Singing Potatoes
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Tuesday, 11 February 2003
Only in Canada.

Okay, I've heard stories of Canadians bursting into tears when seeing a gun or hand grenade owned by an American, but this is ridiculous:

Mrs. Sousa wrote a letter to her daughter's teacher describing her views on the word gun, her unease with any child learning to spell the word, a few alternatives, and the wish to speak to the teacher about its inclusion on the list.

"The word gun is synonymous with death. I'm racking my brain trying to figure out why a seven-year-old would need to learn this word," said Mrs. Sousa, who admits she was hesitant to bring her views forward for fear of backlash from the school toward her daughter, and because some may view her problem with the word gun as another political correctness issue gone too far.

To me, this calls to mind two passages from literature:

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it."

...and...

If you don't see the fnord, it can't hurt you.
Posted by godfrey (link)
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