Seattle city workers have been officially told to avoid use of such offensive terms as"brown bag” and"citizen.” Supposedly, invitations to brown bag lunches are offensive to people of color, and the term citizen is offensive to, well, non-citizens.

See the full story here: now.msn.com/seattle-says-words-citizen-and-brown-b...nsive

The people who have time for such nonsense must be really worried about the untutored use of such potentially offensive language as ….red tag sales, white-out conditions, Black Lung Disease, Asian Flu, Africanized bees, and Mexican Mafia.

The news story out of Seattle does not say how many lawsuits the city has endured over the use of those two"offensive” terms. More likely, the notice to city employees is some bureaucrat’s idea of preventive medicine in the tradition of"diversity training.”

This open attack on the use of the word"citizen” speaks volumes about the abysmal level of civics education in Seattle’s public schools. We can only wonder what questions are allowed to be asked when people register to vote in Seattle. Are elections staff allowed to ask,"Are you a resident?” but not,"Are you a citizen?”

Of course, it is entirely logical for the people who wrote and approved that notice about offensive language to also approve of extending voting rights to all"residents” – to avoid giving offense to non-citizens. Should we be surprised if a proposal to remedy that problem shows up on the city council’s agenda?

If is a safe guess that in Seattle, being a citizen of the United States is not a requirement for being employed by the city government. But the good citizens of Seattle probably expect the city’s public schools to at least teach students the difference between the two: that citizenship has both benefits and obligations that ordinary"residents” do not have: a resident can be any warm body physically present in the territory, including tourists, foreign students, and individuals working in the consulates of foreign nations.

We can’t help thinking that if city employees had a decent education in these civic matters, they would surely write fewer inane, stupid, and yes, offensive memos.
http://chumly.com/n/1e4a951