Readers respond to ‘political correctness’ commentary 

Regarding columnist Marty Rochester’s May 29 commentary, “The wrongness of political correctness,” I must admit that I cringe whenever I hear anyone use the term “political correctness.” It is frequently used as a thoughtless way to discount another person’s progressive opinions on what the appropriate and sensitive thing to do is in the times in which we live. Labeling another person’s opinion as simply PC because it breaks with long-held tradition is unfair, short-sighted and lazy.

Sure, sometimes people do go over the top with such things. But the expression of another point of view should not be so easily dismissed without thoughtful discussion. To quote Mr. Rochester, “Should we never again be allowed to hear Kate Smith’s glorious voice at patriotic events because she unfortunately reflected the racism of her day in two out of about 8,000 recordings she made evidencing no other demonstrations of racism we are aware of?” I suggest that readers substitute “anti-Semitism for “racism” in that statement and I would ask how it makes you feel.

Kathy Lass, St. Louis

I’m tired of the sloppy opinions of Marty Rochester. I did not vote for Hubert Humphrey because he voted to continue keeping the federal law to round up Americans into concentration camps. I went to high school with young people who had been born in the camps to American mothers of Japanese descent. The injustice of this was awful. To me, Humphrey was not a decent, civil or middle of the road politician, but instead a closet fascist.

Leigh Barr Sher, University City