Woke and equity

Two new ideas represented by two new words are coming together to limit free speech. The words are woke and equity. It started slowly some years ago in the schools. It first effected teachers who found their speech limited by certain words they could not use and soon led to subjects they needed to avoid. Today teachers are allowed to discuss slavery, mistreatment of Native Americans, Japanese interment, and Jim Crow laws but they tread carefully when pointing out the many gifts that America has given to the world. The emphasis is on the negative. Most teachers are fearful of saying the wrong thing and possibly losing their jobs so they avoid controversial subjects like politics and religion. Many spend the day walking on egg shells. Following the killing in Ferguson and in the six years since Brown's death, "woke" has evolved into a single word summation of leftist political ideology, centered on social justice politics and racism. This is the woke part. Equity requires a push for equal results especially in the area of social justice politics. It started 50 years ago with things like not keeping score at games and getting rid of valentines and Christmas. It then spread into the business world with affirmative action. Today it involves changing pronouns and using euphemism to soften the meaning of words. These changes start with the goal of lessening the hurt but each one takes away some small bit of free speech. In a civilized society people will refrain from using words and phrases that might offend but those same people might well object to government demanding that they not use those words. Should the government be the final arbiter on what is acceptable speech. Be careful and reread Animal Farm.