The politically correct speech police are everywhere these days. Many members of the leftist establishment have taken it upon themselves to aid in their enforcement efforts. No one is safe — not even the person they want us to believe is destined to be the Democrats' 2016 presidential nominee.
Yesterday, at a Florissant, Missouri church only five miles from Ferguson, Hillary Clinton uttered the following words in succession: "All lives matter." NPR's Tamara Keith and Amita Kelly devoted much of their four-minute "Morning Edition" report on her appearance to what was described as a "3-Word Misstep."
It was not at all unexpected that Mrs. Clinton's statement, which should not have been at all problematic, especially in context, generated predictable Twitter outrage last night from a number of people who seem congenitally unable to generate 140 characters of text without engaging in abuse and profanity.
But the NPR report shows that the disappointment and anger on the left to the three words Mrs. Clinton said went far deeper. They generated a harsh reaction even within her likely heavily-vetted audience, demonstrating that many so-called "progressives" have added "all lives matter" to their seemingly endless list of "microaggressions." Some of them clearly believe it's worse than a "microaggression."
NPR's headline and report indicate that it's on board with this Orwellian nonsense (bolds are mine):
(Full audio link is here)
Hillary Clinton's 3-Word Misstep: 'All Lives Matter'
Hillary Clinton's speech Tuesday at a historic black church in Missouri was mostly well-received by the audience, but three words angered some of the activists she was hoping to appeal to.
Clinton spoke to frequent applause about religion, racism, access to education, repairing communities and the shooting last week in Charleston, S.C.
... But she's now facing criticism on social media after using the phrase "all lives matter" — which has been used by some as pushback to the phrase "black lives matter." The latter phrase, which hung on a banner outside the church, was widely used by protesters in Ferguson and other cities.
Before using the phrase, Clinton was retelling an anecdote about the lessons she learned from her mother.
"I asked her, 'What kept you going?' Her answer was very simple. Kindness along the way from someone who believed she mattered. All lives matter."
To some in the pews, what Clinton said fell flat. Or worse:
"With her statement that all lives matter, that blew a lot of support that she may have been able to engender here," said Renita Lamkin, a pastor at the St. John AME Church in St. Charles. She is white and while protesting in Ferguson was hit in the gut with a rubber bullet. Her passion comes in part because her children are African-American.
"My children matter," she said. "And I need to hear my president say that the lives of my children matter. That my little black children matter. Because right now our society does not say that they matter. Black lives matter. That's what she needs to say."
So a church pastor, whose Bible says that Jesus died and rose again to redeem everyone's sins, has joined the ranks of the PC police who demand that no one can use the words "all lives matter" in succession without being seen as at least insensitive or at worst being tagged a raging racist.
Given that much of the establishment press has either ignored what Mrs. Clinton said, the reaction to it, or both, it is in a sense refreshing that NPR actually chose to report both.
The Associated Press's Ken Thomas ignored the reaction, reporting only that Mrs. Clinton "told congregants that "all lives matter," a variation of the 'Black Lives Matter' slogan that arose from the Florida shooting death of black teenager Trayvon Martin."
A Wednesday evening Reuters report carried at the New York Times focused on Mrs. Clinton's call for businesses "to stop selling products with Confederate flag images," and failed to note her "all lives matter" remark or the negative reaction to it from many in the audience.
Predictably, the Times itself joined the PC police bandwagon over Mrs. Clinton's remarks in an item posted late this morning which linked to the NPR report.
Despite deserving props for actually reporting what happened, NPR's supposedly definitive determination that Mrs. Clinton committed a "misstep" by uttering three objectively inoffensive words is way out of bounds. Though there has been no shortage of objections people have raised to Mrs. Clinton's presidential candidacy, her three-word statement cannot possibly be one of them — unless you're a leftist constantly looking around for reasons to be offended.
The problem here is in the hearts and minds of many in Mrs. Clinton's church audience and with the perpetually outraged social-media miscreants — and, apparently, in the hearts and mind of the folds at NPR.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
