Jersey and others have forgotten; the Declaration of Independence is based on a long intellectual and spiritual tradition going back into the misty history of mankind. The Greeks worked on the concepts contained in the Declaration. The Jews added the Mosaic law, the Romans almost got it right until the republic slipped into tyranny and empire, the English with the Magna Carta and English common law gave it focus.

The U.S. Declaration of Independence didn't just happen over night. It was the pinnacle of intellectual, spiritual and political insight evolving over thousands of years. Therefore, to subscribe to the notion that is was a document written by fat, old, racist white men for other fat, old, racist white men shows a total ignorance and lack of understanding. Mostly it shows how blind we have become as a people. Additionally, it shines a light on the foolishness of political correctness which has corrupted the way we think.

These documents, which the politically correct senators from New Jersey are complaining about, have been the light which led this nation through the dark night of its own soul. When brother fought against brother in order to maintain the high ideals set forth in those quaint un-politically correct documents. In the process the nation threw off slavery and began to evolve under the principles contained in them.

Millions have left their native countries in order to become part of a nation that held these self evident truths as a their sacred creed.

"We hold these truths to be self evident that all 'men' are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The state senators in New Jersey believe this is a racist document and sexist in the bargain because it says "all men."

Sister Eusebia wouldn't have had trouble explaining the phrase "that all "men" are created equal." in fact she did explain it. Simply - that means mankind - all men and women. Now I suspect the senators aren't too obtuse to figure that out. Even rabid feminists, as much as they like to parse words, must be able to make the mental leap to understand it also.

These documents, the underpinnings of our society, are being made irrelevant because they were written by imperfect men. Nonetheless, they were men who wrote a nearly perfect document.

As Chuck Heston stated, "political correctness is pocket change. Courage is our real currency." So next time the senators with their hands on the bible swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States -- they better take a seat. Sit down and find something to take the place of those miraculous words. Words which men have fought and died to uphold. Words people from all over the world have adhered to and which have drawn them to this country. The currency of these senators from New Jersey in nothiing but pocket change.

Someone who should know better had to throw her wishy-washy two cents worth in. Governor Christie Todd Whitman said, "maybe memorization of the Declaration was not such a good idea." I think Governor Whitman ought to speak to Sister Eusebia. Imprinted on my mind forever, like a prayer, said in dark moments of physical or mental pain, the possession of great words no one can ever take away: "We hold these truths to be self evident..." What a tragedy that the Governor Whitmans of the world have never learned the importance of keeping our heritage by taking it to heart through our minds.

Imagining the words in these documents as endangered due to political correctness -- is mind boggling. Majesty to be replaced by a foggy mish mash of goofy trends and nonsense. Replacing them with feel good, what's happening now mind sludge is laughable - if it weren't so profoundly disturbing.

Throughout our history, the words contained in our greatest documents have helped us through our individual and national pain. They have established our sacrifices and our collective wisdom with a shining greatness.

Those words are written in the blood of our people, of all races, ethnicity, sexes, and religions. When this country is in the dustbin of history those words will radiate through the centuries and point to the triumph of the human spirit.

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